By MICHAEL SCHREIBER The planet is burning, yet governments still express indifference, refusing to undertake the radical steps that will be necessary to avoid climate catastrophe. Accordingly, people around the world, led by students and youth, are taking to the streets in protest, focusing this month on global strikes. The catalyst for the protests took … Continue reading Millions march worldwide to fight climate change
STATEMENT FROM MEXICO “I don’t want flowers at my funeral, because I know they will be taken from the forest.” — Chico Mendes The defense of the Amazon is a fight for the future of the earth. Although the destruction of the Amazon rainforest was already an alarming issue for decades, with the acceleration of … Continue reading The defense of the Amazon is a fight for the future of the earth
By KAMRAN NAYERI The fanfare about the UN Conference of Parties (COP) 24 in Katowice, located in a coal-mining region in Poland, that the diplomats from some 200 countries have “struck a deal after an all-night bargaining session” that may advance the fight against the unfolding catastrophic climate (The New York Times, Dec. 15, 2018) … Continue reading Challenges posed by the ‘Green New Deal’
By CHRISTINE MARIE In early December, the Global Carbon Project published statistics showing that global emissions of CO2 rose 2% in 2018 to a record high. As Sean Sweeney and John Trent from Trade Unionists for Energy Democracy summarized in a Dec. 31 article, “When ‘Green’ Doesn’t ‘Grow,’ “ the market-focused approach to climate protection … Continue reading Climate activists debate how to reach zero emissions in time
By DANIEL TANURO Dec. 19—The Twenty-Fourth United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) has just concluded in Katowice, Poland. Instead of responding to the clear message of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report to take urgent measures to keep warming below 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels, the Conference struggled to set the … Continue reading COP24: During the disaster, the comedy continues
By JOHN LESLIE Hurricane Florence hit the Carolina coast on Sept. 14 with major flooding, leaving hundreds stranded, more than 500,000 without power, and at least 45 dead. Many residents of the region had not anticipated the extent of the flooding from the slow-moving storm, and hundreds required emergency evacuation. Florence had risen to the … Continue reading The environmental consequences of Hurricane Florence in North Carolina
By BRUCE LESNICK Humanity faces a multi-faceted crisis. Endless wars of imperial aggression, both overt and covert—from Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan to Yemen, Palestine, and Central and South America. These conflagrations compel those at the bottom of the economic pyramid to fight and die to protect the wealth and privileges of those at the … Continue reading We can beat the climate destroyers
By DON HARMON “Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice” is one of the rallying cries for the march and protest to be held in San Francisco and many other cities on Saturday, Sept. 8. (Sept. 6 in New York City.) In San Francisco, the march will begin at 10 a.m. at the Embarcadero Plaza and continue … Continue reading Rise for climate, jobs, and justice!
By BARRY WEISLEDER I strongly recommend the latest book by Ian Angus, “A Redder Shade of Green.” This anthology, published by Monthly Review Press (New York, 2017, 198 pages), contains well-written articles, very accessible to non-experts, that first appeared between 2009 and 2017. They summarize the latest scientific findings on the state of the environment and provide … Continue reading Books: Where science and socialism intersect
WEST HARTFORD, Conn.—On Feb. 24, around 170 crowded into the Elmwood Community Center here to hear, as the promotional material described the event, “Experts and activists exploring some of the toughest questions facing the climate movement.” Jacqui Patterson, the director of the national NAACP’s Environmental and Justice Program, told the stories of individual people of … Continue reading Connecticut activists assemble at Climate Justice Teach-in
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER At the same time that Donald Trump was gallivanting around Asia, with objectives that included arming Japan with U.S. missiles and cajoling China into the plan to isolate North Korea, other heads of state were in Bonn, Germany, for the 23rd annual “Conference of the Parties” (COP23) UN-sponsored climate talks. The two … Continue reading Bonn talks underway; scientists see grim future for climate
Soon after hurricane Irma devastated islands in the Caribbean and parts of Florida, Socialist Action reporter Ernie Gotta interviewed Omar Pérez Figueroa about the effects of the storm on Puerto Rico. Gotta followed up with Perez after hurricane Maria decimated the island. Pérez, a native of Puerto Rico, is a member of the Juventud Hostosiana, the youth … Continue reading Hurricane disaster in Puerto Rico: U.S. aid is slow and insufficient
Alexandre Araujo Costa, a Brazilian ecology activist, spoke to Belgian ecology writer and activist Daniel Tanuro on a range of questions concerning ecology and ecosocialism. For many years, left-wing organizations did not pay much attention to environmental issues in general but at least since its 15th Congress, the Fourth International seems to be increasingly concerned about what … Continue reading Ecosocialism is more than a strategy, it’s a project for civilization
By MARTY GOODMAN In a move that surprised no one for its greed and arrogance, on Jan. 24 President Donald Trump reversed President Obama’s Executive Order impeding construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The route of the pipeline goes across sacred Sioux land and under the Missouri River near Standing Rock, North Dakota. Delivering on … Continue reading Trump okays oil pipelines
By BILL ONASCH The Trump administration wasted no time before launching a veritable blitzkrieg on all fronts in pursuit of an “alt-right” America First agenda. But resistance has been swift and massive. In addition to various movements mobilizing we also heard from scientists. Agence France Presse (AFP) reported: “Comments by U.S. President Donald Trump on nuclear weapons … Continue reading A just transition to sustainable jobs
By BRUCE LESNICK On Nov. 18, the Obama administration banned oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans for the next five years, while allowing drilling projects to go forward in the Cook Inlet (southwest of Anchorage, Alaska) and in the Gulf of Mexico. The media have noted the strong possibility that when … Continue reading Nationalize the energy industry!
By KAREN SCHRAUFNAGEL Karen Schraufnagel is the Socialist Action candidate for vice president of the United States in 2016. The indigenous-led fight is heating up to stop the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline that has been devastating sacred native burial grounds. Resistance continues to grow at the Sacred Stone and Red Warrior camps, undeterred by … Continue reading Native people fight to stop Dakota pipeline
By CHRISTINE MARIE “People gonna rise like the water,” the most poignant of the new songs of the climate justice movement, makes a strong prediction. And the potential breadth and power of that people was on display in a new way on July 24, as close to 10,000 marchers took to the streets on a … Continue reading 10,000 protesters demand ‘Clean Energy Revolution’
By CARL SACK Humanity is faced with a worsening climate catastrophe. In June, levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere topped 400 parts per million at the South Pole, a concentration not seen on this planet in the last four million years. Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, which is registering … Continue reading Pipeline fighters resist climate catastrophe
By BILL ONASCH This year’s Earth Day, hosted by the UN, was staged to be all about climate change. The chosen venue came attached with some historical irony. The land for the New York City complex housing the United Nations Headquarters was donated by John D. Rockefeller. His father started him off as a director of … Continue reading Capitalism cannot solve the climate crisis
By MARTY GOODMAN The Algonquin is a “natural” gas pipeline under construction about 45 miles north of New York City and a mere 1500 feet from the accident prone Indian Point nuclear-power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., in the Hudson Valley. Construction may be put on hold temporarily, pending a federal and state safety study urged … Continue reading N.Y. gas pipeline halted?
By MICHAEL SCHREIBER Despite protests by residents and environmental groups, clear cutting of trees has begun in northeastern Pennsylvania for the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline, designed to carry Marcellus Shale fracked gas to New York and New England. Megan Holleran says that the loggers are destroying about 90 percent of her family’s sugar maple trees, devastating … Continue reading Clear-cutting starts for Constitution Pipeline
By CHRISTINE MARIE At the Paris climate talks in December 2015, the world’s governments—dominated by those who contribute most egregiously to global warming—acknowledged the need to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels but refused to commit in a meaningful way to the necessary reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Major … Continue reading Which way forward for climate movement?
By CARL SACK After 10 days of talks at the COP 21 climate conference in Paris, negotiators from 195 countries celebrated the adoption of an agreement that calls for a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5o Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. On one hand, the agreement goes farther than any previous accord to acknowledge the … Continue reading Paris climate talks produce hot air
By CHRISTINE MARIE A Dec. 12 rally and march for Jobs, Justice, Climate in Boston constituted the first coordinated effort by New England 350.org chapters to build concrete relationships with economic justice and social justice organizations. New England 350 developed a partnership with several key Boston-based unions and immigrant rights organizations, gathered the endorsements of … Continue reading Boston climate march built solidarity
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