Tag: global warming

GEOENGINEERING THE CLIMATE: AN ACT OF MAD DESPERATION

By CHRISTINE FRANK  As a last-ditch effort to curb runaway global warming, while avoiding a definitive halt to fossil-fuel combustion, scientists, governments, entrepreneurs, and even right-wing think tanks are advocating various highly dangerous technologies to block solar radiation or draw down atmospheric carbon to cool the planet. Touted as Plan B, these risky methods come … Continue reading GEOENGINEERING THE CLIMATE: AN ACT OF MAD DESPERATION →

Clear-cutting starts for Constitution Pipeline

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 →

Which way forward for climate movement?

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? →

Paris climate talks produce hot air

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 →

Boston climate march built solidarity

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 →

Grassroots environment struggles in China

By RENA LAU Just in the last month there have been two cases of environmental protests occurring in China. Around one thousand people protested on the streets of Yangjiang city, in Guangdong province, against the construction of an incinerator. And ten thousand people protested against a chemical factory in Shangrao city, Jianxi province. The protesters … Continue reading Grassroots environment struggles in China →

Bay Area protests Paris climate talks

BY JEFF MACKLER OAKLAND, Calif.—Organized by a broad coalition of environmental, social justice, labor, antiwar, anti-racist, and faith-based groups across Northern California, some 3000 mobilized on Saturday, Nov. 21, to demand immediate action to stop and reverse global warming and associated climate-change-influenced catastrophes. The mobilization was part of the worldwide effort to protest the Nov. … Continue reading Bay Area protests Paris climate talks →

Just transition on the road through Paris

By BILL ONASCH The world market for cars and trucks is booming. So are profits in most of the industry. Unionized auto workers in the U.S. have been properly focused the past few months on contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler that determine their wages, benefits, and working conditions for the next … Continue reading Just transition on the road through Paris →

Real climate action demanded in Paris

By CHRISTINE FRANK On the eve of the UN Climate Summit in Paris, some 785,000 people marched and rallied in 2300 locations around the world to demand concrete action to phase out fossil fuels and implement clean, renewable energy to prevent catastrophic warming of Earth's atmosphere with a binding agreement to achieve that. Despite the … Continue reading Real climate action demanded in Paris →

Calif. climate activists gear up for Nov. 21

BY JEFF MACKLER — OAKLAND, Calif. — As the 21st United Nations Conference of Parties (COP21) approaches, climate-crisis activists in the U.S. and around the world are gearing up for massive protests both before and after the Nov. 30–Dec. 12 UN meeting set for Paris. Some 40,000 government, corporate, and “civil society” representatives are expected to … Continue reading Calif. climate activists gear up for Nov. 21 →

Climate movement defeats XL pipeline

By CARL SACK  On Nov. 6, U.S. President Barack Obama formally denied TransCanada’s application for approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The 1200-mile-long pipeline would have carried heavy crude oil (called bitumen) from tar-sands mines in northern Alberta, Canada, across the U.S. Great Plains states to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. Tar-sands oil … Continue reading Climate movement defeats XL pipeline →

Calif. climate activists set sights on COP21

By NICHOLAS ISAAC  As governments and some 40,000 corporate negotiators, scientists of different persuasions, and other mostly corporate-friendly parties prepare to attend the Nov. 30-Dec. 12 United Nations Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris, environmental and climate-crisis organizations are preparing massive and perhaps unprecedented mobilizations around the world. Fear is widespread that this 21st UN-sponsored … Continue reading Calif. climate activists set sights on COP21 →

Capitalism versus the climate

By BARRY WEISLEDER  The following presentation was given by Socialist Action (Canada) National Federal Secretary Barry Weisleder at the SA educational conference at the University of Toronto, May 22-23. “This Changes Everything” is the theme of this conference. But what exactly does it mean? Firstly, there are the obvious signs of dramatic environmental change. Sea … Continue reading Capitalism versus the climate →

Climate movement across movements

By PATRICK BOND  We reprint below the report of South African socialist Patrick Bond, who attended the March 23-24 international conference of major climate-crisis groups and activists in Tunis. The conference, to be followed up by another in June in Europe, focused on what strategies and tactics to organize in anticipation of the 21st Conference of the … Continue reading Climate movement across movements →

Should ‘population’ be on climate agenda?

By CHRISTINE MARIE  The fight to save the planet as a viable home to our species will require the most powerful social movement ever organized. Necessarily central to that project is solidarity and collaboration with those who are most immediately vulnerable to the dire effects of the capitalist carbon-fueled economy. An international movement that fails … Continue reading Should ‘population’ be on climate agenda? →

Women and the Climate Crisis

On March 8, 2013, International Women’s Day, KFAI in Minneapolis presented a program, “Women and Global Climate Change.” The speakers were Christine Frank, Climate Crisis Coalition Twin Cities (3CTC), and a frequent contributor to Socialist Action newspaper; Patricia Shepard, Idle No More Minnesota Activist, Ojibwe and Prairie Band Potawatami; and Karen Redleaf (now Schraufnagel), 3CTC … Continue reading Women and the Climate Crisis →

Climate change demands a radical solution

BY EVAN ENGERING “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate”, by Naomi Klein, 566 pages, Knopf Canada, September, 2014. The latest book of Naomi Klein, the influential Toronto-based journalist, author, and activist, may live up to its ambitious title, “This Changes Everything.” In it, Klein turns her thorough, eye-opening brand of investigative journalism to the … Continue reading Climate change demands a radical solution →