Notices by Bread and Circuses (breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social)

Compare the two photos below … which is worse?

One reflects a large amount of emotional and psychological damage. When we saw that the iconic tree at Hadrian’s Wall had been cut down, evidently in an act of vandalism, our souls suffered.

The second photo reflects a huge amount of physical damage to our environment, to biodiversity, and ultimately to the climate. Yet it’s just a random shot of quotidian deforestation. Nothing special about it. Nothing unusual at all.

Do you know that over 40,000,000 (forty million!) trees are cut down *every day* in the world? THAT is the true outrage.

See -- https://theroundup.org/how-many-trees-are-cut-down-every-day/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Trees #Deforestation #Biodiversity #BusinessAsUsual

When climate scientists are alarmed by what they see — when they warn that we are facing a “worst-case scenario” and when they describe climate change impacts as “mind-blowing” — it’s time for all of us to be alarmed as well, and to urge our leaders to take immediate action.

"Antarctic sea-ice at 'mind-blowing' low alarms experts"
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66724246

"Antarctica may have entered ‘new regime’ of low sea ice as global warming ramps up"
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/13/antartica-global-warming-sea-ice-caps-regime-shift

These scientists know we are in a climate emergency. So why aren’t our so-called leaders doing anything about it?

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

The annual wildfire season in Canada is coming to an end. Or, anyway, it *should* be by now.

But 2023 is unlike any other year. As of yesterday, there were more than 900 fires still burning, over half of them out of control.

Look at the area burned in the second graph below. The damage to wildlife is literally incalculable. Greenhouse gas emissions from all of these fires is off the charts.

Sure, some reply guy will tell you that forest fires are normal and natural and necessary. But not like this. What we’re seeing this year is an *unnatural* catastrophe caused by human industry — by the oil companies, their financiers, and the governments that support and subsidize them.

It’s a crime. It’s ecocide. And you know what? To them, it’s just Business As Usual.

#Canada #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

"It’s time for global leaders to start telling the truth. We will not limit warming to 1.5°C. We will not limit warming to 2°C."

That's from climatologist Andrew Weaver, a professor at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria in Canada.

He continues: "It’s all hands on deck now to prevent 3°C global warming — a level of warming that will wreak havoc worldwide."

This alarming statement comes as it is confirmed that Earth has just had its hottest three months on record.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/09/06/its-time-to-start-telling-the-truth-is-summers-record-heat-a-sign-of-climate-breakdown
CHART SOURCE -- https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/earth-had-hottest-three-month-period-record-unprecedented-sea-surface (title added by me)

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Left to themselves, the fossil fuel industry will never stop polluting the planet, killing the biosphere, and raking in immense profits.

It's what they do. It's what capitalism demands.
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"Europe's Biggest Oil Company Quietly Shelves a Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint"

Six months after becoming the chief executive at Shell, Wael Sawan quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the environmental projects designed to counteract the warming effects of CO2 emissions.

In an investor event in June, Sawan laid out an updated strategy for the European oil major that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit drivers like oil and gas. As important was what he omitted: any mention of the company’s prior commitment to spend up to $100 million a year to build a pipeline of carbon credits, part of the firm’s promise to zero out its emissions by 2050.

Those goals for the offsets program have been retired, the company confirmed, along with the plan to harvest a whopping 120 million carbon credits annually by the end of the decade from projects that sequester carbon with trees, grasses, or other natural resources, many of which Shell would develop itself.

That would have accounted for about 10% of the company’s emissions. It hasn’t made public any new targets for developing offsets or specified how it now plans to deliver on its future climate commitments.

The pullback reflects both Sawan’s renewed commitment to the oil-and-gas business that generates most of Shell’s profits, and an admission that the prior goals were simply unattainable.

Over the past two years, Shell barely made a dent. It spent $95 million, less than half of its initial budget, to build or invest in a portfolio of carbon projects from Western Africa to the Brazilian Amazon to Australian farmlands. They’ve generated few if any offsets.
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As you might expect, this article posted at Bloomberg is "fair and balanced," giving Shell equal time to extol its virtues. But the facts are simply damning.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/Q2nV6#selection-4735.0-4747.136

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Let's turn our attention to Iran for a minute.

FACT: The Iranian nation is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, with communities and settlements on the Iranian plateau dating back to 6000 BCE.

FACT: Iran today is home to more than 89 million people. It ranks among the top 20 most populous nations on Earth.

FACT: Iran is one of the world’s largest oil producers. It has the world’s fourth-biggest oil reserves and second-largest gas reserves. Its oil reserves account for over 13% of the world’s total.

Iran is also one of the *hottest* nations on Earth, and it's getting hotter every year. Last month the government was forced to declare an unplanned holiday — basically shutting the country down for two days — because of the intense heat.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna97679

A big reason for land temperatures rising so much there is because the Persian Gulf offshore has reached "hot tub-like" conditions this summer, fueling a heat index in Iran as high as 158°F (70°C), a level so extreme that it can test the ability of humans to survive outside for more than a few hours.
https://archive.ph/4z6vA

And the future looks bleak, to say the least. In the midst of an obvious climate crisis, Iran remains the top emitter of greenhouse gases in the Middle East – 926 million tons were emitted in 2018, compared to 750 million tons in Saudi Arabia or 579 million in Turkey, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

The situation will only get worse. By 2050, it will become very difficult for anyone to live in Iran, writes Banafsheh Keynoush in a report for the Middle East Institute: "Some 70% of the population — or nearly 50 million Iranians — might be ultimately forced to leave the country to survive."
https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-754167

#Iran #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Below is an excerpt from a long and beautifully photographed report in Nature about changes occurring in the Amazon rainforest, changes that are happening "sooner than predicted."

TITLE: Trouble in the Amazon

SUBTITLE: The rainforest is starting to release its carbon. Is it heading towards a tipping point?
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Luciana Gatti, a climate scientist at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil, is part of a broad group of researchers attempting to forecast the future of the Amazon rainforest. The land ecosystems of the world together absorb about 30% of the carbon dioxide released by burning fossil fuels; scientists think that most of this takes place in forests, and the Amazon is by far the world’s largest contiguous forest.

Since 2010, Gatti has collected air samples over the Amazon to monitor how much CO2 the forest absorbs. In 2021, she reported data that showed that the Amazon forest’s uptake — its carbon sink — is weak over most of its area. In the southeastern Amazon, the forest has become a source of CO2.

The finding gained headlines around the world and surprised many scientists, who expected the Amazon to be a much stronger carbon sink. For Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist at the University of São Paulo Institute of Advanced Studies in Brazil, the change was happening much too soon. In 2016, using climate models, he and his colleagues predicted that the combination of unchecked deforestation and global climate change would eventually push the Amazon forest past a “tipping point”, transforming the climate across a vast swathe of the Amazon. Then, the conditions that support a lush, closed-canopy forest would no longer exist.

Gatti’s observations seem to show the early signs of what Nobre had forecast. “What we were predicting to happen perhaps in two or three decades is already taking place,” says Nobre.

The large-scale deforestation seen from the air is the most visible threat to the Amazon. But the forest is suffering in other, less-obvious ways. Erika Berenguer, an ecologist at the University of Oxford and Lancaster University, UK, has found that even intact forest is no longer as healthy as it once was, because of forces such as climate change and the impacts of agriculture that spill beyond farm borders.

Gatti first visited Santarém in the late 1990s, when most of the farming in this part of the Amazon was practiced by smallholders for subsistence purposes. Now, she’s astounded by the scale of destruction that has ravaged the jungle. While passing over one huge, newly razed parcel of Amazon forest, Gatti’s voice crackles over the plane’s intercom. “They are killing the forest to transform everything into soy beans.”
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FULL REPORT -- https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-023-02599-1/index.html

#Science #Amazon #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #CO2 #Emissions

@PaulaToThePeople Thank you, Paula! 💯% support!!

Wisdom and anger from Greta Thunberg...
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We cannot live sustainably within today’s economic system. Yet that is what we are constantly being told we can do.

We can buy sustainable cars, travel on sustainable motorways powered by sustainable petroleum. We can eat sustainable meat, and drink sustainable soft drinks out of sustainable plastic bottles. We can buy sustainable fast fashion and fly on sustainable airplanes using sustainable fuels. And, of course, we are going to meet our short- and long-term sustainable climate targets, too, without making the slightest effort.

“How?” you might ask. How can that be possible when we don’t yet have any technical solutions that can fix this crisis alone, and the option of stopping doing things is unacceptable from our current economic standpoint? What are we going to do?

Well, the answer is the same as always: we will cheat. We will use all the loopholes and all the creative accounting that we have conjured up in our climate frameworks since the very first conference of the parties, the 1995 COP1 in Berlin.

We will outsource our emissions along with our factories, we will use baseline manipulation and start counting our emissions reductions when it suits us best. We will burn trees, forests, and biomass, as those have been excluded from the official statistics. We will lock decades of emissions into fossil gas infrastructure and call it 'green' natural gas. And then we will offset the rest with vague afforestation projects – trees that might be lost to disease or fire – while we simultaneously cut down the last of our old-growth forests at a much higher speed.
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#GretaThunberg #ClimateEmergency #Greenwashing #AntiCapitalism

FULL ARTICLE -- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/08/greta-thunberg-climate-delusion-greenwashed-out-of-our-senses

Unless we change course immediately, large parts of the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent will become uninhabitable for humans (along with many plant and animal species) within only a few decades.

Hundreds of millions of people — potentially billions — will be forced to migrate. Or die.
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Iraq, with its population of about 43 million, is one of the hottest places on Earth. Matters are made worse as power shortages mean that people have to rely on generators to keep their cooling systems on during the heat.

Extreme temperatures and a lack of electrical power are a deadly combination, and one that is being felt across Iraq.

The country is one of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change, faced with scorching heatwaves, reduced rainfall, water scarcity, and desertification.

Last weekend in Iraq, a nationwide power outage caused by an accidental fire at a power station in the southern province of Basra led to the almost total collapse of the country’s power grid on Saturday afternoon, adding to the suffering of many across the southern and central regions of Iraq.

On Wednesday, Baghdad recorded a high of 49C (120F) and in Basra temperatures went beyond 51C (123F); the hottest city in the world this week, according to the monitoring group Hot Cities.

The temperature across several Iraqi governorates including Maysan, Dhi Qar, Muthanna, Diwaniyah, and Najaf, in the southern part of the country also exceeded 50C (122F), according to the Iraqi Meteorological Organisation.

“Iraq is facing three perfect storms in the next decade,” said Azzam Alwalsh, environmental expert and founder of Nature Iraq. “Yet decision makers are not even aware of the abyss facing us, let alone thinking about solutions and the time needed to implement them.”
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FULL STORY -- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/4/extreme-heat-hits-iraq-as-temperatures-exceed-50-degrees-celsius

#Iraq #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

A timely and rather shocking meme, to which I have added #AltText...

#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Below is a link to a long and highly educational piece by Richard Crim about how our climate works and why we are now seeing it become increasingly unbalanced.

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fsmokingtyger.medium.com%2Fliving-in-bomb-time-33-acda51eb9a69

This article explains, in detail, how heat energy from the sun enters Earth’s climate system and where all that energy goes. The upshot, after various complicated processes do their thing, is that we are very likely to see all or nearly all of the permafrost in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia melt this century, releasing so much methane-based carbon into the atmosphere that our world will be unrecognizable afterward. Certainly no humans will be able to survive.

It may already be too late to avoid a great deal of suffering. The outlook is grim. But the actions we take now still can make a difference. If nothing else, at least try to prepare your friends and family and those you care about for what we are facing in the next few decades. Good luck to all.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

@shepgo @largess
It's true, shepgo, as pointed out in your graphic, that guns have recently replaced car crashes as the leading cause of death for US children and teens. Neither fact is worth celebrating, of course.

We also should note, however, that crash deaths appear to be on the rise once again, perhaps because of too many heavy SUVs with poor sightlines on our roads.

Car culture is killing us.

Car culture kills cyclists.
Car culture kills clean air.
Car culture kills children.
Car culture kills wildlife.
Car culture kills fitness.
Car culture kills the environment.
Car culture kills friendliness.
Car culture kills pedestrians.
Car culture kills equality.
Car culture kills the atmosphere.
Car culture kills serenity.
Car culture kills!

#WarOnCars #BanCars

Academics have figured out just how much the gluttony of the Global North is costing poorer countries in the Global South.

And it's a LOT of money.
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Countries like the United States and those in Europe could be on the hook for an eye-popping $170 trillion in climate reparations for their excessive carbon emissions, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

The study highlights inequities in the remaining carbon that the world can emit before invoking even more catastrophic climate events. Wealthier countries like the U.S, United Kingdom, and Germany are not only responsible for the largest share of current and historic emissions, but they are also on track to overshoot their existing carbon budgets, or the amount that the world can emit before exceeding the current global target of 1.5 degrees C (about 2.7 degrees F) of warming.

“The problem is that the Global North would be overshooting its collective fair share of the 1.5-degree carbon budget by nearly three times,” said Andrew Fanning, the study’s lead author. “And, of course, if some countries are overshooting, then other countries need to pick up the slack.”

The study found that the U.S. would be responsible for the largest share — $80 trillion — for its excess emissions, which would be paid out to historically low emitters like India and China as well as regions like sub-Saharan Africa. The oversized carbon footprint of wealthier nations has been an ongoing roadblock in the race to cut emissions and curb the worst impacts of climate change. Researchers sought to quantify how much excess emissions would cost and used the existing framework from the IPCC to price out the difference in emissions.

“Some countries have used far more than their fair share, while others essentially lose parts of their fair share,” said Fanning. “And that is unjust.”
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Now, the big question is, will this remain nothing more than an academic calculation? Or will the countries who are causing the climate crisis actually be forced to pay the bill for it?

Will pigs fly?

FULL ARTICLE -- https://grist.org/international/study-us-owes-80-trillion-climate-reparations-excess-carbon-emissions/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions #ClimateJustice

Nothing new to see here. Business As Usual is working just fine.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #CO2 #Emissions

Holy crap.

This is so disgusting. It's like a bad dream I can't wake up from...
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Diplomats from 175 countries gathering in Paris for plastics treaty talks on Monday may want to pack an umbrella, but not just because there's a chance of rain.

France's capital will also be showered during the five-day talks by billions of microplastic particles falling from the sky, according to the first-ever plastics pollution weather forecast.

French scientists have found that most plastic particles falling across Paris' catchment area are nylon and polyester, probably from clothing. Other bits are cast off by tires, which shed them especially when vehicles brake.

Over an entire year, up to 10 metric tons of microplastic fibers settle over the Paris area, scientists estimate.

The density of "plastic fall" can increase by an order of magnitude during heavy rain.

Measurements taken by other teams have replicated these findings in half a dozen cities around the world.

Microplastics that hit the ground can still be ingested or inhaled when stirred up, for example, on a windy day.
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Plus, it's not only humans and human cities being polluted and poisoned this way...
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The equivalent of a garbage truck's worth of plastic refuse is dumped into the ocean every minute.

"Plastic particles break down into the environment and this toxic cocktail ends up in our bodies, where it does unimaginable damage to our health," said Marcus Gover, head of plastics research at the Minderoo Foundation based in Perth, Australia.

Concern over the impact of plastics on the environment and human well-being has surged in recent years along with a crescendo of research documenting its omnipresence and persistence.

In nature, multi-colored microplastics — by definition less than five millimeters (0.2 inches) in diameter — have been found in ice near the North Pole and inside fish navigating the oceans' deepest, darkest recesses.

Plastic debris is estimated to kill more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year, according to the United Nations Environment Program, and filter-feeding blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day.

In humans, microscopic bits of plastic have been detected in blood, breast milk, and placentas.
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Gah. It's utterly horrifying what industry has done in the name of "growth" and "progress." Yet still we carry on with Business As Usual, week after week, year after year.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2023-05-weather-cloudy-showers-plastic.html

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #Plastic #Pollution

As we look forward to #COP28 later on this year in the UAE, anticipating another joyous fossil fuel bacchanalia, I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty from our masters about "Net Zero 2050." They'll remind us once again about all those delicious carbon offsets that are going to save the world for capitalism and consumerism, allowing endless growth forever and ever. No need to worry, they'll say, we've got everything under control! 😃

#Greenwashing #ClimateCrisis #AntiCapitalism
Cartoon by @davpope@theblower.au

A group of 18 European Parliament Members have issued a statement officially calling for #Degrowth.

Here is part of what they wrote...
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We believe that the current economic model, based on endless growth, has reached its limits.

Firstly, continuous economic growth, especially based on the consumption of fossil fuels, is leading to catastrophic global warming.

Secondly, the infinite pursuit of growth relies on the depletion of natural resources, the destruction of biodiversity, and the accumulation of waste and pollution. This also poses risks to our health, our economies, and our societies writ large.

Thirdly, the current economic model is contributing to social inequality and exclusion. The emphasis on economic growth has not translated into equal distribution of wealth or opportunities. Instead, it has resulted in a concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few leaving many behind.

Fourthly, the current economic model is inherently unstable and prone to crises, as seen, for example, during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The pursuit of growth at all costs has created a global economic system that is fragile and vulnerable to shocks.

We need an economic system that prioritises human well-being and ecological sustainability over GDP growth, one that recognises that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.

We also believe we need to find new ways of organising our economies without relying on the continuous exploitation of resources and the constant increase in production and consumption.

We call for more pluralism in economic thinking within EU institutions and for its alignment with the scientific evidence of climate, ecological, and social sciences.

We call for economic models and other decision-support tools to be more diverse, more comprehensive, and more readable for citizens.

We call for decision-making processes to be aligned with our common policy objectives rather than on the basis of the variation of GDP figures.
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FULL STATEMENT -- https://www.euronews.com/2023/05/10/moving-beyond-growth-is-not-only-desirable-it-is-essential

Names of those who signed on as co-authors: Philippe Lamberts (BE), Bas Eickhout (NL), Ville Niinisto (FI), Manuela Ripa (DE), Marie Toussaint (FR), Ernest Urtasun (ES), Kim Van Sparrentak (NL) — Greens/EFA; Manon Aubry (FR), Petros Kokkalis (EL), Marisa Matias (PT), Helmut Scholz (DE) — The Left (GUE/NGL); Pascal Durand (FR), Aurore Lalucq (FR), Pierre Larrouturou (FR) — Socialists & Democrats (S&D); Sirpa Pietikainen (FI), Maria Walsh (IE) — European People’s Party (EPP); Katalin CSEH (HU) — Renew Europe (RE); and Dino GIARRUSSO (IT) — Non-attached (NI).

#Europe #EU #Politics #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Biodiversity #Pollution #Inequality

💵 $1,000,000,000,000 💵

If only we could spend a TRILLION dollars every year to fight global heating and promote climate justice. But where would we get that kind of money??

Oh...

Governments Spent Record $1 Trillion Last Year Subsidizing Fossil Fuels

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-16/fossil-fuel-subsidies-hit-record-1-trillion-in-2022-iea-says

#AntiCapitalism #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice