James Hansen Hails Landmark Youth Climate Lawsuit: We Can’t Rely on Our Politicians to Do Anything

Published on Aug 31, 2017
Democracy Now!

https://democracynow.org – Our Children’s Trust has filed a landmark lawsuit on behalf of 21 young people all under the age of 21. The lawsuit alleges the federal government has failed to take necessary action to curtail fossil fuel emissions. We speak with world-renowned climatologist Dr. James Hansen.

An Evening with Bernie Sanders: Riverside Church, NYC 8/28/17

Peoples War
Published on Aug 28, 2017

Bernie comes home to the Big Apple.

Monsanto Writes Food Policy in Malawi

TheRealNews
Published on Aug 31, 2017
Tim Wise from the Small Planet Institute explains how Monsanto ended up writing the national seed policy for southern African country of Malawi where most people survive on subsistence farming

The United States Decides to Leave the Paris Agreement — Crisis or Opportunity

THE UNITED STATES DECIDES TO LEAVE THE PARIS AGREEMENT – CRISIS OR OPPORTUNITY?

By Charalee Graydon (Prairies & Wadham 1982)
Rhodes-Scholars.TV

Introduction

On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced that the United States (US) would be leaving the Paris agreement , a global commitment by 195 countries to combat climate change (the Paris agreement). The President’s comment during the announcement, “I represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris” illustrated a nationalistic approach to a global issue affecting humankind. The decision rejected scientific, corporate, religious and international calls to address the threat of climate change. The President adopted both a nationalistic and self-focused position isolating the US from other countries of the world. His campaign promise of “America First” may have the result of the US losing its place as an economic and global leader.

In this paper, climate change is treated as a world problem to which human activity has contributed although it is recognized that this position is not accepted by all people. The paper provides information about the background leading to the Paris agreement, objectives adopted to limit CO2 emissions and global warming and responses to President Trump’s decision. It also reviews impacts of the decision and avenues for the future including possible conflicts over oil and natural gas resources.

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Robert Reich: The Resistance Report 8/30/2017

Inequality Media Civic Action
Published on Aug 30, 2017

Join me for today’s Resistance Report, where we’ll be talking about Hurricane Harvey, Trump’s climate policies, and more.

Follow daily updates on Facebook video Page.

Climate Change Is Creating A New Urban Crisis

Published on Aug 30, 2017
TheRealNews

As storms hit the U.S. and South Asia, investigative journalist Christian Parenti says we have the laws and technology to protect humanity from climate disaster, but we need to rip away the veil of the “free market”

Houston Refinery Explosion Will Endanger Local Communities

Published on Aug 31, 2017 TheRealNews

As Harvey continues to devastates the Gulf Coast, some fear the worst is yet to come.

Why are the crucial questions about Hurricane Harvey not being asked? | George Monbiot | Opinion | The Guardian

‘Hurricane Harvey offers a glimpse of a likely global future; a future whose average temperatures are as different from ours as ours are from those of the last ice age.’ Photograph: ddp USA/Rex/Shutterstock
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/29/hurricane-harvey-manmade-climate-disaster-world-catastrophe

This is a manmade climate-related disaster. To ignore this ensures our greatest challenge goes unanswered and helps push the world towards catastrophe

• Tropical storm Harvey – live updates

Tuesday 29 August 2017 14.33 BST

It is not only Donald Trump’s government that censors the discussion of climate change; it is the entire body of polite opinion. This is why, though the links are clear and obvious, most reports on Hurricane Harvey have made no mention of the human contribution to it.

In 2016 the US elected a president who believes that human-driven global warming is a hoax. It was the hottest year on record, in which the US was hammered by a series of climate-related disasters. Yet the total combined coverage for the entire year on the evening and Sunday news programmes on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News amounted to 50 minutes. Our greatest predicament, the issue that will define our lives, has been blotted from the public’s mind.

This is not an accident. But nor (with the exception of Fox News) is it likely to be a matter of policy. It reflects a deeply ingrained and scarcely conscious self-censorship. Reporters and editors ignore the subject because they have an instinct for avoiding trouble. To talk about climate breakdown (which in my view is a better term than the curiously bland labels we attach to this crisis) is to question not only Trump, not only current environmental policy, not only current economic policy – but the entire political and economic system.

It is to expose a programme that relies on robbing the future to fuel the present, that demands perpetual growth on a finite planet. It is to challenge the very basis of capitalism; to inform us that our lives are dominated by a system that cannot be sustained – a system that is destined, if it is not replaced, to destroy everything.

To claim there is no link between climate breakdown and the severity of Hurricane Harvey is like claiming there is no link between the warm summer we have experienced and the end of the last ice age. Every aspect of our weather is affected by the fact that global temperatures rose by about 4C between the ice age and the 19th century. And every aspect of our weather is affected by the 1C of global warming caused by human activities. While no weather event can be blamed solely on human-driven warming, none is unaffected by it.

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George Monbiot: We Can’t Be Silent on Climate Change or the Unsustainability of Capitalist System

Democracy Now!
Published on Aug 31, 2017
https://democracynow.org – While Houston continues to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, we look at the media silence on the human contribution to the record-breaking storm. British journalist and author George Monbiot wrote that despite 2016 being the hottest year on record, the combined coverage during the evening and Sunday news programs on the main television networks amounted to a total of 50 minutes in all of last year. “Our greatest predicament, the issue that will define our lives, has been blotted from the public’s mind,” he wrote. The silence has been even more resounding on climate-related disasters in areas of the world where populations are more vulnerable—most recently, on the devastating floods across the globe, from Niger to South Asia. Over the past month, more than 1,200 people have died amid flooding in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. This year’s monsoon season has brought torrential downpours that have submerged wide swaths of South Asia, destroying tens of thousands of homes, schools and hospitals. Meanwhile, in Niger, West Africa, thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes in the capital Niamey after several days of heavy downpours. We speak with Monbiot, columnist at The Guardian. His book, “Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis,” will be out this week.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Says Trump Inciting Violence

Aug 31, 2017

A top United Nations official said Wednesday that Donald Trump is inciting violence against journalists, warning that freedom of the press is under attack from the president of the United States. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein was speaking in Geneva.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein: “And to call these news organizations ‘fake’ does tremendous damage. And to refer to individual journalists in this way, I have to ask the question: Is this not an incitement for others to attack journalists? And let’s assume a journalist is harmed from one of these organizations. Does the president then not bear responsibility for this, for having fanned this?”

U.N. High Commissioner Zeid also cited Trump’s attacks on women, Mexicans, Muslims and disabled and transgender people, warning Trump’s comments will embolden his supporters to sharpen their assaults on those communities.