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2018 Annual Conference – Fighting Modern Slavery: What Works?

Free and open to the public. There is no charge, but registration is required,

Thursday, November 1, 2018, 5:00-7:00pm – Luce Hall Auditorium

Keynote Address: Martina Vandenberg
Founder and President of The Human Trafficking Legal Center, Washington DC

Thursday, November 1, 2018, 7:00-8:30pm – Luce Hall Common Room

GILDER LEHRMAN CENTER 20th ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION

Friday and Saturday, November 2-3, 2018

Conference Panels: (FULL SCHEDULE)

IMHO: Caring About Climate Change

WGBH News
Published on Nov 1, 2018

Jim Braude shares on why we should be paying attention to the flooded pizza parlors of Venice.

Bill McKibben On The Pressing Danger Of Climate Change

Bill McKibben On The Pressing Danger Of Climate Change

By WGBH News November 1, 2018 Greater Boston

As The New York Times recently reported, the United States is right in the middle of an era of deregulation in Washington, with climate change regulations particularly hit hard. Despite a terrifying U.N. report from more than 90 scientists around the world saying the world is just over a decade away from disaster if we don’t act now, the Trump administration continues with its anti-climate agenda. In fact, a guidance memo brought to light just this week would let states release more ozone air pollution than is currently allowed. Of course, the alarm bells starting ringing decades ago about the effects of all this — thanks in large part to Bill McKibben, whose book ‘The End of Nature’ warned us back in the 1980s about the oncoming global disaster. Jim Braude was joined by Bill McKibben.

Jim Braude was joined by Bill McKibben.

Living Planet Report 2018 | WWF

The Living Planet Report documents the state of the planet—including biodiversity, ecosystems, and demand on natural resources—and what it means for humans and wildlife. Published by WWF every two years, the report brings together a variety of research to provide a comprehensive view of the health of the Earth.

We are pushing our planet to the brink. Human activity—how we feed, fuel, and finance our lives—is taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife, wild places, and the natural resources we need to survive.

On average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018. The top threats to species identified in the report link directly to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and the excessive use of wildlife such as overfishing and overhunting.

The report presents a sobering picture of the impact human activity has on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers, and climate. We’re facing a rapidly closing window for action and the urgent need for everyone—everyone—to collectively rethink and redefine how we value, protect, and restore nature.

…(read more).

Big Oil Is Sloshing a Crude Tsunami Across the Country

By Bill McKibben, The Washington Post 01 November 18

In the wake of the devastating new climate report — and of devastating hurricanes, droughts and floods — the oil industry has been making a few small noises about how it might want to change its course. BP’s chief executive, for instance, recently called for a “different, more innovative, collaborative path”; Exxon won widespread coverage for setting aside $500,000 each of the next two years to support some kind of carbon tax.

In case you were wondering, these apparent concessions turn out to be green wash and hooey — all the proof you need can be found in the spending reports on some of the most important ballot measures around the country. Forget the blue wave: Big Oil is sloshing a crude tsunami across the country instead, and in the process trying to bury some of the most innovative ideas for energy progress.

In Washington state, for instance, Measure 1631 offers one of the first serious plans for a price on carbon. Drawn up by a wide coalition of groups from across the state, it calls for a modest tax to be used for renewable energy development. It’s drawn support even from the local business community. A Seattle entrepreneur named, um, Bill Gates, for instance, backed the proposed law, calling climate change “the toughest problem humanity has ever faced.”

But the oil industry isn’t interested. BP alone has spent close to $13 million to beat the measure; the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers association, of which Exxon is a member, is kicking in $1 million. That is, an Exxon-affiliated group is spending as much to beat a carbon tax in one state as Exxon is theoretically spending to back one for the whole country. The fossil fuel industry has raised enough to break every Washington record for election spending — oh, and there are also exactly $275 in “small contributions” listed in the campaign finance reports for the no-on-1631 campaign.

All that money means total superiority in advertising. It also means that, slowly but surely, the widespread lead 1631 enjoyed when the campaign began is being whittled away — not by argument but by constant fearmongering.

Much the same has happened in Colorado. In fact, that those backing Proposition 112 still hold a narrow lead is almost a miracle, because they’re being outspent roughly 40 to 1 by the oil industry. The Colorado initiative is modest to a fault: It wouldn’t ban fracking, like New York, but instead merely restrict it to more than 2,500 feet from people’s homes and schools. And yet the oil industry has pumped in $38 million so far — the same amount of money that drew gasps when Beto O’Rourke announced he’d raised it in the last stage of his Senate bid. In this case, though, it’s being spent in a state with a fifth of the population.

…(read more).

What’s Really Warming the World? Climate deniers blame natural factors; NASA data proves otherwise