Ecology/Environment

11/12/19
Author: 
Carl Meyer
Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson at the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall on Nov. 20, 2019. Photo by Kamara Morozuk

December 11th 2019

Canada’s approach to sustainable development is “uncoordinated and disconnected,” putting at risk a range of goals from climate action to clean drinking water, and weakening Parliament’s ability to hold the government to account.

That’s the conclusion of a new report released Tuesday by Andrew Hayes, interim federal environment and sustainable-development commissioner.

11/12/19
Author: 
labour.org.uk
 

Economy and Energy

This election is about the crisis of living standards and the climate and environmental emergency. Whether we are ready or not, we stand on the brink of unstoppable change.

10/12/19
Author: 
Michael McGowan

Buildings evacuated as fire alarms triggered and ferry fleet grounded

Dec. 10, 2019

Sydney disappeared behind a thick layer of bushfire smoke that blanketed the city and pushed air quality 11 times higher than considered “hazardous” on Tuesday, while Australia’s weary firefighters faced what authorities warned were the potentially “lethal” combination of high temperatures and heavy winds.

10/12/19
Author: 
Neal E Robbins
St Mark’s square in Venice on 13 November 2019. Photograph: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images

Sea level rise, erosion and cruise ships are worsening Venice’s flood problem. But corruption nearly scuppered the solution.

Dec. 10, 2019

07/12/19
Author: 
Ben Doherty and Helen Davidson
Fire going through a fence during a bushfire in Werombi, 50km south-west of Sydney. As of Saturday night, more than 100 fires were burning in NSW and more than 40 in Queensland. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Bureau forecasts heatwave while fire authorities say dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks
• How big are the fires burning on the east coast of Australia?
• ‘Get the hell out of Dodge’: the fight to save homes from the NSW central coast inferno

Dec. 7, 2019

Dozens of fires will burn across Australia for weeks, fire authorities say, including a “mega-fire”, already the size of greater Sydney, that is too big to put out.

05/12/19
Author: 
People and Nature

“Barring a miracle, [a global average temperature rise above pre-industrial levels of] 2 degrees C must inevitably be substantially breached.” Nothing that has happened since the 2015 Paris climate conference has “suggested any reason for doubting that judgement”.

The international climate negotiations in Katowice, Poland, in 2018, which were supposed to follow up on the Paris agreements, “can be seen as achieving no more than an elaborate seating-plan for the sun-deck of the Titanic”.

05/12/19
Author: 
Jillian Kestler-D’Amours and Megan O’Toole

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center

Published: 5 Dec 2019

 

Canada has been hailed by some as a leader in the fight to combat climate change. But it is also moving forward with a project to expand a multibillion-dollar oil pipeline to the country's west coast.

The Trans Mountain pipeline has become a flashpoint for politicians, environmentalists and Indigenous groups, many of whom say they weren't adequately consulted on the project and fear a spill could harm their traditional territories.

30/11/19
Author: 
Jeff Sparrow
‘Eco-fascism will emerge not through the state but as people like the El Paso perpetrator violently defend climate privilege against immigrants, environmentalists and progressives.’ Photograph: chameleonseye/Getty Images

Genuine fascists remain on the political margins, but we can increasingly imagine the space that eco-fascism might occupy

Fri 29 Nov 2019

Earlier this year, when the fascist responsible for the El Paso massacre cited ecological degradation as part motivation for his killing spree, many considered him entirely deranged.

Eco-fascism sounds oxymoronic, a mashup of irreconcilable philosophies.

28/11/19
Author: 
Ian Angus
Capitalism is the Problem - Image by The All-Nite Images via Flickr
November 19, 2019
 
Environmental destruction isn’t driven by human nature or mistaken ideas. It is an inevitable consequence of a system built on capital accumulation.

Climate & Capitalism editor Ian Angus spoke at an educational conference organized by Socialist Action in Toronto, on November 16, 2019. His talk has been edited for publication.


These sentences are from a recent report on the consequences of climate change:

25/11/19
Author: 
Joseph Stiglitz
 ‘And it should be clear that, in spite of the increases in GDP, in spite of the 2008 crisis being well behind us, everything is not fine.’ Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

The way we assess economic performance and social progress is fundamentally wrong, and the climate crisis has brought these concerns to the fore

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