Environmental justice Archives - Page 2 of 4

Opinion: Amid backsliding on climate, the renewables effort now must be tripled

The new IPCC report arrives in a period of extraordinary global political and economic turbulence that has further jeopardized efforts to address climate change. Energy prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting several nations to increase fossil-fuel production. In the long run, that will only make matters worse.
Leaders who claim to be protecting their people by doubling down on fossil fuels are doing the exact opposite: throwing their people to the wolves of energy insecurity, price volatility and climate chaos.
The IPCC report lays out a saner, safer approach, one that would get the world back on track by using renewable solutions that provide green jobs, energy security and greater price stability.
This report is a blueprint to bring us back to the 1.5-degree pledge that nearly 200 nations made in Paris and renewed at the COP26 gathering in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

March 31, 2022 Climate Change / Ecology / Environment / Environmental justice / Failed Policies / International / News & Updates / Science & Society / Social Justice / Sustainability / Time for Action is Now

Protect Indigenous people’s rights or Paris climate goals will fail, says report

Indigenous people are by far the best rainforest custodians, with deforestation rates on their lands up to 50% lower than elsewhere, according to a UN study last year.

While an estimated 10% of the south-east Amazon appears to have already become a net carbon source owing to forest degradation, the WRI says that at least 92% of forested lands held by Indigenous peoples and communities in Amazonian countries are still carbon sinks. On average, these lands sequester more than 30 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a hectare, more than twice as much as other lands.

In Brazil, however, the Jair Bolsonaro government has undermined Indigenous people’s protection agencies and fast-tracked legislation to open their lands to mining, oil and gas exploration, hydroelectric dams and soy plantations. Brazil’s deforestation rate soared by 57% last year to the highest level in a decade.

Izabella Teixeira, a former Brazilian environment minister honoured by the UN for helping to reverse Amazonian deforestation, said Bolsonaro offered only “a fake green, short-term perspective”, aimed at fooling the international community.

March 22, 2022 Climate Change / Environment / Environmental justice / Fossil Fuels / International / Lobby Impact / News & Updates / Special Interests

More than 500 academics call on universities to stop accepting research funding from fossil fuel industry

A group of more than 500 academics on Monday called on American and British universities to ban accepting funding for climate research from fossil fuel companies.
In the letter, signatories wrote that accepting such funding undermined the academic integrity of the research it enables.
“To be clear, our concern is not with the integrity of individual academics. Rather, it is with the systemic issue posed by the context in which academics must work, one where fossil fuel industry funding can taint critical climate-related research,” the letter states.
The writers compared accepting fossil fuel funding to public health researchers accepting money from the tobacco industry, which numerous institutions already have a policy of rejecting. Those policies, they write, are based on not only the conflict of interest but also the tobacco industry’s history of obfuscating the link between its product and health issues.

March 7, 2022 Ecology / Environment / Environmental justice / Failed Policies / Forever Chemicals / News & Updates / PFAS / Science & Society / Sewage Sludge / Social Justice / Virus and Pathogens

Julie McDonald Commentary: Family’s Experience a Cautionary Tale of Battling Biosolids

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“For many years I’ve been working in the field of toxic waste, toxicology, cancer, infectious diseases, and it always leads into the business of sewage sludge and other forms of toxic waste,” he said.

Last week, Honour spoke of the dangers in human sludge, especially from patients treated with chemo, a drug designed to kill human cells, as well as hospital wastes, bacteria, viruses, dioxins, PCBs, asbestos, industrial waste, heavy metals and other hazards.

“For some reason, in Washington state, we live under the delusion that growing our food in extremely toxic waste is good news and is beneficial to the economy because farmers get a break from buying very expensive commercial fertilizers,” Honour said. “But the costs to us in our county and our state are extraordinary.”
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February 8, 2022 Climate Change / Correcting False Information / Environment / Environmental justice / Failed Policies / Lobby Impact / News & Updates / Public Health / Social Justice

‘Denial and delay’: Big Oil rebuked in US Congress

Michael Mann, an academic, told the House oversight committee the companies had known for more than four decades that their activities caused pollution, but had engaged in a “campaign of denial and delay.”

“We are now paying the price for these delays in the form of extreme weather events,” said the Pennsylvania State University atmospheric science professor.

IeRM Staff feels that this also applies to the Landfill industry.

Environmental justice

©Ashley Cooper

Opinion: Amid backsliding on climate, the renewables effort now must be tripled

Protect Indigenous people’s rights or Paris climate goals will fail, says report

More than 500 academics call on universities to stop accepting research funding from fossil fuel industry

Julie McDonald Commentary: Family’s Experience a Cautionary Tale of Battling Biosolids

‘Denial and delay’: Big Oil rebuked in US Congress