Names and Locations of the Top 100 People Killing the Planet
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/names-and-locations-of-the-top-100-people-killing-the-planet
Just 100 companies are responsible for more than 70% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1988. The guys who run those companies – and they are mostly guys – have gotten rich on the backs...
How factory farms could trigger a antibiotic crisis — and what we can do to stop it – Alternet.org
▻https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/how-factory-farms-could-trigger-a-antibiotic-crisis-and-what-we-can-do-to-
In fact, Denny’s joins a growing group of major fast food and fast casual chains (McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Chipotle, and others) that have established policies prohibiting the use of medically important antibiotics in chicken. This is not the same as “antibiotic-free” claims, to be clear (“medically important” antibiotics are those used in human medicine; there are other antibiotics only used in animals), but it is a critical change that has been rippling through the food system for the past several years to protect human health. To explain the significance of this trend, a quick history of the problem that companies are trying to address is useful.
PUBLICITÉ
According to the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is one of the top 10 threats to global public health in 2019. When antibiotic medications are overused or misused, resistant bacteria can spread, causing treatments for common (and often serious) illnesses to become ineffective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2 million Americans contract an antibiotic-resistant infection every year, and 23,000 will die from it.
The use of antibiotics in animal agriculture is a major part of the problem. More than 70 percent of the medically important antibiotics sold in the U.S. are sold for use in food animals. This is not because cows are particularly susceptible to strep throat; the majority of antibiotics used on animal farms are not used as treatment for diagnosed diseases in animals. Rather, most animals raised for food are raised on factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). To produce animal products cheaply and on a large scale, animals are packed together, creating crowded, stressful and unsanitary conditions. Such conditions are inherently disease-promoting for animals. To deal with the likelihood of infections and disease associated with poor conditions without actually changing those conditions, antibiotics have become a convenient Band-Aid. As factory farming has become the predominant model for raising animals for food, more farmers have resorted to practices of routinely administering antibiotics (sometimes even delivering drugs to chicks still in the egg) to keep animals “healthy” enough to bring to slaughter. As more antibiotics are used in these conditions, more antibiotic-resistant bacteria are released into the environment.
Ultimately, eliminating antibiotics in the rest of the meat supply chain will require real changes in the way conventional farming works. Furthermore, the problem of antibiotic resistance is only one of many negative consequences of the factory farming system. Factory farms are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, air and water pollution, and deforestation; and from a moral standpoint, the quality of life for animals raised in factory farming conditions is shockingly poor.
Antibiotics provide a window into the deep problems in the animal agriculture system that produces the majority of our meat. The current model is broken. At the same time, the progress in reducing medically important antibiotics in the chicken industry over just a few years sheds light on the potential for change. When consumers demand more responsibly raised meat, the market will respond.
All What Your #Jeans Can (and Do) Hide !
Paris, Milan, New York, Tokyo… These are just some of the world’s most prestigious fashion catwalks. There, and elsewhere, perfectly – and often unrealistically – silhouetted young women and men graciously parade to impress elite guests and TV watchers with surprising, fabulous creativity of the most renowned fashion designers and dressmakers.
Yet…
… Yet, regardless of the amazing costs of such shows – and of what you may wonder how eccentric can be some of the displayed clothing – there is a hidden cost that Mother Nature pays (and which is not included in the price tag).
The environmental price
2,000 gallons (some 7.570 litres) of water needed to make one pair of jeans;
93 billion cubic metres of water, enough for 5 million people to survive, is used by the fashion industry every year;
fashion industry produces 20% of global wastewater;
clothing and footwear production is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions;
every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned;
clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014.
Proposal for U.N. to study climate-cooling technologies rejected | Reuters
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-climatechange-geoengineer-idUSKCN1QV2RL
“Geoengineering” technologies, which are gaining prominence as international efforts to curb climate-changing emissions fall short, aim to pull carbon out of the atmosphere or block some of the sun’s warmth to cool the Earth.
They could help fend off some of the worst impacts of runaway climate change, including worsening storms and heatwaves, backers say.
But opponents argue the emerging technologies pose huge potential risks to people and nature, and could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not least because many are backed by fossil-fuel interests.
Is Climate the Worst Casualty of War?
▻https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/07/31/climate-worst-casualty-war
the big environmental organizations seem to have tacitly agreed that the U.S. military is the entity we won’t talk about when we talk about the biggest contributors to climate change.
The Pentagon uses more petroleum per day than the aggregate consumption of 175 countries (out of 210 in the world), and generates more than 70 percent of this nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, based on rankings in the CIA World Factbook. “The U.S. Air Force burns through 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, all of it derived from oil,” reported an article in the Scientific American. Since the start of the post-9/11 wars, U.S. military fuel consumption has averaged about 144 million barrels annually. That figure doesn’t include fuel used by coalition forces, military contractors, or the massive amount of fossil fuels burned in weapons manufacturing.
U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/climate/greenhouse-gas-emissions-increase.html
WASHINGTON — America’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4 percent in 2018, the biggest increase in eight years, according to a preliminary estimate published Tuesday.
Strikingly, the sharp uptick in emissions occurred even as a near-record number of coal plants around the United States retired last year, illustrating how difficult it could be for the country to make further progress on climate change in the years to come, particularly as the Trump administration pushes to roll back federal regulations that limit greenhouse gas emissions.
#etats-unis #co2 #carbone #climat
On l’ajoute à la troisième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/680147
#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #Anthropocène #capitalocène
Global Carbon Budget 2018
▻http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/18/publications.htm
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuels and industry are projected to rise more than 2% (range 1.8% to 3.7%) in 2018, taking global fossil CO₂ emissions to a new record high of 37.1 billion tonnes.
The strong growth is the second consecutive year of increasing emissions since the 2014-16 period when emissions stabilised, further slowing progress towards the goals of the Paris Agreement that require a peak in greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. Strong growth in emissions from the use of coal, oil and natural gas suggests CO₂ emissions are likely to increase further in 2019.
▻https://theconversation.com/carbon-emissions-will-reach-37-billion-tonnes-in-2018-a-record-high
#climat
Les figures : ▻http://folk.uio.no/roberan/GCB2018.shtml
Indonesia: The World Bank’s Failed East Asian Miracle | The Oakland Institute
▻https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/indonesia-world-bank-failed-east-asian-miracle
Indonesia, host of the 2018 annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), for years has been heralded as a major economic success by the Bank and rewarded for its pro-business policy changes through the World Bank’s Doing Business reports. Between 2016 and 2018 alone, Indonesia climbed an astounding 34 positions in the ranks. These reforms, however, have come at a massive cost for both people and the planet.
Indonesia: The World Bank’s Failed East Asian Miracle details how Bank-backed policy reforms have led to the displacement, criminalization, and even murder of smallholder farmers and indigenous defenders to make way for mega-agricultural projects. While Indonesia’s rapidly expanding palm oil sector has been heralded as a boon for the economy, its price tag includes massive deforestation, widespread loss of indigenous land, rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and more.
#Indonésie #Banque_mondiale #industrie_palmiste #terres #assassinats
How to be a better tourist? Look to the Galápagos
▻https://massivesci.com/articles/galapagos-islands-better-tourism
Tourism accounts for 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. We can do more to limit our footprint, carbon and cultural
En Floride, une «marée rouge» décime la faune marine - Libération
▻http://www.liberation.fr/direct/element/en-floride-une-maree-rouge-decime-la-faune-marine_86078
Les autorités ont décrété l’état d’urgence en Floride, où une « marée rouge » dévastatrice noircit l’eau de mer et tue dauphins, tortues marines et poissons à un rythme effréné. Rien que ce mois-ci, plus de cent tonnes d’animaux marins ont été ramassées sur des plages désertes et empestées par une odeur nauséabonde autour de la ville de Sarasota, sur la côte ouest de la Floride, normalement très prisée des touristes.
La #marée_rouge, « #red_tide » en anglais, est un phénomène naturel provoqué par le Karenia brevis, un organisme unicellulaire microscopique surtout présent dans le Golfe du Mexique. Il relâche une neurotoxine puissante pouvant se propager dans l’air, causant migraines, toux et crises d’asthme chez l’homme. Le #Karenia_brevis se retrouve tout au long de l’année en faible quantité. Mais si ces organismes se multiplient, le péril est grand pour les animaux.
Florida red tides occur almost every year in the Gulf of Mexico and can harm marine animals and humans.
▻http://myfwc.com/research/redtide/general/about
Karenia brevis est un organisme unicellulaire photosynthétique dont le diamètre varie entre 20 et 40 µm, pour une épaisseur de 10-15 µm, de forme plus ou moins carrée3. Contrairement à d’autres espèces de dinoflagellés, il ne possède pas de thèque ni de péridinine3. Deux flagelles sont insérés sur la cellule, lui permettant de nager activement3. Karenia brevis peut se multiplier de manière asexuée ou se reproduire de manière sexuée. Dans le premier cas, il y a division binaire de la cellule. La reproduction sexuée s’effectue grâce à la production de gamètes mâle et femelle de même taille (isogamie). L’intervalle de températures optimales pour sa croissance est 22-28°C, et elle est adaptée à des intensités lumineuses faibles4. Ce dinoflagellé peut utiliser des composés azotés organiques et inorganiques comme source d’azote4.
How climate change is making ‘red tide’ algal blooms even worse - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/08/14/how-climate-change-is-making-red-tide-algal-blooms-even-worse
There are several ways human activity can exacerbate a bloom, but the main culprit is allowing nitrogen-rich material such as fertilizer to run off into natural water sources. The same fertilizer that helps sugar cane, tomatoes and corn grow in the Sunshine State feeds algae when it reaches the ocean.
Humans are also playing a role by driving up global temperatures via greenhouse gas emissions. In a letter published by the journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers at the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina said that “climate change will severely affect our ability to control blooms, and in some cases could make it near impossible.”
As air and ocean temperatures increase, the environment becomes more hospitable to toxic algal blooms in several ways, according to scientists and the Environmental Protection Agency.
In freshwater such as the Great Lakes, a different kind of “algae” — cyanobacteria — flourishes at warmer temperatures. Combined with fertilizer runoff, red tides due to cyanobacteria have spiraled out of control in recent years, particularly in western Lake Erie. In freshwater cases, the harmful algal bloom doesn’t just threaten wildlife, it also threatens the water that people drink and bathe in. In 2014, Toledo’s water supply was so poisoned with cyanobacteria toxins that the entire city had to drink bottled water for three days, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Globalization Downfall - How Globalization Has Broken the Chain of ...
▻https://diasp.eu/p/7551897
Globalization Downfall - How Globalization Has Broken the Chain of Responsibility | #anthropology #freedom #responsibility #speed #globalization #civilization #action #powerlessness
l’article relié est pris d’ici :
▻https://www.sapiens.org/culture/globalization-downfall-gladstone-australia
[...]
Needless to say, there is a great deal of diversity in both the kinds of change being experienced in these places and the local reactions. To some, change offers job opportunities, peace, and improved infrastructure; to others, it means pollution, eviction, and a loss of livelihood. What all residents have in common is a loss of political autonomy. The decisions shaping their lives are being made further and further away from the specific locales where they live.
One example from our research is a town in the Peruvian Andes where water was becoming scarce a few years ago. The locals suspected that a new mine was using their water, and they went to complain. However, the mining representatives claimed that it was not their fault and blamed global climate change for the erratic water supply. The question of who to blame and what to do suddenly became insurmountable for the townspeople. What could they do—send a worried email to then U.S. President Barack Obama and the Chinese government, urging them to curb greenhouse gas emissions? The gap was, naturally, too dizzying. Instead, some of them resorted to traditional healing rituals to placate the spirits regulating rain and meltwater. They trusted Pachamama, the goddess of Earth, more than their government or distant international organizations.
Meanwhile in Lunsar, Sierra Leone, people were looking forward to job opportunities in a new mine (which, in any event, never opened) and a biofuel plantation (which did open). Globalization had brought them many benefits, notably an improved infrastructure. They relished the fact that, for the first time, they could buy bread from a roadside vendor that wasn’t covered in dust, since the road had finally been paved. But even in the midst of some positive outcomes, rapid change is creating discontent and frictions, not least over property rights. In traditional African societies, land was not considered property and could not be traded: It was allocated by the chief, used as a common resource available to all, or cultivated according to customary law. More recently, land has been privatized and turned into a form of capital, and suddenly, boundaries need to be drawn in an unequivocal way. Needless to say, these boundaries are contested.
Various stakeholders try to work out a land dispute near Lunsar, Sierra Leone, in connection with a mining project.
[...]
In the mid-1800s, when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote The Communist Manifesto, capitalists were easily identifiable. They were typically men, and the property owner was the proverbial man in the top hat, with his waistcoat, paunch, cigar, and gold watch. Today, the situation is far more complicated since ownership structures are transnational, corporate, and complex. Even in democratic countries, where political leaders are elected, there is a widespread feeling that the “powers that be” are further away and less approachable than before, and that there is nowhere to go with your complaints. In other words, both the economy and politics are less manageable, more difficult to understand, and harder to effectively react to.
There are alternatives to the current situation of powerlessness. One way to counter globalized power is to globalize the response by forging alliances between local community groups and transnational organizations that are capable of putting pressure on governments, public opinion, and corporations. This has been a successful strategy among feminists, trade unionists, and environmentalists in the recent past. Another option—an opposite yet complementary strategy—is to resist the forces that threaten to overrun and disempower local communities. One of the most striking examples of this strategy is the burgeoning support for locally grown food.
Gladstone is unique compared to previously traditional societies in that it is enmeshed in the economic globalization, which makes the little man and woman even smaller than they used to be. The city’s rise to prosperity was indeed a result of globalization. Yet, the same forces may well cause its downfall. Crucially dependent on fossil fuels, the city may once again become a dusty backwater should the world find better energy solutions.
Signs of the city’s vulnerability are already evident: Since coal and gas prices began largely declining in 2013, and then a major construction project ended in 2015, the city has seen an unprecedented rise in unemployment and a steep fall in real estate prices.
[...]
Heat: the next big inequality issue | Cities | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/13/heat-next-big-inequality-issue-heatwaves-world
But air conditioning will remain out of reach for many, even as it increasingly becomes a necessity. In 2014, Public Health England raised concerns that “the distribution of cooling systems may reflect socioeconomic inequalities unless they are heavily subsidised,” adding that rising fuel costs could further exacerbate this. And when we need to use less energy and cool the planet, not just our homes and offices, relying upon air conditioning is not a viable long-term plan – and certainly not for everyone.
‘In Cairo everything is suffocating’
Most of the research into heatwaves and public health has focused on western countries; Benmarhnia says more studies have been done on the city of Phoenix, Arizona, than the entire continent of Africa. But the problem is global, and especially pronounced across urban slums such as the ashwiyyat in Cairo, where temperatures during the city’s five-month-long summers have peaked at 46C (115F).
Traditionally Egyptians built low buildings close together, forming dense networks of shaded alleyways where people could keep cool during summer. But the rapid construction of high-rises and decreasing green spaces have made one of the fastest-growing cities in the world increasingly stifling. Subsidy cuts have brought about a rise of 18-42% in electricity costs, affecting many poor residents’ options for cooling down.
Um Hamad, 41, works as a cleaner and lives with his family in a small flat in Musturad in the city’s north. Though he considers them lucky to live on the relatively cool first floor, “in Cairo everything is suffocating”, he says. Hamad use fans and water to keep cool inside, but the water bill is becoming expensive . “There’s always that trick of sleeping on the floor, and we wear cotton clothes ,” he says. “The temperatures are harder to deal with for women who wear the hijab, so I always tell my daughters to wear only two layers and to wear bright colours.”
In a tight-knit cluster of urban dwellings in Giza, to Cairo’s south, Yassin Al-Ouqba, 42, a train maintenance worker, lives in a house built from a mixture of bricks and mud-bricks. In August, he says, it becomes “like an oven”. “I have a fan and I place it in front of a plate of ice so that it spreads cold air throughout the room. I spread cold water all over the sheets.”
Compounding the threat posed by the changing climate is the refugee crisis. The two are intimately linked, with extreme weather events often a factor in social, political and economic instability. A paper published in the journal Science in December found that if greenhouse gas emissions were not meaningfully reduced global asylum applications would increase by almost 200% by the end of the century.
On a plain north of Amman, some 80,000 Syrians live in the Za’atari refugee camp, a semi-permanent urban settlement set up six years ago and now considered Jordan’s fourth-largest city. Hamda Al-Marzouq, 27, arrived three years ago, fleeing airstrikes on her neighbourhood in the outskirts of Damascus.
Her husband had gone missing during the war, and she was desperate to save her young son and extended family. Eight of them now live in a prefabricated shelter, essentially a large metal box, which Al-Marzouq says turns into an oven during the summer.
It’s suffocating. We soak the towels and try to breathe through them
Hamda Al-Marzouq, Za’atari camp resident
“It’s a desert area, and we’re suffering,” she says by phone from the camp. “We have different ways of coping. We wake in the early morning and soak the floor with water. Then we sprinkle water on ourselves.” There is no daytime electricity, so fans are useless. When power does arrive at night, the desert has already cooled.
Many days, her family will wait until the evening to walk outside, wrapping wet towels around their heads. But the biggest problem are sandstorms, which can arrive violently during the summer months and engulf the camp for days. “We have to close the caravan windows,” she says, adding the room then gets hotter. “It’s suffocating. We soak the towels and try to breathe through them.”
Al-Marzouq’s five-year-old son suffers respiratory problems and keeps getting infections, while asthma is rife across the camp.
Water has also been an issue, with demand in northern Jordan – one of the most water-scarce countries in the world – surging following the refugee arrivals. A Unicef-led operation will see all households connected to a water network by October, which Al-Marzouq says has been a significant help.
“We used to collect water with jerry cans and had to carry it for long distances. Now, with the water network being operational, things are much easier. We don’t have to fight in a long queue to get our share of water. Now there is equity.”
en fait c’est une série géniale d’articles sur le sujet qu’on trouve dans le Guardian. 0 compléter par :
▻https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/14/how-air-conditioning-created-modern-city
et
▻https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/13/halfway-boiling-city-50c
On l’ajoute à la troisième compilation :
►https://seenthis.net/messages/680147
#effondrement #collapsologie #catastrophe #fin_du_monde #it_has_begun #Anthropocène #capitalocène
Emissions impossible: How big meat and dairy are heating up the planet
The world’s biggest meat and dairy companies could surpass Exxon, Shell and BP as the world’s biggest climate polluters within the next few decades. At a time when the planet must dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, these global animal protein giants are driving consumption by ramping up production and exports. GRAIN and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) examined the world’s largest 35 companies and found that most are not reporting their GHG emissions data and few have set targets that could reduce their overall emissions. We need to urgently build food systems that meet the needs of farmers, consumers and the planet. But to do so, we must break the power of the big meat and dairy conglomerates and hold them to account for their supersized climate footprint.
New research from GRAIN and IATP shows that:
Together, the world’s top five meat and dairy corporations are now responsible for more annual greenhouse gas emissions than Exxon, Shell or BP.
By 2050, we must reduce global emissions by 38 billion tons to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If all other sectors follow that path while the meat and dairy industry’s growth continues as projected, the livestock sector could eat up 80% of the allowable GHG budget in just 32 years.
Most of the top 35 global meat and dairy giants either do not report or underreport their emissions. Only four of them provide complete, credible emissions estimates.
Fourteen of the 35 companies have announced some form of emission reduction targets. Of these, only six have targets that include supply chain emissions, yet these emissions can account for up to 90% of total emissions. The six companies that do pledge cuts in supply chain emissions are simultaneously pushing for growth in production and exports, driving their overall emissions up regardless of their intention to reduce emissions per kilo of milk or meat produced.
What if summers in India turn 8-month long ?
▻https://hackernoon.com/what-if-summers-in-india-turn-8-month-long-b7d21f161b48?source=rss----3a
The world is getting not only hotter but also more humid.As a result of global increases in both temperature and specific humidity, heat stress is projected to intensify throughout the 21st century. Some of the regions most susceptible to dangerous heat and humidity combinations are also among the most densely populated.The combined scientific measure of heat and humidity is called wet-bulb temperature, which hardly ever crossed 32°C between 1985 and 2005. The nature of such heat waves has since changed because of rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change.India’s energy future could tip the scales of global climate change, but the extreme weather is already here. The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Indus-Ganga Plain and the North Indian River Plain, is (...)
#environmental-issues #climate-change #environment #global-warming #summer
The carbon footprint of tourism revealed (it’s bigger than we thought)
▻http://theconversation.com/the-carbon-footprint-of-tourism-revealed-its-bigger-than-we-thought
The carbon footprint of tourism is about four times larger than previously thought, according to a world-first study published today in Nature Climate Change.
Researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Queensland and National Cheng Kung University – including ourselves – worked together to assess the entire supply chain of tourism. This includes transportation, accommodation, food and beverages, souvenirs, clothing, cosmetics and other goods.
Put together, global tourism produces about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, much more than previous estimates.
UN body adopts climate change strategy for shipping
▻http://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/06GHGinitialstrategy.aspx
Nations meeting at the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London have adopted an initial strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from ships, setting out a vision to reduce GHG emissions from international shipping and phase them out, as soon as possible in this century.
The vision confirms IMO’s commitment to reducing GHG emissions from international shipping and, as a matter of urgency, to phasing them out as soon as possible.
More specifically, under the identified “levels of ambition”, the initial strategy envisages for the first time a reduction in total GHG emissions from international shipping which, it says, should peak as soon as possible and to reduce the total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008, while, at the same time, pursuing efforts towards phasing them out entirely.
Bien sûr, ce ne sera pas legally binding.
#transport_maritime #climat
Greener Shipping Can Help Fight Climate Change - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-05/greener-shipping-can-help-fight-climate-change
When almost all the world’s governments agreed in Paris more than two years ago to address climate change, they sidestepped an important issue: carbon emissions from international shipping. Next week in London, they have a chance to put this right.
Shipping is by far the most energy-efficient mode of transport, and it moves some 80 percent of world trade by volume. However, the fuel it uses is hard on the environment and human health — and ships last a long time, so deploying cleaner fleets takes time.
Already, international shipping accounts for about as much carbon dioxide each year as Germany’s whole economy. On current trends, its share of the total will rise quickly. It could account for roughly 15 percent of the global carbon budget set by the Paris accord for 2050.
Next week, the International Maritime Organization is expected to announce a strategy for reducing these emissions. The plan is unlikely to be bold. Countries including Argentina, Brazil, India, Panama and Saudi Arabia are resisting carbon dioxide targets for shipping. Unsurprisingly, the industry itself is also opposed.
Norway targets IMO to halve global shipping emissions by 2050
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-shipping-imo/norway-targets-imo-to-halve-global-shipping-emissions-by-2050-idUSKCN1HC1OG
Global shipping should set a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, Norway’s government and shipowners’ association said on Thursday before talks by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London next week.
[…]
The IMO, which says international shipping represents about 2.2 percent of world carbon dioxide emissions, will meet from April 9-13 to develop a strategy to combat climate change. Shipping was not included in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
“Emissions should be reduced by 50 percent towards 2050 compared to 2008,” Harald Solberg, head of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, told a joint news conference with Trade Minister Torbjoern Rooe Isaksen.
Carbon prices too low to protect SE Asian forests from rubber expansion - report | PLACE
▻http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=d4263083-a216-4f22-a579-e4503f8e1982&cid=social_20180328_75909087&a
The price of carbon credits must rise drastically if they are to help protect Southeast Asia’s tropical forests against rubber plantation expansion, according to researchers.
Individuals, companies and countries purchase carbon credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.
Putting a cost on carbon emissions provides an incentive to do business more sustainably, and a disincentive to engage in environmentally damaging activities - like clearing forests.
But researchers found that credits bought and sold on international markets would need to rise from $5-$13 per tonne of carbon dioxide to $30-$51 per tonne if they are to safeguard Southeast Asian forests from rubber.
#marché_carbone #mauvaise_farce #caoutchouc #déforestation #plantation
As its wealth fund goes green, Norway’s firms struggle to keep up
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-swf-climatechange/as-its-wealth-fund-goes-green-norways-firms-struggle-to-keep-up-idUSKBN1GG0
Many Norwegian companies lag high standards for reporting their impact on the environment that the Nordic nation’s $1 trillion wealth fund is championing abroad in 2018.
The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, which is barred by the Norwegian government from investing at home, wants the 9,100 companies in which it holds stakes to submit data on issues such as water use and climate effects to London-based non-profit group CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project.
In Norway, just two firms - DNB bank and property firm Entra - were on a CDP list of 160 “A” rated performers worldwide for disclosure in 2017. That was comparable to other Nordic nations but not exemplary, CDP data show.
Norway’s state-controlled oil group Statoil got an “F” grade for disclosure of fresh water use - a core focus area for the fund abroad - after it declined to take part in the CDP survey.
On climate change reporting, including tracking greenhouse gas emissions, Statoil got a strong “A-“.
The World Is Embracing S.U.V.s. That’s Bad News for the Climate.
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/03/climate/suv-sales-global-climate.html
For the first time, S.U.V.s and their lighter, more carlike cousins known as “crossovers” made up more than one in three cars sold globally last year, almost tripling their share from just a decade ago, according to new figures from the auto research firm JATO Dynamics.
[...] The ascent of S.U.V.s and crossovers is already slowing progress in reining in emissions from the world’s cars and trucks, major emitters of the gases that are warming the planet. Transportation accounts for an estimated 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, with cars and trucks making up the biggest share.
Intensive agriculture influences U.S. regional summer climate, study finds
▻https://phys.org/news/2018-02-intensive-agriculture-regional-summer-climate.html
Scientists agree that changes in land use such as deforestation, and not just greenhouse gas emissions, can play a significant role altering the world’s climate systems. Now, a new study by researchers at MIT and Dartmouth College reveals how another type of land use, intensive agriculture, can impact regional climate.
The researchers show that in the last half of the 20th century, the midwestern U.S. went through an intensification of agricultural practices that led to dramatic increases in production of corn and soybeans. And, over the same period in that region, summers were significantly cooler and had greater rainfall than during the previous half-century. This effect, with regional cooling in a time of overall global warming, may have masked part of the warming effect that would have occurred over that period, and the new finding could help to refine global climate models by incorporating such regional effects.
EU bank courts controversy with €1.5bn gas pipe investment
▻https://euobserver.com/energy/140926
https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/euobs-media/4800f8f83539aeb59b3311b6756d1208-800x.jpg 
https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/euobs-media/0948808f9e35f9570dacd5bf85997703-480x.jpg he European Investment Bank (EIB) decided this week to invest €1.5bn in a natural gas pipeline connecting Italy, Greece, and Albania – despite MEPs having requested a vote on such preferential treatment given to fossil-fuel gas projects.
The bank’s decision has been heavily criticised by environmental groups, who said it was “one of Europe’s largest ever loans to one of the EU’s largest fossil fuel projects”.
Among the concerns is that the project will increase greenhouse gas emissions, and that the use of gas will be prolonged beyond what some scientists say is the final gas phase-out deadline if Europe is to keep up to its Paris treaty promises.
The project is called the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), and it is part of a larger concept, the Southern Gas Corridor.
The latest would transport natural gas from Azerbaijan, through Turkey, to Europe. The TAP would be the last leg of the gas route.
#énergi #gaz #balkans #adriatique #tube #guerre_des-tubes #russie #gazoducs
Even Oxford University Is Mixed up With Corrupt Monsanto | Alternet
▻https://www.alternet.org/food/university-oxford-has-disturbingly-cozy-connection-monsanto
Food
Even Oxford University Is Mixed up With Corrupt Monsanto
An unscientific report completely discounts Monsanto’s role in climatic and ecological damage.
By John W. Roulac / AlterNet
November 4, 2017, 9:30 PM GMT
A University of Oxford thinktank, the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN), has come out with a report, “Grazed and Confused,” that likens 100-percent grass-fed beef to that produced on a 10,000-cow confined animal feedlot operation (CAFO) like Harris Ranch on Interstate 5 in Central California—calling them basically the same in climate impacts.
Think, for a moment, how absurd that is. One has to wonder why this Oxford thinktank is being so deferential to Monsanto and the GMO/fertilizer industry, which profits via the planet-killing, health-destroying CAFO model.
The Monsanto Connection to Oxford University
It seems that Monsanto has a deep and enduring connection to the University of Oxford (UO). Monsanto has paid out to UO through various business ventures more than $50M pounds ($75M US).
Also, Oxford University Press has published a flattering book, written by Robert Paarlberg, full of Monsanto puffery: Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know.
In 2006, the Guardian reported that UO professor and Oxford resident Dr. Richard Droll wrote and testified that Monsanto chemicals did not cause cancer, while he “was receiving a consultancy fee of $1,500 a day in the mid-1980s from Monsanto, then a major chemical company and now better known for its GM crops business.”
Oxford University has advertised a Monsanto Senior Research Fellowship.
The distinguished and well-respected U.K. Sustainable Food Trust was also critical of the report, stating:
The report focuses exclusively on greenhouse gas emissions, and while it does accept that grassland can sequester carbon, it fails to understand the vital necessity of returning degraded cropland to rotations that include grass and grazing animals, in order to rebuild carbon and organic matter levels, and the potential of integrating grazing livestock production with crop production in genuine mixed farming systems, to address a wide range of the food system problems currently faced…The only sustainable way to obtain food from grassland is to graze it with ruminants. With the growing global population it would be irresponsible not to do that.
In one conclusion, the FCRN report states, “Grain-fed intensive livestock systems use less land and so cause less damaging land use change.” Yet the destruction of forest and savannah lands in South America for soybean farms to feed CAFO animals is in the millions of hectares. GMO corn and soy are two of the most damaging systems for land and habitat that the world has ever seen.
Cows eat grass; therefore they don’t need to consume vast amounts of GMO corn and soybeans. Less GMO corn planted means less cancer-linked, soil-killing RoundUp being sprayed. If consumers can understand that pasture-raised beef is better for them than CAFO meat, they’ll change their buying preferences and sales of beneficial pasture-raised beef will go up, while Monsanto profits from agricultural products with a multitude of negative impacts for animals, humans and the environment will go down.
Ces rapports payés par les industries sont en fait des supports pour la promotion cachée des médias. Il s’agit de se cacher derrière une « science » qui ne dit pas d’où viennent ses financemets et quelles sont ses allégeances. Et puis les rapports ne passent jamais devant des instances de contrôle...
After the “Grazed and Confused” report came out, it began spreading virally across the web. One headline in the New York Post read: “Your Grass-Fed Burger Is Making Climate Change Worse.”
To quote from this article:
Environmentally conscious meat eaters have touted grass-fed meat as a solution to help negate the impact of cows on the environment. But unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Raising grass-fed cows also leads to deforestation—another big climate change issue—as farmers chop down forests in order to expand their pastures.
Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017 : From World Development Indicators
▻https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26306
The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017 uses maps, charts and analysis to illustrate, trends, challenges and measurement issues related to each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Atlas primarily draws on World Development Indicators (WDI) - the World Bank’s compilation of internationally comparable statistics about global development and the quality of people’s lives Given the breadth and scope of the SDGs, the editors have been selective, emphasizing issues considered important by experts in the World Bank’s Global Practices and Cross Cutting Solution Areas. Nevertheless, The Atlas aims to reflect the breadth of the Goals themselves and presents national and regional trends and snapshots of progress towards the UN’s seventeen Sustainable Development Goals: poverty, hunger, health, education, gender, water, energy, jobs, infrastructure, inequalities, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, the environment, peace, institutions, and partnerships. Between 1990 and 2013, nearly one billion people were raised out of extreme poverty. Its elimination is now a realistic prospect, although this will require both sustained growth and reduced inequality. Even then, gender inequalities continue to hold back human potential. Undernourishment and stunting have nearly halved since 1990, despite increasing food loss, while the burden of infectious disease has also declined. Access to water has expanded, but progress on sanitation has been slower. For too many people, access to healthcare and education still depends on personal financial means. To date the environmental cost of growth has been high. Accumulated damage to oceanic and terrestrial ecosystems is considerable. But hopeful signs exist: while greenhouse gas emissions are at record levels, so too is renewable energy investment. While physical infrastructure continues to expand, so too does population, so that urban housing and rural access to roads remain a challenge, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile the institutional infrastructure of development strengthens, with more reliable government budgeting and foreign direct investment recovering from a post-financial crisis decline. Official development assistance, however, continues to fall short of target levels.
The hidden environmental impacts of ‘platform capitalism’ - The Ecologist
▻http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2989189/the_hidden_environmental_impacts_of_platform_capitalism.html
The environmental impact of platform capitalism is yet to become a major focus. One reason for this is that it remains difficult to understand the environmental impact of using the internet.
In particular, there is a lack of clarity about the complex supply chains involved. For example, many online services run on Amazon Web Services, meaning it can be difficult to find out whether they are powered by renewable energy or fossil fuels.
What we do know is that on a smaller scale, it has been estimated that “an average website with 10,000 page views per month could be responsible for emitting up to 4,700 lbs of CO2, equivalent to driving a car for over 5,000 miles”.
While on a larger scale, server ‘farms’ of 150,000 square metres consume vast amounts of energy to power and cool them.
The rapid growth in these operations saw them consume three percent of the global electricity supply last year, while producing two percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, meaning they have “the same carbon footprint as the airline industry.”
#climat #ges #capitalisme #internet
