Top News: Rich Countries 'Signing Away Our Future'

 

Friday, July 26, 2024 ■ Today's Top News  US Voter Registrations Surge as Republicans Try to Limit Ballot Access One group said it has registered over 100,000 new voters since U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race. By Brett Wilkins Critics Warn Manchin-Barrasso Permitting Bill 'Is Taken Straight From Project 2025' "You thought Project 2025 was just a threat after the election? It's actually happening *right now,*" said one climate campaigner. By Brett Wilkins 'Nothing To Eat': War-Torn Sudan Faces Mass Famine as Military Delays Aid Both parties in Sudan's civil war are to blame for a looming mass famine, experts say, and the military's blocking of U.N. aid at a border crossing with Chad exacerbates the problem. By Edward Carver NYC Protesters Target AIG Over East African Crude Oil Pipeline "We will continue to stand in solidarity and fight together with our African comrades to stop EACOP, to stop the plunder of our homelands, to stop the displacement of our peoples, and to stop imperialist climate destruction." By Jessica Corbett G20 Nations Take 'Important Step' Toward Fair Taxation of Ultra-Rich "Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back," said progressive economist Gabriel Zucman. By Julia Conley UN Chief Says Rich Countries 'Signing Away Our Future' With Fossil Fuel Development "I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world's wealthiest countries," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. "Countries must phaseout fossil fuels—fast and fairly." By Edward Carver JOIN THE MOVEMENT As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. JOIN WITH US TODAY ■ More News JD Vance Doubles Down on Attack on 'Childless Cat Ladies' House Dems Unveil Sweeping Bill to Protect Worker Rights and Safety Amnesty Urges War Crimes Probe of Landmines in Russian-Occupied Ukraine Labour Ditches Tory Plan to Oppose ICC Request for Netanyahu Arrest Warrant VIEW ALL NEWS ■ Opinion Senate Dems: Don’t Let Manchin Do Big Oil One Last Favor Manchin’s latest attempt at permitting reform would try and force the approval of huge new LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast, which are both environmental justice nightmares and major carbon bombs. By Bill Mckibben Be Afraid: Here’s What ALEC Is Cooking Up at Its 51st Annual Meeting State lawmakers, right-wing operatives, and corporate lobbyists are descending on the Rocky Mountain state to vote on model policies and resolutions that impact the environment, education, elections, fundamental human rights, and more. By David Armiak Netanyahu Came to Congress to Plead for More Arms; Lawmakers Must Say No An immediate end to all U.S. weapons transfers to Israel is long overdue, alongside a permanent cease-fire and larger pursuit of freedom and justice for the Palestinian people. By Farrah Hassen VIEW ALL OPINION Call 207.775.0488 to donate by phone or mail a check to: Common Dreams · PO Box 443 · Portland, ME 04112-0443 · USA Common Dreams is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your contribution is tax-deductible. EIN: 20-3368194

 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a special address on climate action in New York in June 2024. 

(Photo: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

UN Chief Says Rich Countries 'Signing Away Our Future' With Fossil Fuel Development

"I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world's wealthiest countries," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. "Countries must phaseout fossil fuels—fast and fairly."

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday criticized the world's wealthiest countries for expanding fossil fuel production, one day after an analysis in The Guardian showed that five Western countries are leading a global surge in oil and gas development.

Guterres' remarks came as part of a "call to action" on extreme heat at a press conference in New York, after record-setting world temperatures earlier in the week and a series of deadly heatwaves across the world this year.

Guterres, who has long been outspoken on the need for climate action, called extreme heat one of the "symptoms" of a "disease" that is the "addiction" to fossil fuels.

"I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world's wealthiest countries," he said nine minutes and 53 seconds into his remarks. "In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future. The leadership of those with the greatest capabilities and capacities is essential. Countries must phaseout fossil fuels—fast and fairly."

The U.N. chief's comments may have been based on Wednesday's findings that five Western countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Norway—have significantly scaled up oil and gas licensing this year, despite their international climate commitments. The findings came from an analysis of industry data conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and published in The Guardian.

The analysis found that the five countries together have licensed or plan to license projects in 2024 that will emit 11.9 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes. The news renewed discussions about whether countries such as the U.S., though they claim to be climate leaders, should be considered "petrostates"—a contemptuous term formerly reserved for countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Guterres has long been outspoken on the issue of fossil fuels. At the COP28 U.N. climate change summit in Dubai last year, he spoke forcefully about the need for phasing them out and meeting the 1.5°C target set in the Paris agreement.

"The 1.5°C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels," he said. "Not reduce. Not abate. Phase out—with a clear timeframe aligned with 1.5°C."

The loophole-ridden deal that emerged from Dubai didn't match Guterres' ambitions, but did call for "transitioning away from fossil fuels."

His call to action on Thursday included a four-part plan for dealing with extreme heat: caring for the most vulnerable, protecting workers, boosting resilience, and limiting further temperature rise by phasing out fossil fuels and scaling up renewables.

Guterres warned that 70% of the global workforce—over 2.4 billion people—is at substantial risk of experiencing extreme heat, and the situation is especially dire for workers in Africa and the Middle East. He called for strong laws to protect workers, which some countries are enacting. The Biden administration recently moved to set the first national workplace heat safety protections in the U.S.

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RSN: The Awful Truth Is Dawning: Putin May Win in Ukraine. The Result Would Be Catastrophe.

 

 

27 April 22

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The Awful Truth Is Dawning: Putin May Win in Ukraine. The Result Would Be Catastrophe.
Simon Tisdall, Guardian UK
Tisdall writes: "A Russian victory would herald a new age of instability, economic fragmentation, hunger for millions, and social unrest."

A Russian victory would herald a new age of instability, economic fragmentation, hunger for millions and social unrest

The contrast was startling. In New York, António Guterres, the UN secretary general, launched a belated, desperately needed initiative to halt the war in Ukraine. “At this time of great peril and consequence, he [Guterres] would like to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace,” his spokesman said. The UN chief, he revealed, was proposing immediate, in-person talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv.

At roughly the same time as this hopeful development unfolded, the UK’s Boris Johnson, riding a “Partygate” getaway plane to India, was colourfully rubbishing peace efforts. Putin, he claimed, was an untrustworthy reptile. “I really don’t see how the Ukrainians can easily sit down and come to some kind of accommodation. How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it’s got your leg in its jaws?” Johnson asked.

This gaping disconnect is doubly disturbing. It suggests lack of coordination between the UN chief and a permanent member of the UN security council on how best to proceed. It also highlights a wider problem: diverging, sometimes opposing, occasionally self-serving, approaches to the crisis by western leaders who have hitherto trumpeted their unity of purpose.

The outrage in western countries sparked by Putin’s 24 February invasion is starting to fade. Likewise the burst of optimism that followed Ukraine’s success in repelling the Russian advance around Kyiv. Now, as Moscow begins a huge, slow-motion offensive in the east, concern grows that this conflict has no end-point and that the enormous economic and human damage that results may be permanent – and global.

Johnson, typically, is not looking much beyond the present moment. The UK and Nato, he said, would just “keep going with the strategy” of imposing sanctions on Russia and supplying weapons to Kyiv. Johnson supports a free, independent Ukraine but, like other alliance leaders, appears to lack a thought-through, long-term plan to achieve it. What if Ukrainian forces start losing? What if the country is partitioned, or nears collapse?

The price of failure – the true cost of a Putin victory – could be staggering. It is potentially unsupportable for fractious western democracies and poorer countries alike, beset by simultaneous post-pandemic security, energy, food, inflation and climate crises. Yet out of myopic self-interest over issues such as Russian oil and gas imports, and from fear of wider escalation, western leaders duck the tough choices that could ensure Ukraine’s survival and help mitigate such ills.

The past week furnished a grim glimpse of the future that awaits if Putin is able to continue to wage war with impunity, commit more heinous crimes, threaten nuclear and chemical blackmail and trash the UN charter. Drastically downgrading its growth forecasts due to the conflict, the International Monetary Fund predicted global economic fragmentation, rising debt and social unrest.

David Malpass, head of the World Bank, said a “human catastrophe” loomed as an unprecedented, estimated 37% rise in food prices, caused by war-related disruption to supplies, pushed millions into poverty, increased malnutrition, and reduced funding for education and healthcare for the least well-off.

More than 5 million people have fled Ukraine in two months, and more will follow, exacerbating an international migration emergency that extends from Afghanistan to the Sahel. In drought-hit east Africa, the World Food Programme says 20 million people may face starvation this year. Putin’s war did not create the drought, but the UN warns it could hurt efforts to reduce global heating, thereby triggering further displacement and forced migration.

The broader, negative political impact of the war, should it rage on indefinitely, is almost incalculable. The UN’s future as an authoritative global forum, lawmaker and peacekeeper is in jeopardy, as more than 200 former officials warned Guterres last week. At risk, too, is the credibility of the international court of justice, whose injunction to withdraw was scorned by Putin, and the entire system of war crimes prosecutions.

In terms of democratic norms and human rights, the full or partial subjugation of Ukraine would spell disaster for the international rules-based order – and a triumph for autocrats everywhere. What message would it send, for example, to China over Taiwan, or indeed to Putin as he covets the vulnerable Baltic republics? Islamist terrorists who now furtively plot to exploit the west’s Ukraine distraction would relish such a victory for violence.

Failure to stop the war, rescue Ukraine and punish Russia’s rogue regime to the fullest extent possible would come at an especially high price for Europe and the EU. In prospect is a second cold war with permanent Nato bases on Russia’s borders, massively increased defence spending, an accelerating nuclear arms race, unceasing cyber and information warfare, endemic energy shortages, rocketing living costs, and more French-style, Russian-backed rightwing populist extremism.

In short, the dawn of a new age of instability. Why on earth would politicians such as America’s Joe Biden, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, and France’s Emmanuel Macron tolerate so fraught and dangerous a future when, by taking a more robust stand now, they might prevent much of it from materialising? By supposedly avoiding risks today, they ensure a much riskier tomorrow.

Sending weapons and best wishes is not enough. Conferring last week, western leaders debated providing security guarantees for Ukraine after the war. All well and good. But this war is happening now. Who will guarantee Ukraine’s survival in the possibly decisive next few weeks? Who, if push comes to shove, will move beyond training missions and provide direct, in-country military support?

Let’s get real. For all its heroism and sacrifice, Ukraine may lose this fight. Dreadful though it sounds, Putin could win. If the west so abandons its principles and values to let that happen, the long-term price, for everyone, will be a whole new world of pain.

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Firefighters extinguish a fire after a rocket strike on a civilian area in Kharkiv on Tuesday. (photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Russian Forces Capture Several Villages in Push Into Eastern Ukraine
Jon Henley, Guardian UK
Henley writes: "Russian forces have pushed deeper into eastern Ukraine and captured several villages in their offensive to fully control the two provinces of Donbas, Kyiv has said, while to the west there are mounting fears that the war may spill over into neighboring Moldova."
READ MORE

Joe Biden. (photo: USA Today)

Trevor Reed, US Marine Veteran, Detained in Russia Since 2019, Released
Rachel Treisman, NPR
Treisman writes: "The Biden administration and the family of Trevor Reed say the U.S. Marine veteran is out of Russian prison and safely on his way back to the U.S. The decision follows years of advocacy by his family and recent reports that his health was rapidly declining."
READ MORE

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, left, speaks next to Christian Smalls, founder of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), during an ALU rally on Staten Island, New York, Sunday, April 24, 2022. (photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

The Class War Is Raging at Amazon's Staten Island Complex
Alex N. Press, Jacobin
Press writes: "The atmosphere was electric at a prevote rally Sunday in Staten Island where workers prepared to cast ballots on whether to become the second Amazon facility to join the Amazon Labor Union. Bernie Sanders was among the speakers."
READ MORE

Leaked Document: Facebook Doesn't Know What It Does With Your Data, or Where It Goes
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, VICE
Franceschi-Bicchierai writes: "Facebook is facing what it describes internally as a 'tsunami' of privacy regulations all over the world, which will force the company to dramatically change how it deals with users' personal data."
READ MORE

END FOSSIL FUEL ADDICTION NOW! NO MORE WARS FOR OIL! WE CAN DO IT!

Vladimir Putin. (photo: Mikhail Klimentyev/NYT)

Russia Shuts Off Gas Supplies to Poland and Bulgaria
Sugam Pokharel and Mark Thompson, CNN
Excerpt: "Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, dramatically escalating its response to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the war in Ukraine."
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A drone photo of wildfires in Nebraska. (photo: Nebraska State Patrol)

'Above Normal' Early Wildfire Season Begins With Wildfires in Nebraska, Multiple Southwestern States
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch
Jaynes writes: "More than a dozen wildfires spread across Nebraska and the Southwest in a fierce and early start to the fire season."
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Special Coverage: Ukraine, A Historic Resistance
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Bill Gates Publicly Embarrasses Trump Over WHO Funding Cut

EXCERPTS:

‘Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds. Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs WHO

now more than ever.'

United Nations’ (U.N.) Secretary General Antonio Guterres said:

”[Now was] not the time to reduce the resources for the operations of the World Health Organization or any other humanitarian organization in the fight against the virus. Now is the time for unity and for the international community to work together in solidarity to stop this virus and its shattering consequences.’

The AMA (American Medical Association agreed that Trump’s act was “in the wrong direction.” It was a:

‘[D]angerous step in the wrong direction.” Cutting funding to the WHO — rather than focusing on solutions — is a dangerous move at a precarious moment for the world. The AMA is deeply concerned by this decision and its wide-ranging ramifications, and we strongly urge the President to reconsider.’

Gates added:

‘There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people: ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner. We want you to keep spending because there’s maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is all that counts. It’s very irresponsible for somebody to suggest that we can have the best of both worlds.’

Earlier, Gates wrote an op-ed for The Post urging optimism via a path to recovery by “science, data, and the experience of medical professionals:”

‘There’s no question the United States missed the opportunity to get ahead of the novel coronavirus. But the window for making important decisions hasn’t closed. The choices we and our leaders make now will have an enormous impact on how soon case numbers start to go down, how long the economy remains shut down and how many Americans will have to bury a loved one because of covid-19.’

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Donald Trump announced that he was interrupting all of the nation’s contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO) in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century. America contributes $893 million for this two-year period. POTUS seemed to believe he had found the perfect fall guy for his ow...

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Bill Gates Publicly Embarrasses Trump Over WHO Funding Cut

Donald Trump