#climate conventions

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

With the Earth at its most degraded point in recorded history, and humans making insufficient efforts to prevent the destruction of ecosystems, a growing number of scientists, lawyers and activists are proposing a potential solution that challenges more than 350 years of global governance. 

The idea is to get countries and civil society to sign onto a declaration that recognizes Antarctica and its surrounding Southern Ocean as its own autonomous legal entity, similar to a sovereign country. Along with that status comes the right of Antarctica to participate in decision making that affects it, like the United Nations conferences on climate and biodiversity. 

On Thursday, advocates with the group Antarctic Rights unveiled a draft declaration that would do just that. The document also says the continent possesses inherent rights to exist and continue its natural cycles “free of human disruptions.” Thursday’s event took place on the sidelines of the 16th gathering of parties to the U.N. Convention of Biological Diversity being held in Colombia. 

Since 1959 the region has been governed by the Antarctic Treaty System, a Cold War-era pact designed to promote peace and scientific cooperation south of 60 degrees latitude. While largely successful at achieving those goals, that system has been criticized for making little progress on issues like environmental protection in recent years. Political deadlock, for instance, has prevented the creation of new Marine Protected Areas and the implementation of existing ones in the region.   

Antarctic Rights’ proposal is part of the growing rights of nature movement, which has cemented various rights of ecosystems and individual species, like sea turtles, into legislation and court rulings in more than a dozen countries. The worsening climate and biodiversity crises have helped the movement gain momentum. In Ecuador, frogs have taken mining companies to court and won. In Colombia, courts have appointed human-guardians to oversee the rights of the Atrato River. There’s even precedent for giving nature a seat in the boardrooms of companies. 

But never has an idea been set forth to put a natural entity on par with nation-states. Since the 1600s, international law has treated national governments as the primary force in global decision making.

Critics of that structure, which political scientists call the Westphalian system, argue that it is ill-equipped to handle many of today’s problems, including climate change and environmental destruction, which span national borders. Advocates argue that the nation-state system has an inherent and narrow focus on short-term human interests, neglecting other forms of life. 

[ganondoodle]

the company i work for decided that its switching from the german formal "You"(Sie) to the informal "you" (Du) in all of our websites so now we have to scour the entire database to change it and i quite frankly hate that, not just bc the unecessary extra work but especially bc its such a weird and unecessary change

i bet its bc everything here is getting englishfied (both literally and culturally it feels like, when my new boss talks its half in english bc every second german word is just replaced by an english one despite there being perfectly fine words for it in german too, its so annoying) and bc they want to sound more personal in hopes of getting more clients bc 'company is your fwiend uwu!!', i know this here is the amercian tm site so you wouldnt understand really but i do not want to be greeted with 'du' by companies, no, thats too personal, you dont know me and im not giving you my data, stay away!!

i guess thats how i would describe it .. the formal you is like a polite distance, like someone you dont know staying outside your personal space, but when its the informal 'you' it feels invasive unless i told you you can call me that, and that goes double for companies

maybe its a small thing that doesnt seem important but i cant stand it, im just a little part time worker doing data work so i got no say in it but the companies founder also announced hes giving his post to his kids some time ago so ...... since then theres been alot of changes and new projects that solely aim to imitate whats popular and whats done by other companies, despite ours being one that is, or used to be, intentionally different, like, that was the POINT, but i guess chasing trends is just too appealing for CEOs

[jacks-weird-world]

[tomorrowusa]

Sen. Bernie Sanders visited Stephen Colbert after Trump's seemingly endless acceptance speech at the Republican convention. His refutation of Trump was more succinct as well as more interesting than The Orange One's speech.

In that segment he describes the total lack of attention Republicans devote to climate change – except to give free rein to fossil fuel oligarchs to put even more greenhouse gasses into Earth's atmosphere.

He also outlines how the attention the GOP devotes to working Americans is just superficial bullshit. The GOP opposes raising the minimum wage but favors even more MAGA tax breaks for the filthy rich.

The Bern described our system as a "semi-democracy" because it gives disproportionate power to oligarchic billionaires who can more easily influence the system. He singled out the disastrous 2010 Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision as the main culprit in corrupting our political system.

I would add that there only two ways of overturning Citizens United: 1] a US Constitutional amendment (good luck with that!); 2] a subsequent SCOTUS decision overturning Citizens United. #2 is possible in the medium turn – as long as progressives understand that the main goal in any presidential or senatorial election should be the defeat of Republicans who appoint extremist SCOTUS justices. Casting symbolic "protest" votes for impotent third party candidates who have no chance of winning has only led to more justices like Alito and Kavanaugh.

[lyledebeast]

August 14: Crawl (2019)

Ok it probably has as many erroneous statements about alligators as it has alligators, but I had a lot of fun with this. Either there was some alligator-related gore cut out, or I am better at handling it than I used to be. Progress!

Overall, this is a funny and sweet father-daughter movie. The cast is amazing, but the casting director seems to have gone out of their way to find the least Floridian people possible: Kaya Scodelario (British), Morfydd Clark (Welsh), and Barry Pepper (Canadian).

Sometimes it's just reassuring to have a film that reinforces your view of the world. This reinforces my commitment to never living in or even visiting a place with a climate and landscape hospitable to alligators. They are an important part of the ecosystems in which they dwell, and I support conservation efforts to keep them where they belong. Away. From. Me!!

[biodiversityday]

Nairobi Observance of the International Day for Biodiversity 2024.

The United Nations has proclaimed May 22 as International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. When first created by the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly in late 1993, 29 December (the date of entry into force of the Convention of Biological Diversity), was designated. In December 2000, the UN General Assembly adopted 22 May as IDB, to commemorate the adoption of the text of the Convention on 22 May 1992 by the Nairobi Final Act of the Conference for the Adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This was partly done because it was difficult for many countries to plan and carry out suitable celebrations for the date of 29 December, given the number of holidays that coincide around that time of year.

Watch the International Day for Biodiversity Celebrations!

[harriswalz4usabybr]

Speech Vice President Harris gave in Buffalo, NY!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ilana Berger at MMFA:

Right-wing youth organization Turning Point USA's political advocacy arm Turning Point Action is hosting a convention this weekend in Detroit, which will feature an array of seasoned climate deniers and conspiracy theorists as speakers. The People’s Convention will run from June 14 to June 16. For his part, TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk has repeatedly claimed that climate change is a hoax and spread false claims about extreme weather and climate change initiatives. He has said that “climate change [as a] political issue” is “the biggest threat to our civilization” and pushed the Great Reset conspiracy theory to his TPUSA audience. Kirk recently lashed out at another conservative organization, the Young America’s Foundation, for taking issue with the GOP's non-existent climate platform.

The headliner at this weekend’s event is former President Donald Trump, who (in addition to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and rolling back nearly 100 other environmental protection policies during his term) has repeatedly minimized or denied the threat of climate change, most recently saying that sea level rise would be a good thing because it would create more beachfront property. He has also gone after renewable energy, claiming at one rally last September that “windmills are causing whales to die” and “driving them crazy.” Other speakers at The People’s Convention — such as Candace Owens, Jack Posobiec, and Benny Johnson — have also spread climate denial or made misleading claims about climate change and the policies attempting to address it.

Turning Point Action’s The People’s Convention will have speakers espousing climate denialism.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[bumblebeeappletree]

Day 7 at COP27 was a big day for demonstrations, as activists convened at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Center to protest, demanding climate action and loss and damage reparations.

This video was created in collaboration with Nature's Newsroom.

#Earth #Environment #ClimateCrisis #NowThis

[unforth]

Y'all I know that when so-called AI generates ridiculous results it's hilarious and I find it as funny as the next guy but I NEED y'all to remember that every single time an AI answer is generated it uses 5x as much energy as a conventional websearch and burns through 10 ml of water. FOR EVERY ANSWER. Each big llm is equal to 300,000 kiligrams of carbon dioxide emissions.

LLMs are killing the environment, and when we generate answers for the lolz we're still contributing to it.

Stop using it. Stop using it for a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. We need to kill it.

Sources:

[worldecologyday]

Principle 1 - Ecosystem restoration contributes to the SDGs and the goals of the Rio Conventions.

Restoration projects, programmes and initiatives at all spatial scales, from individual sites to large landscapes and seascapes, play an essential role in achieving ambitious global targets for sustaining life on Earth. Successful ecosystem restoration aims to contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seek to end poverty, conserve biodiversity, combat climate change and improve livelihoods for everyone, everywhere. The SDGs are unlikely to be met unless ecosystem degradation is stopped and ecosystem restoration is undertaken at cumulative scales of hundreds of millions of hectares globally. Effective restoration simultaneously supports achievement of the biodiversity, climate and land-degradation neutrality goals of the Rio Conventions – CBD, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – and allied global initiatives. Preventing, halting and reversing ecosystem degradation, as a contribution to global targets, is a shared responsibility among all public and private sectors and stakeholders at local, national and international levels.

[tomorrowusa]

Texas is still suffering from power outages triggered by Hurricane Beryl which dissipated a week ago.

More than a week after Hurricane Beryl swept through Texas and left millions without power, nearly 60,000 people in the state still do not have electricity. The issue is more than an inconvenience, as many in the state have faced a deadly days-long heat wave that claimed its latest victim on Tuesday. Local news reported that a woman was found dead in her apartment after spending the last eight days in her home without electricity and air conditioning. The heat index in Houston had climbed to 110F (43F) the day her body was discovered. With the power issue lingering and more than a dozen deaths now linked to the heat, frustrations in Houston have started to boil over - particularly as the forecasts for the coming days warn of high temperatures. Armed residents living without electricity have reportedly harrassed and threatened workers from CenterPoint Energy, the local energy provider, who have been sent out to restore power. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement saying that CentrePoint Energy "has lost the faith and trust of Texans". He issued a July 31 deadline for the company to respond to questions about what went wrong and what can be done to mitigate hurricane damage to the electric grid.

Climate-denying Republican Gov. Greg Abbott followed that Texas GOP tradition of leaving the state whenever climate causes a disaster leading to misery and death for residents. We remember Sen. Ted Cruz heading to Cancún when a winter storm caused the state's separate power grid to collapse.

Gov. Abbott went to Milwaukee to attend the GOP convention to brag about himself sending busloads of migrants to Chicago.

Gov. Abbott says Texas will continue busing migrants to Chicago during RNC speech

Those migrants are being sent north with taxpayer money in air conditioned buses while Abbott's Texas constituents are dropping dead from the heat.

Abbott himself was enjoying the moderate climate of the Upper Midwest where the high temperature in Milwaukee on Thursday is expected to be a refreshing 75° F/24° C. No place in southeastern Wisconsin will even make it to 80° today.

Abbott and other MAGA Republicans will be celebrating the climate policies of the Orange Dear Leader whose election would guarantee even more climate disasters for the Lone Star State.

Trump asks Big Oil for $1B in campaign cash

^^^ just sayin'

[trendynewsnow]

The Stakes of Election Day: Democracy vs. Authoritarianism

What Does It Mean When We Say “Democracy Is on the Ballot” on Election Day? In a powerful address delivered on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Vice President Kamala Harris spoke from the same location near the White House where former President Donald Trump incited an insurrection against the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Harris framed the upcoming Election Day as a critical juncture, emphasizing the…

[calicojack1718]

Does Johnson's Withdrawal from the 1968 Election Have Anything to Teach Us About Biden's Impending Withdrawal from Election 2024

NBC News headlines on Saturday 20 July: Biden’s fixing to drop out of the race. I don’t know about you, but waking up to these headlines, leaves me feeling just a wee bit depressed. It looks like it is just a matter of time before Biden is out of the race. It defies all reasoning and logic to push Biden out of the race unless there is a VERY GOOD REASON. For the life of me, I can’t find one…