#climate pledges

[thoughtlessarse]

Temperature records are being broken around the world as a global heat wave grips four continents, putting the world on track for the hottest summer in over 2,000 years. Cities around the world are suffering through temperatures above 40° C (104° F), with excessive heat in Mecca alone killing at least 1,000 people attending the Hajj pilgrimage. Through this dangerous heat, millions of workers are forced to continue laboring in sweltering temperatures. Workers in the United States who spoke with the WSWS reported working through temperatures reaching well over 100° F (37.7° C) without air conditioning or even fans. The heat wave is partially attributable to El Niño, a warming cycle that brings hotter temperatures around the world. But climate scientists have noted that the extreme heat has been made far more likely by climate change. Last year, 2023, was the hottest year on record, with 2024 already exceeding last year’s temperatures. The past 11 months were the hottest recorded in history, reaching more than 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial averages. A warming planet, even by just a few degrees on average, has massive effects on the environment. The threshold of 1.5 degrees is a critical milestone. Scientists have projected that if average global temperatures remain 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, climate change may become irreversible and fuel even more severe natural disasters. Johan Rockström, joint director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, told Earth.org in April: [W]hat happened in 2023 was nothing close to 2016, the second-warmest year on record. It was beyond anything we expected, and no climate models can reproduce what happened. And then 2024 starts, and it gets even warmer. We cannot explain these [trends] yet, and it makes scientists that work on Earth resilience like myself very nervous. Already, global warming has had devastating consequences throughout the world. The World Meteorological Organization reported last year that a staggering 489,000 people died from heat-related causes every year between 2000 and 2019—or nearly 10 million people over two decades. In the face of runaway global temperatures, capitalist governments are moving to abandon their meager and insufficient climate pledges altogether. Scotland, which pledged to reduce emissions by 75 percent by 2030, scrapped the entire program in April. On June 3, Germany’s climate adviser declared that the country’s limited climate goals of 30 percent reductions for 2030 were out of reach. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticized climate goals as “unaffordable eco-zealotry,” while UK Labour leader Keir Starmer dropped his proposal for a 28 billion pound ($35.3 billion) per year green energy program. These developments follow the COP 28 climate summit last December, when government officials and corporate executives met in the United Arab Emirates. The event was chaired by Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the CEO of the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), effectively turning it into a trade show for the fossil fuel industry.

continue reading

[gwydionmisha]

Nations made bold climate pledges. They aren’t close to meeting them.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

Atrade association that lobbies on behalf of the largest banks in the United States told regulators that their members’ pledges to reduce investments in carbon-emitting industries are “aspirational,” implying that they shouldn’t be taken seriously by authorities.

The Bank Policy Institute made the remarks in public comments on guidelines proposed earlier this year by federal bank regulators, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), on climate-related risk management. Specifically, the lobbying group rejected the notion floated by the agencies that regulations should ensure banks’ greenhouse gas commitments to the public “are consistent with their internal strategies and risk appetite statements.”

“The final guidance with respect to public communications should recognize the aspirational nature of external commitments and the fact that these commitments and plans will need to adapt over time as data and methodologies improve and external circumstances change,” the organization said.

The institute urged regulators to “establish realistic expectations with respect to public statements” and said the government “should calibrate its expectations as to the granularity between external statements and internal risk appetite statements accordingly.”

The remarks contrast with public comments on the same subject matter submitted by other trade associations, which plainly said that rulemaking on banks’ public commitments could prohibit lying and misleading statements.

[suburbanbonfire]

t-shirt that reads "I released the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena and all I got was massive structural damage" (Prints here!)

[doublescribble]

Tianna Hawkins and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu

[paracunt]

Paramore perform at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington (2023) by Sarina Solem

[musicandotherstuff]

Alex Turner - Climate Pladge Arena, Seattle

September 22, 2023

📸: Alex Ayala

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

I should not have looked that up

[notastumph]

but i digress 💅✨️

seattle - march 1st, 2024

[woman-respecter]

have you been to any concerts recently? been really wanting to go to one but nothing really caught my eyes (or ears) this year music-wise

went to vampire weekend literally yesterday! it was excellent, theyre always great performers, though i was disappointed they didn’t play many songs from modern vampires (they change the setlist every show.) i’m going to see weezer in october too, they’ll be playing the blue album from start to finish

[stillfertile]

“Larsson is the gayest!” “McCann is the gayest!”

I think we are sleeping on the faggot that was John Forslund talking to Olczyk tonight:

(audio and video cuts in mid-conversation) “-you and I would look great in the carousel…oh sorry go ahead”

“I might have to hogtie you for a few days”

“……but my partner has a different viewpoint”

[knivesareout]

seattle kraken vs. toronto maple leafs january 21, 2024 climate pledge arena canon z135 on kodak ultramax 400

[rjzimmerman]

Here’s the link to the Sierra Club report about electric utilities, their progress toward renewable energy and their climate “pledge.” The report is entitled, “The Dirty Truth About Utility Climate Pledges (Version 2)” dated October 2022.

Excerpt from this story from Sierra Club:

The next decade is critical to averting the worst impacts of the climate crisis and transforming our economy to run entirely on clean energy.

Studies show that unless utilities retire all their coal plants by 2030, abandon all plans to build gas plants, and aggressively build out renewable energy resources, we risk destabilizing our livable climate. Despite this pressing deadline, utilities are either not moving fast enough toward these goals, or not moving at all.

Dozens of utilities may have pledged to become “carbon neutral” by 2050, but research conducted by the Sierra Club in its inaugural Dirty Truth Report showed that nearly all utilities in the United States lack the plans needed to move toward clean energy in the time frame needed to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. In an update to that report a year and a half later, Sierra Club found that most utilities have continued to drag their feet, making little progress in the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Some infographics from the Dirty Truth report:

[doublescribble]

Kelsey Plum and Ezi Magbegor

[paracunt]

Paramore perform at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington (2023) by Sarina Solem