Climate justice

By
Dr. Luis Contreras
-
713

Burning the forests and fracking the land, the U.S. claims to lead the world

The United Nations COP 25 climate summit ended last Saturday after two weeks of difficult discussions. Little progress was made.

The stage was set by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who tweeted on Nov. 4, 2019, “Today we begin the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The U.S. is proud of our record as a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens. Ours is a realistic and pragmatic model.” Pompeo and the GOP live in an imaginary world where oil, wars and weapons trump people and life, using lies to hide the facts. A strange, terrible world.

Highway to hell

Carbon emissions are increasing, and average global temperatures are rising. Global temperature has increased 1.0°C higher than the 1951-1980 base period. We are getting close to the 1.5°C limit and people are already dying.

This should not be surprising. The world’s production of oil and gas has increased, investing $1.9 trillion since the December 2015 Paris Agreement. Many forests are burning, and the Alaska Tongass Rainforest is at high risk of deforestation.

Procrastination

When Dr. James Hansen testified in 1988 before the U.S. Senate, he warned the government about extreme weather events and the need to limit carbon dioxide emissions. Hansen saw a dangerous future. His predictions were accurate, but his advice was ignored.

Pope Francis has a clear message, care for the planet and care for the poor. Climate justice recognizes the rights of all people to live in peace and safety and demands wealthy countries to share the efforts to protect the poor.

Worldwide emergency

Climate change is not about money or energy. Money is printed in the Treasury, lost in the Pentagon, and there are superior sources of energy.

Fracking the land for oil and gas and burning the forests to export wood pellets is not realistic nor pragmatic, they are false climate solutions and criminal behavior.

A country claiming to lead the world can’t ignore the rest of the people. The “citizens” Pompeo mentions are American middle-class families paying more than $300 billion for the $28 billion farmers’ bailout, the $250 billion import tariffs, and $25 billion for lost markets. With rising unemployment benefit claims, a two-year high for the week of Dec. 7, the “booming” economy is full of gas.

Ironically, the farmers’ bailout and the $738 billion military expenses will increase the GDP. Trump will claim the best economy in history!

Pompeo claims the U.S. leads the world fostering resilience. What exactly is he talking about? Our roads, bridges, levees, dams, power grid with overhead transmission lines and chain link fences securing power stations, and the lack of electric trains and mass transportation systems are not designed for extreme weather.

Pompeo chooses to ignore “everything is connected to everything else.” When Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro ignites fires in the Amazon Rainforest so to export beef and extract minerals, the lost moisture of the forest creates droughts in North America.

Burning U.S. forests

More than 8 million metric tons of wood pellets per year are burned overseas to generate electric power. The U.K. Drax power station burning Enviva wood pellets is now claiming to be carbon negative in response to environmental groups calling their bluff. Seedlings take years to grow into trees and capture carbon dioxide, we are out of time. Today, wood pellets are not renewable or carbon neutral.

Wildland forests

Dr. William Moomaw of Tufts University says the worldview has changed from 100-year forest plans to first aid for the climate emergency. Forests have the potential for much higher carbon sequestration rates if left alone to grow older and larger. Unmanaged, old-growth forests store more carbon.

Please watch Humanity’s Mortality Moment for natural climate solutions on YouTube.

Rise up

Climate justice promises greater well-being for all. Let’s respond to the climate emergency and act now to preserve life on Earth, our common home.

Please visit earthjustice.org and send a comment to save the Alaska Rainforest.

Dr. Luis Contreras

11 COMMENTS

  5. Emission targets and carbon price were pushed back to the 2020 COP 26

    The much anticipated COP25 came to a close last Sunday with a lack of cohesive action.

    Despite the release of 2018 statistics revealing global warming is still on the up, the biggest polluting nations failed to present their planned increased efforts to stem climate change.

    While a compromise was reached on smaller elements, the anticipated updated plans of the biggest nations like China, India, and the US, was pushed back to next year’s COP26 in Glasgow, as was the decision around a global carbon market.

    https://cleantechnica.com/2019/12/17/cop25-agreement-on-a-carbon-market-pushed-back-for-another-year/

  8. World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency

    Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.”

    On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from around the world, clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.

    https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806

  9. Burning wood is not a climate change solution

    December 14, 2019 – For three years in a row, Congress has passed a budget rider falsely declaring forest biomass energy as “carbon neutral.” Now its supporters in the Senate are trying again — as if they can legislate the laws of nature.

    Similarly, thanks to loopholes in arcane United Nations (UN) accounting rules, greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union (EU) from burning wood pellets imported from the U.S. aren’t counted against Paris commitments by either the US or the EU.

    Stopping climate change will be difficult, but we’ll never do it if we allow ourselves to be deceived into investing in “solutions” which we know aren’t good enough. Our elected officials should reject any effort to treat burning forests for electricity the same as truly clean energy like solar and wind.

    Philip B. Duffy, Ph.D., is the president and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center.

    https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/474593-burning-wood-is-not-a-climate-change-solution

  10. Humanity’s Mortality Moment by Dr. William Moomaw

    Proforestation is a way of protecting old-growth forests, the best carbon sinks and biodiversity ecosystems. Moomaw uses science to challenge traditional forest management practices designed to sell timber.

    “Natural climate solutions” are based on respecting Nature.

    Ecologists understand “Mother Nature knows best”

    No one knows how to make a tree … but forests are harvested with heavy machinery and burned in the U.K.

    https://youtu.be/oE6nRUw4kO0

  11. COP 25 Shows Big Emitters Betraying People Across the World

    “Invigorated by the U.S. withdrawal and rising nationalism at home, Brazil, Australia, and Saudi Arabia defended loopholes and opposed commitments to enhance climate action,” Climate Home News writes.

    “Other big emitters such as China and India insisted on the delivery of finance and support promised by rich countries before 2020 as a precondition to any discussion on enhancing their current targets.

    https://theenergymix.com/2019/12/16/disgraceful-cop-25-shows-big-emitters-betraying-people-across-the-world/

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