GST Original Articles
By Robert Hunziker / 06 December 2019
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For tens of thousands of years the Arctic’s carbon sink has been a powerful dynamic in functionality of the Earth System. However, that all-important functionality has been crippled and could be permanently severed. According to new research based upon field observations conducted from 2003 to 2017, a large-scale carbon emission shift in the Earth System has occurred.
The “entire Arctic” now emits more carbon than it absorbs, a fact that can only be described as worse than bad news. “Given... Read more
By Brian Tokar / 05 December 2019
The two-week marathon of the annual UN climate conference is underway in Madrid, and the world’s expectations have perhaps never been lower. The Amazon is burning and unprecedented storms are raging worldwide, but the world’s climate diplomats are still mostly talking business-as-usual. Never mind that this year’s 25th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC) almost didn’t happen, after it was disinvited by the fascistic Bolsonaro regime in Brazil and almost derailed... Read more
By Henry Robertson / 04 December 2019
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There is no shortage of plans for how to beat climate breakdown before it breaks down civilization. There is no shortage of action in the form of demonstrations. There is a shortage of action around a single realistic plan.
Most demonstrators are demanding that governments take action – governments that are bought and sold by the vested interests of fossil fuels and their profitable use. Governments get the job by default because most people don’t know exactly what they’re asking for.... Read more
By Robert Hunziker / 27 November 2019
China’s failure to kick a long-standing addiction to coal has thrown a knockout punch to the Paris Agreement of 2015, including its 195 signatories. Suddenly, out of the blue, the world has turned upside down!
Sixteen months ago July 16, 2018: “China and the European Union on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris climate change pact and called other signatories to do the same, saying action against rising global temperatures had become more important than ever.” (Source: China and EU... Read more
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More Reading Recommended by GST
By John McCollum / 14 December 2019
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The GND does not propose the creation of state ownership of utilities, much less agriculture, housing, or medical care. Similarly, the bill has provisions for energy upgrades through refurbishing existing buildings, environmental cleanup, and an unusual provision to “ensure businesspersons are free from unfair competition.. Without further establishing state ownership over these sectors, many of... Read more
By Jack Rasmus / 13 December 2019
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The core industrial working class backbone of those parties has thus been shipped offshore in the Neoliberal era and otherwise captured by nationalist appeals or who see nothing in it for them to vote for anyone. Social Democratic party leaders in recent decades have thus participated in, and presided over, the destruction of their own organizations and their own erstwhile political-electoral... Read more
By Lena Elmeligy / 12 December 2019
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On April 23, the government of King County, Washington released an executive order expressing the intention to ban deportation flights from passing through King County International Airport - Boeing Field. The decision, which left Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with one less facility for ground support, was won by years of local organizing by immigrant justice organizations.
By Kris De Decker / 11 December 2019
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How effective is individual action when it is systemic social change that is needed? Individuals do make choices, but these are facilitated and constrained by the society in which they live. Therefore, it may be more useful to question the system that requires many of us to travel and consume energy as we do....
Advances in energy efficiency have not resulted in lower energy demand, because they... Read more
By Alexander Zaitchik / 09 December 2019
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The chapter in Latin American history that opened in 1998 with celebrations in Venezuela has ended with a coup and violence in Bolivia. As with all tidal waves, the “pink tide” recedes to reveal a terrain transformed. The left movement landscape that produced variously striped socialist governments in a dozen countries is fractured and disillusioned. Central and South America face a resurgent... Read more
By Robert Jensen / 08 December 2019
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A decent human future—perhaps any human future at all—depends on our ability to come to terms with these limits.
The most prominent in the United States is the Green New Deal’s call for legislation that recognizes the severity of the ecological crises while advocating economic equality and social justice.
The problem is that the Green New Deal does rely on one bit of magical thinking—the... Read more
By Nicholas Kusnetz / 07 December 2019
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A surge in natural gas has helped drive down coal burning across the United States and Europe, but it isn't displacing other fossil fuels on a global scale. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are also failing to cut emissions fast enough, the report says, as much of their growth has provided new energy supplies instead of displacing fossil fuels.