Stephan: John Kerry is so right. He knows the data, he is an ethical man, and he is telling the truth. The United States is just not preparing properly for he future, and it is going to cause an incredible amount of unnecessary misery and death. What has happened with Covid, and the rise of the Anti-vaxxer, Anti-masker death cult is going to be the model of the future. There is a part of the population that is not influenced by facts, and what makes these individuals notable is that they are not capable of rational thought.
U.S. special climate envoy, John Kerry speaks during the COP26 climate change conference on November 10, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Jeff J Mitchell / Getty
John Kerry, the first United States special presidential envoy for climate, said that the world is “not on a good track” in its goal of avoiding the worst effects of climate change, Reuters reported. Kerry said actions to move away from fossil fuels must be strengthened this decade.
On Monday, Kerry addressed “Building Momentum to UN COP27,” an event hosted by officials from Egypt — who will host the next UN climate summit — and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re in trouble, I hope everybody understands that. Not trouble we can’t get out of, but we’re not on a good track,” Kerry said, as The Hill reported.
Kerry expressed concern regarding the recent increase in global coal use and about plans for the building of new coal plants that don’t use carbon capture technology, reported Reuters.
Stephan: Stories are beginning to emerge revealing a trend of growing awareness of the correlation of water and migration. SR has been following this for a decade (see SR archives), and my predictions are becoming realities. Water is destiny.
As climate change accelerates a global water crisis, rainfall variability is expected to be one of the contributing forces in future migration, according to a new World Bank report. It reveals that it is a lack of water, rather than too much, that has a greater impact on migration.
The report, Ebb and Flow, examines the link between water and migration, and the implications for economic development. Researchers say that water deficits were linked to ten percent of the increase in total migration within countries between 1970 and 2000. By the end of this century, worsening droughts are projected to affect about 700 million people. Seventeen countries that are home to 25 percent of the world population already face high levels of water stress.
Climate shocks have a disproportionate impact on the developing world, with more than 85 percent of people affected living in low- or middle-income countries. Yet, say the report authors, it is often the poor who cannot afford to leave. The report finds that residents of poor countries are four times less likely to move than residents […]
Stephan: We are watching the 2022 election being rigged by the White Supremacy Republicans in front of our eyes so that they stay in power. This is the 11th and fiftieth minute for American Democracy,
“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared last year.
Facts on the ground in Georgia tell a different story. A new data analysis by Mother Jones shows that the number of voters disenfranchised by rejected mail ballot applications skyrocketed after the GOP-controlled legislature passed sweeping new restrictions on mail voting last year. The law enacted in March 2021 shortened the time people have to request and return mail ballots, prohibited election officials from sending such applications to all voters, added new ID requirements, and dramatically curtailed the use of ballot drop boxes, among other changes.
During municipal elections in November, Georgia voters were 45 times more likely to have their mail ballot applications rejected—and ultimately not vote as a result—than in 2020. If that same rejection rate were extrapolated to the 2020 race, more than 38,000 votes would not have been cast in a presidential contest decided by just over 11,000 votes.
In November 2021, Georgians who successfully obtained mail ballots were also twice as […]
Stephan: 333 million Americans, men, women, and children, had their lives degraded because of this single corrupt man, and a single woman, Sinema from Arizona.
Sen. Joe Manchin on a phone call in a hallway just outside the Senate Chamber, after speaking on the floor of the Senate, on Capitol Hill on January 19, 2022, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times / Getty
After he announced in December he would not be supporting President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act, Sen. Joe Manchin’s political action committee received the maximum allowable contribution from billionaire Republican donor Ken Langone.
The Hill reported late Friday that the wealthy investor, who supported former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, gave $5,000 to Manchin’s Country Roads PAC less than two weeks after the right-wing Democratic senator from West Virginia said he would not join his party in supporting the president’s agenda.
Langone’s wife also contributed $5,000 to the PAC, while other political donations the megadonor made around the same time went to the Koch family-backed Americans for Prosperity Action and the Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC.
As Common Dreamsreported in November, Langone praised Manchin’s “guts and courage” for standing in the way […]
Nina Lakhani , Climate justice reporter - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: I predicted 10 years ago, having lived in Arizona, and having studied the climate data, that climate change was going to make Phoenix unlivable. I was sneered at in print, and to my face. Well, 10 years later we have come to this, and we are only at the beginning of what is coming. I have told you, I think there are going to be three major internal migrations: away from coasts because of too much water; out of the Southwest, because of too little water and temperatures that are too high; out of the central states because of massive weather event disasters. Millions are going to be affected by these changes, and we simply are not making the preparations that should be put in place.
Temperatures in Phoenix are becoming deadly. Credit: Ralph Freso/Getty
A surge in heat-related deaths amid record-breaking summer temperatures offers a “glimpse into the future” and a stark warning that one of America’s largest cities is already unlivable for some, according to its new heat tsar.
Almost 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110F (43C) compared with a previous high of 33 days. Last year there were fewer scorching days, but the death toll remained staggeringly high, with people experiencing homelessness and addictions dying disproportionately.
Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is accustomed to a hot desert climate, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.
Scorching temperatures have made summers increasingly perilous for the city’s 1.4 million people, with mortality and morbidity rates creeping up over the past two decades, but 2020 was a gamechanger when heat related deaths jumped by about 60%.
