Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

Movement building

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Canceling the Debts of Global South Nations: A Necessary Part of the Worldwide Climate Effort – Part 2

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Actually, it is the Global North (GN) that should be repaying the Global South (GS). The countries of the GN have been stealing resources from the GS, or taking them while only paying a fraction of their cost, for centuries. The global systems of trade and finance are set up to extract profits from the Global South. Social scientists have found that the flow of resources and labor from the GS to the GN now equals $2.2 trillion per year. Furthermore, the damage to the agriculture, health, housing, infrastructure, etc. of the nations of the GS from climate change so far Is in the trillions of dollars and can be seen as part of the debt the GN owes the GS.

Debt cancellation is not rare. ,,,

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Why Hasn’t Climate Action Made More Difference?

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There’s a lot of good news about the growth of electricity generation by solar panels and wind turbines around the world, the increase in electrifying heating and cooling of buildings, and the increased adoption of electric vehicles. Millions of people are working hard to solve the climate crisis and enable humanity to transition to a carbon-free energy systems and sustainable economies.

Yet global warming continues to increase and the predictions about the climate disasters we can expect in the future are dire. Why are the projections still so bleak when we’ve made and are making so much progress?

There is one clear answer: the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry has ….

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Climate Activists and Small Nations Making a Difference in Their Nations and at COP28

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I’ve been excited to learn recently about three different powerful climate activist campaigns, two of which have led to actions at COP28. As I write this it’s too early to know what the COP itself will produce, but so far much of the news seems to indicate that we have not yet built a sufficiently powerful climate movement, either in the U.S. or globally, to derail the power of the fossil fuel industry and its accomplices.

Here’s some good news. A month ago I wrote to you about a vital campaign to stop the climate-destroying expansion of LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast in the U.S. This campaign is growing. In late November activists delivered more than 200,000 petition signatures to the Department of Energy calling for the Biden Administration to halt any permit approvals for new LNG terminals. At the behest of Third Act, elders are writing thousands of hand-written letters. Young influencers are using TikTok and Instagram to spread the word.

The Biden Administration has made no announcements about any change in policy, but they’ve indicated privately that they are seriously studying their response to this uproar. If you haven’t signed the petition yet, please join in on what has become an international protest and sign the petition. It’s at www.bit.ly/NoNewLNG. Organizers are now seeking a million signatures. (Note: The count you will see on the signing website includes only a fraction of the signatures so far.)

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Can we handle the harsh climate truth?

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When I was in Manhattan for New York Climate Week in late September I met climate author and activist Margaret Klein Salamon for the first time. Margaret played a key role some years ago in getting activists, and then much of the press and many political leaders to use the term “climate emergency.” In 2016 she wrote an influential paper titled “Leading the Public into Emergency Mode: A New Strategy for the Climate Movement.” That paper had a big impact on my own thinking and I’ve long admired her work, so I felt especially honored to get to meet her and talk with her.

She gave me a copy of her new book “Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth.” Reading it has been quite an experience for me. On the one hand, I find it deeply reassuring that someone else understands how serious the climate situation is and knows that we are going to have to feel a lot of feelings in order to engage fully with it. At the same time, I’m asking myself, “Am I living my life as though we are in an emergency? Or am I still trying to have a business-as-usual lifestyle that’s inappropriate to our times?”

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March to End Fossil Fuels

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This past Sunday I participated in the “March to End Fossil Fuels” in New York City. What an exhilarating experience! Thousands of people jammed the streets of New York to demand an end to fossil fuels. People of different races and ages came together to show how much they care about what climate change is doing to our world and its inhabitants. There was chanting, singing, drumming and dancing. Voices were united in “What do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!”

It’s estimated that over 75,000 people marched in New York. New York’s grassroots organizations and people from frontline communities headed up the march. Black, Indigenous, Latinex, Asian and Pacific Islander groups led the procession, followed by youth, elders, workers, people of faith, and people of all backgrounds. According to Oil Change International, this was only one of more than 700 end-fossil-fuel actions in 65 countries, with more than 600,000 people participating just in the past week.

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Smoke and Solidarity

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A little more than two weeks ago, my adult daughter called me and asked what I was doing. I told her I was working on a project in my yard. She said, “Have you seen the Air Quality Index (AQI)?” When I said I hadn’t, she said it was over 100 in my area in New England and suggested I stop working outside. When I looked up the AQI online, I learned that over 100 is considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The next day it hit 163 near me, which is in the “unhealthy” range for everyone. The average for this area is under 40.

As many of us are now aware, the elevated air pollution was from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia, Canada. Climate change has led to abnormally dry, hot weather in much of Canada for months and turned normally lush forests into tinder boxes of fire danger. Over 160 wildfires were burning in Quebec with 114 of them “out of control.” Winds carried the smoke to much of northeastern United States, blanketed New York City, and reached as far south as North Carolina.

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“Dangerous Radicals”

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If earlier reports from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were wake-up calls to take climate action, the one released in early April is a blaring emergency horn that the world dare not ignore. In a statement accompanying the report, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the failure of governments and corporations to keep pledges and take effective climate action has “put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world.”

The report indicates that in order to keep global warming within the 1.5°C target, greenhouse gas emissions can continue to rise for only 3 more years. They must fall 43% by 2030. The scientists report that this is still possible, but that unless transformative climate action is taken in the next 8 years, the 1.5°C target will be out of reach forever. Unless countries step up their reductions in emissions, we are on course for a global temperature rise of 2.4°C to 3.5°C. This would bring unimaginable devastation to populations everywhere.

I have not plowed through the entire 3,675 pages of this latest report, but in the summaries and articles about it there are items of good news. The first is ….

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An Arrest While Protesting Climate Inaction … and GMI

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Last Wednesday I was arrested in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. while participating in a “People vs. Fossil Fuels” protest action. We are demanding that President Biden keep promises he made during the presidential campaign and use his executive power to 1) end federal support for fossil fuel projects, 2) declare a national climate emergency, 3) speed the end of the fossil fuel era, and 4) launch a just, renewable energy revolution.

We engaged in non-violent, intentional civil disobedience to …

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“A Code Red for Humanity” Calling for “Solidarity and Courage”

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“A code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening and the evidence is irrefutable.” This is UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s description of the most recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The August 9th report is “a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks” compiled by 234 scientists from 66 countries, who reviewed over 14,000 studies from thousands of scientists around the world.

Their findings include :

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Local Climate Action Drives the Movement Forward

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On a number of occasions, I’ve encouraged you who read my blog to join a local climate organization and get involved in some project with them. A problem as large and systemic as the climate crisis is not going to be solved by individuals acting alone. There is power in numbers.

I thought you might be interested to know what my experience has been in getting involved with a local climate organization, and also to learn how one small organization has made a difference and contributed to the larger climate movement.

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