JOHN MIKSAD – Martin Luther King was correct when he said we will either learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools. The choice is ours.
Category: September 2023
Fridays for Future: Greta’s school strikes led a third of Swiss citizens to change their habits
ANGELA SYMONS – ‘Collective action can have a direct effect on society’, study on climate strikes shows.
Ecuador Just Showed the World What It Means To Take Climate Change Seriously
NICK GOTTLIEB – Ecuador just showed the world what it means to take climate change, biodiversity loss, and Indigenous sovereignty seriously, all with one national referendum, and at significant cost in a country wrestling with the challenging reality of being a resource producer in the Global South.
Fact Checking Biden’s UN Speech: Words Versus Action
TED SNIDER – US President Joe Biden’s speech before the General Assembly on September 19 spent surprisingly little time on Russia and the war in Ukraine and, in many ways, hit many of the right notes with its praise of “Sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights . . . the core tenets of the U.N. Charter, the pillars of peaceful relations among nations. . ..” But America’s past performance on these very issues weaken the persuasiveness and sincerity of the appeal.
New York University will divest from fossil fuels in win for student activists
DHARNA NOOR – New York University plans to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned, following years of pressure from student activists.
Celebrate September 21, the International Day of Peace
TOM H. HASTINGS – Dwight Eisenhower, broadcast with Prime Minister Macmillan in London, 8/31/1959, said, “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
Small reactors at Hanford: Déjà vu all over again
JOHN ABBOTTS – Will small reactors be the vehicle by which Energy Northwest “rhymes” with its earlier nuclear fiasco? Stay tuned.
Saudi Arabia: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?
KATHY KELLY – Rather than normalize militarism and human rights abuses, the United States should seek, always and everywhere, to salvage the planet and respect human rights.
From the Partial Test Ban Treaty to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World
LAWRENCE S. WITTNER – As the Partial Test Ban Treaty and its successors show us, arms control and disarmament treaties have helped to curb the nuclear arms race and prevent nuclear war. Similarly, the revived march toward nuclear catastrophe can be halted by finally banning nuclear weapons―if people will demand it.
Project 2025: A 5-Alarm Fire Bell for Our Republic
THOM HARTMANN – The merger of billionaire wealth with partisan Republican governance—and their combined efforts to reshape our government in their own corrupt image, the public be damned—threaten the integrity and future of the American experiment.
From Montana to the Amazon, Let’s Remember to Celebrate Climate Victories
KWOLANNE FELIX – Climate advocacy is arduous, thankless work. But recent wins in the courtroom and at the ballot box give Kwolanne Felix hope.
Oppenheimer’s “Triumph” Destroyed Him; Will It Destroy Us Too?
WINSLOW MYERS – The anguish of Robert Oppenheimer, who unleashed destruction beyond measure and then tried his best to stop its further spread, reminds us that America bears special responsibility for creating the kind of world he hoped for, where the nuclear curse is finally lifted.
DOE’s error-ridden analysis on coal CCS project threatens climate and engagement goals
EMILY GRUBERT – Evaluating whether technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture provide more benefit than harm is a critical activity for the U.S. on our decarbonization journey. The risks are large, and serious. The analyses we need are nuanced and require careful attention: this cannot be a “check the box exercise.” Not taking this seriously risks potentially trillions of dollars and billions of tonnes of GHG emissions, not to mention the trust and goodwill of the American public, which is reasonably skeptical of these potentially critically important technologies. The Project Tundra EA is shocking, with scary implications for doing this right. We must do better, and we must demand better.
One Day for Labor Is Not Enough
ANDREW MOSS – The state of labor this year is so fraught, so weighted with issues and problems, that a single day of homage and reflection doesn’t seem enough. It’s as if a year or more is needed to engage the issues, challenges, and possibilities facing American workers today.
Activists Now Have 104,000 Signatures to Put “Stop Cop City” on the Ballot
MIKE LUDWIG – Worried that city officials will reject large numbers of signatures, organizers have collected far more than required.