In addition to false solutions, the COP meetings are becoming increasingly restrictive and repressive. Like the WTO, they take place behind barriers where access and activity are tightly controlled. There is no tolerance of dissent even as civil society sees the COP trading away the future of humanity and the planet as well as delaying real solutions.
The same things are happening within the United States. Although the Obama Administration claims to take the climate crisis seriously, their actions are actually making it worse. The Administration is promoting false and dirty solutions such as methane (a potent Greenhouse Gas euphemistally called 'natural') gas and nuclear energy and taking ineffective steps to curtail emissions. Obama's 'all of the above' energy strategy allows for carbon polluting and nuclear energy to continue while investing inadequately in efficient use of energy, as well as development of solar, wind, tidal and other sustainable energy solutions. Obama's Office of Management and Budget has also been intervening to weaken pollution standards.
Treaties like the TPP and TAFTA being negotiation by Obama will increase fracking and the export of coal, oil and gas. The US is in preparation to excavate land for tar sands extraction in Utah and Alabama even though that will permanently decimate the land and harm local communities while pouring more carbon into the air. The administration has approved the southern half of the Keystone Pipeline which is bringing tar sands from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico for processing and export. And the Obama Administration has approved seismic testing for off-shore oil drilling even though the testing will maim and kill marine mammals and the drilling will set the stage for more disasters like the BP leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
The recent EPA rules proposed by Obama which have been applauded by Big Green non-profits are totally inadequate. Ken Ward writes in Truthout that "the emissions scheme is near-to-useless as policy and comes embedded in a pro-gas and oil plan"." And Sean Sweeney of the new Trade Unions for Energy Democracy reports that progress in implementing sustainable energy is also inadequate. At a time when the climate crisis is here and we must mobilize quickly to mitigate and adapt to it, drastic and coordinated actions are necessary.
It's all connected
This is where the need for a 'movement of movements' to stop the Paris Treaty from being a boon to industry and a death blow for all living things comes in. There are solutions to the climate crisis, but like all other real solutions they will have to come from organized and mobilized people at the grassroots level.
Over the last several decades, there has been growing awareness of the climate crisis but somehow it was relegated to being an environmental issue and was ignored by groups working on other issues. This was a mistake and it's time to correct it. The climate crisis has its roots in the same soil as all of the other crises we face -- corporate domination of public policy and promotion of neo-liberal economic models that seek to own and enclose all things, goods and services for profit despite the harm this causes to people and the planet.
The climate crisis affects everything we care about beginning with the water we drink and the food we eat. According to the National Climate Assessment Report of 2014, water shortages are expected to worsen and the quality of water will be diminished. Cities particularly in the Southwest are draining their aquifers at unsustainable levels. Combined with the push to privatize municipal water, we can expect the price of water to rise and public access to decrease. Water shutoffs like we are seeing in Detroit will become more widespread. And climate change will lead to more crop failures, especially if Big Ag continues to dominate the food system and employ unsustainable practices that strip the soil of resiliency and plant mono-crops.
The climate crisis is already affecting human health from injuries and deaths due to extreme weather events, poor air quality and greater spread of infectious diseases. In addition, the Climate Report states that the climate crisis will lead to more stress and anxiety. The communities that are and will be most affected are those with fewer resources and political power - low income and people of color including Indigenous communities.
The assault on our civil liberties and increasing militarization are connected to the climate crisis. The Pentagon is studying the effects of climate change on civil unrest including how to predict and control such unrest. No doubt, we are seeing some of their tactics unfold in Ferguson, MO in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown. From police in full military attire in heavily armored vehicles shooting tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets at demonstrators to undermining the right to peaceful protest and press freedom.
The NSA, its allies and private corporations are engaged in widespread spying on people in the US, especially activists. This spying can be used to control the population. This year through the Pentagon's Minerva Program, experiments were conducted to manipulate the public through social media. And investigative reporter Dr. Nafeez Ahmed recently exposed new tools that are being developed to track and possibly kill activists.
Military conflicts are largely driven by access to dwindling fossil fuel reserves and other resources. Rather than promoting the development of sustainable energy sources which would be produced locally and would reduce Greenhouse Gases, Big Oil's influence is fueling military escalation in Gaza, Iraq and Ukraine. We can expect future wars over water and arable land.
Project Censored reports that the US military is the biggest polluter on the planet through its "uninhibited use of fossil fuels, massive creation of greenhouse gases, and extensive release of radioactive and chemical contaminants into the air, water, and soil." The US military also consumes the greatest portion of our federal spending, money that would create more jobs and be put to better use if it was spent on building a truly green economy.
This is just a surface examination of the ways in which these issues are related to the climate crisis. Perhaps the greatest connector of all is that if we don't act now to take real action to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change, our future existence on this planet is threatened.
The climate convergence
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