Earth Watch June 18: News from the epicenter of the environmental movement
‘Colossal Failure’: G7 Nations are talking the talk, but walking in circles on climate commitments
The G7 Summit, which brought together heads of state from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and Japan, wrapped up in Cornwall, England on Sunday, and although every official agreed that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, the G7 nations failed to commit even to shutting down coal-burning power plants. This is likely going to make it harder for the G7 to negotiate with large non-G7 economies such as China and Russia who are also major polluters and users of coal energy.
Why didn’t the G7 take aggressive action against coal power? The European nations lobbied hard to set an end date for coal power, but the United States resisted. President Biden is currently trying to get his infrastructure bill, The American Jobs Plan, through the U.S. Congress. To accomplish that without bypassing the filibuster, the White House needs the vote of Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the second-biggest coal-producing state in the U.S. Manchin recently told the New York Times, “fossil fuels, including coal, will be part of the global energy mix for decades to come.” As long as the White House continues to depend on Manchin’s support to pass their agenda, his close ties to the coal industry are implicated in the G7’s failure to take aggressive action to save the planet.
At the same time, the G7 also declined to approve new funding for many of the world’s poorer countries to help mitigate the impact of climate change on their citizens and to help decarbonize their economies. The G7 was met with widespread condemnation from all kinds of public interest groups. Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequality policy, said “Never in the history of the G7 has there been a bigger gap between their actions and the needs of the world. In the face of these challenges the G7 have chosen to cook the books on vaccines and continue to cook the planet. We don’t need to wait for history to judge this summit a colossal failure, it is plain for all to see."
Extreme heat, drought, wildfires and power outages are waging climate chaos across Western U.S. States
Much of the Western U.S. region is currently undergoing its worst drought in an estimated 1200 years, following other recent droughts around the world made worse and far likelier by accelerating climate change.
Across the region this June, temperatures have spiked at dangerous levels as high as 120F as more than 48 million people have been placed under heat advisory by the National Weather Service.
This extreme heat and drought threatens to bring another devastating wildfire season to states such as California, which last year had 5 of its 6 worst wildfires on record. This escalation of periodic wildfires has been undeniably made worse by global warming and the suppression of Indigenous Fire Sovereignty.
As a pre-emptive measure to prevent wildfires from starting or escalating out of control, major utilities such as PG&E in California are preparing to enforce power outages. Meanwhile in Texas, Ercot has already done so as millions of Texans put their AC on blast, stressing an already fragile energy grid. By some estimates, nearly one thousand people were killed by the power outages in Texas last winter, while fossil fuel executives hiked prices to profit from the emergency and people’s suffering.
In addition to the impacts of extreme heat, wildfires, and power outages, the ongoing drought is already having a major impact on both agriculture and wildlife in the region. One indication of the severity of the drought is that for the first time in more than 100 years, water from the Klamath Basin was not diverted to support irrigated farming in Klamath County of Southern Oregon, sparking protests against the federal government.
At the same time, the Klamath Tribe has reported that even without any water diverted for farming, “low flows from drought and previous mismanagement of the river by the federal agency was causing a die-off of juvenile salmon.” The salmon of Klamath basin - which are vital to the local ecosystem and Klamath livelihoods and culture - have already been greatly harmed by the basin’s drainage for the introduction of irrigation-intensive agriculture.
Both the colonial history of this water management system and escalating tensions amidst worsening drought underscore the urgent need for a water conservation approach which respects Indigenous Sovereignty, while facilitating the transition to a drought-resilient agriculture in the region which does not operate at the expense of Native peoples or ecosystems.
This summer, Branch Out will begin to implement drought-resilient carbon farming practices in neighboring Lake County, Oregon with the goal of developing a model to help solve this crisis. More information to come in the following weeks...
Pedro Castillo declares victory in Peru’s Presidential Election, vows to nationalize mining and oil profits
In Peru, Pedro Castillo of the left-wing Peru Libre party has declared victory in the Presidential election over Keiko Fujimori, the right-wing daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori who has been convicted of embezzlement and bribery related to his time in office. Castillo is the son of rural subsistence farmers, and he is a former school teacher turned socialist politician who gained prominence after leading a teacher’s strike in 2017. At the end of the count, Castillo is leading by more than 44,000 votes, but so far Keiko Fujimori has not conceded and alleges there was voter fraud.
On the campaign trail, Castillo promised to give the Peruvian people more control over mining, oil and gas industries that have routinely exploited the land and people of Peru. Castillo has taken a stance of nationalizing the profits from these projects so that the funds can go to social services benefiting the country rather than giant multinational corporations. He has not, however, advocated for shutting down oil and gas extraction in its entirety, a position that is scientifically necessary but politically much more divisive. A recent report in Dialogo Chino draws attention to the fact that neither Fujimori nor Castillo are true conservationists, and neither have a clear plan to protect the Peruvian rainforest and other natural features.
Also in the news…
The Bolsonaro Regime in Brazil is once again threatening to violate and suspend Indigenous land rights, sparking ongoing Indigenous protests to protect their homeland and a vital ecosystem. See Branch Out’s previous reporting on the ongoing crisis threatening the Amazon Rainforest and the Indigenous-led boycott movement to prevent imminent dieback.
‘To The Slaughterhouse’: Brazil’s Coronavirus Response Could Serve Millions To Jaws Of Capitalism
9 Ways You Can Help Save The Amazon Rainforest From Imminent Destruction By Boycotting Brazil