Murders of Latin American labor leaders anger unions and lawmakers

by PAI

People’s World | November 26, 2019

CWA President Chris Shelton, at microphone, joined by Congressman Chuy García at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol to call for stronger labor standards in Trump’s revised NAFTA bill. | CWA

WASHINGTON (PAI)—It’s still not safe to be a labor leader in Latin America, and that has Communications Workers President Chris Shelton, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, and four pro-worker U.S. House Democrats hopping mad.

As a result, all of them are demanding impartial investigations and changes in U.S. policy in response to the killings.

The most recent of the murders, and the most relevant, occurred in Mexico in the last several weeks, according to Shelton, Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, D-Ill., and their allies.

USA: Oaklanders march against homelessness and displacement

by Maryilyn Bechtel

People’s World | November 27, 2019

Youth Vs. Apocalypse said that organization’s issue – climate justice – is “in an intersectional relation to housing justice” because “the same corporate officials and systems of power” preventing transition to renewable energy are the same ones removing communities of color and poor communities from their homes. Marilyn Bechtel/PW

OAKLAND, Calif. – Cranes dot the sky here. Everywhere one looks, another tower rises, throwing its shadow over the homes of long-time residents. But these new high-rise dwellings are not intended for them, and more and more folks with decades-long roots in Oakland are being displaced to far-out suburbs and cities.

Or in all-too-many instances, being displaced to tents and improvised homes under freeway overpasses, in parking lots and empty spaces. Or even to a blanket under the open sky.

The coup in Bolivia has U.S. fingerprints all over it

by W. T. WHITNEY JR.

People’s World | November 22, 2019

Relatives mourn during the funeral of people killed by security forces at the San Francisco de Asis church in El Alto, outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2019. Police and soldiers on Tuesday escorted gasoline tankers from a major fuel plant that had been blockaded for five days opponents of the military coup that overthrew President Evo Morales. At least three people were reported killed by security forces. | Natacha Pisarenko / AP

The socialist government of Bolivian President Evo Morales took power in February 2006. He and Vice President Álvaro García Linare on Oct. 20 had been elected to their fourth terms in office. A coup culminating on Nov. 10 removed them—a coup that the U.S. government had a big role in bringing about.

A motive existed. The Morales government was vulnerable. And resources—read agents—were in place.

Bolivia’s socialist government had achieved successes and so represented the threat of a good example. Over many years, that’s been a motivating factor for other U.S. interventions. More immediately, Bolivia was bucking colonial or imperialist requirements that a dependent nation may not hold back on the delivery of wealth taken from nature. At issue this time was lithium, not the silver, tin, oil, or natural gas Bolivia has previously exported.

Climate crisis could reverse progress in achieving gender equality

by Nitya Rao

The Conversation | December 03, 2019

People who directly depend on the natural world for their livelihoods, like farmers and fishers, will be among the greatest victims of the climate crisis. In vulnerable hotspots, such as the arid lands of Kenya and Ethiopia, farming communities are already struggling with droughts and water scarcity that kill their cattle and threaten their very survival. The glacial-fed river basins of the Himalayan mountains, or the deltas of Bangladesh, India and Ghana, are increasingly prone to floods, landslides and powerful cyclones.

As a result, men are often migrating further to keep their families going, looking for casual work in neighbouring towns or villages for a few days or weeks at a time, or to cities further away. Many try to return home when they can, with whatever they have earned. But during their absence, the entire burden of maintaining the family is on women.

Decade ending 2019 likely to be the hottest on record, says WMO

 Countercurrents | December 04, 2019

Exceptional global heat driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mean this decade will most likely go down as the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which released its provisional statement on the State of the Global Climate on Tuesday.

‘We are in the warmest five-year period ever’

by DTE Staff

Down To Earth | December 01, 2019

 Photo: Getty Images

As the world descends on Madrid, Spain, for the 25th Conference of Parties (CoP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), they have a climate emergency to deal with. But the planet is yet to get a proportionate reaction from countries.

By 2019, countries should have been on track to meet the first round of their emission reduction targets declared under the 2015 Paris Agreement. But only six of the world’s top 20 polluting nations have succeeded so far.

Jammu and Kashmir farmers suffering due to rain, snow and lockdown

by Jitendra

Down To Earth | December 04, 2019

 An apple tree damaged due to unseasonal snowfall in Kashmir. Photo: RKMM

Farmers in the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu region are suffering due to a host of reasons including unseasonal weather and administrative shutdown, a farmers’ body said on November 26, 2019.

A three-member delegation of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Mahasangh (RKMM) visited 25 villages in the erstwhile state between November 21 and November 25.

They found that unseasonal snowfall on November 7 had wrought havoc in the Kashmir Valley. It led to the destruction of 25 to 50 per cent of the apple trees in the region.

Climate Emergency CoP 25: India is the only major economy to be ‘2 degree compatible’

by Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Kapil Subramanian

Down To Earth | December 02, 2019

China, India, the EU and the US accounted for almost 60 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2017. The world will be on track to meet its targets under the Paris Agreement only if these countries / group of countries meet their respective targets.

But it is not the case as the lack of progress on overall mitigation is matched by lack of progress in delivering on equity. Per capita emissions continue to be allocated highly unequally — in 2017, per capita emissions in the US were nearly nine times as high as India’s. Let’s look at how each of these countries is performing on their respective targets as per their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Climate Emergency CoP 25: 70% of top polluting countries failed to meet GHGs reduction target

by Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Kapil Subramanian

Down To Earth | December 01, 2019

 Photo: gettyimages

Only six of the world’s top 20 economies, or the G20, which account for 78 per cent of the global emissions, are on course to meet their targets to reduce greenhouse gas reduction (GHGs) under the Paris Agreement — though most of these targets are woefully unambitious.

A total of 197 countries, party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are congregating at the Conference of Parties in Madrid starting from December 2 through December 13, dubbed CoP 25, to take stock of their climate actions since the Agreement came into force in 2016 and to plan their new and more stringent targets to be announced in 2020.

EU declares climate emergency

by DTE Staff

Down To Earth | November 29, 2019

European Union (EU) has become the first multilateral bloc to declare climate emergency, as its legislatures voted in a favour of a resolution for the same. The symbolic move is expected to pressurise countries to act ahead of the United Nations summit on climate change that starts on December 2 in Spain.

After a debate on Monday, 429 legislatures voted in favour of the declaration that calls on EU to cut emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050. While 225 legislatures voted against the resolution, 19 others abstained from the voting. The dissenting lawmakers objected to the word “emergency” and pushed for the word “urgency”.