#ClimateDiary A short 🧵 on why #Gaza is, and should be, a concern for the climate movement. I know the vast majority of you lovely people on here do see the connection, but just in case some of you don't, I wanted to briefly outline this. For me, there are four separate, key reasons why Gaza is not a "distraction"; why all climate activists should speak out on it. #ClimateAction 1/5
The first reason is the simple fact that the bombardment of Gaza is a complete disaster also in terms of environmental destruction and CO2 emissions. This point is somewhat secondary for me (or rather, should not be paramount for anyone, given the suffering of the people in Gaza), but one that does also need to be made.
What does ignoring Gaza say about your kind of environmentalism or climate activism - about what climate activism is for? Historically, some forms of environmentalism have indeed been racist and really problematic (see this article). But this is not what the climate movement now is or should be about. For one, how are you supposed to win global support for climate action if you don't speak up now?
Unwavering Western support for Israel's onslaught on Gaza has made it crystal clear that our governments do not care about killing of 10,000s of people; about the wholesale destruction of a land. These are not the people to rely on for climate action! They will not do it! The climate movement needs to see this, and indeed many do: there is a real shift in tactics from trying to appeal to those in power to act, to active resistance. #Gaza is teaching us this.
Western support for Israel is directly linked to the fossil fuel industry's decades long hold on Western governments. Please listen to this Breakdown podcast with Adam Hanieh, where he explains how the history of Palestine is bound up with the oil economy and Western imperialism, and why Palestine and the climate crisis demand mutual solidarity.
#ClimateDiary I want to add this post to our collective Climate Diary, as it’s a good one for noting shifting official discourses. The IEA still talking about 2050, still 1.5°C (an impossible combination, as is evident by now), but at least there is more and mor official recognition of the need for fossil fuels to stop altogether. There ARE changes, just maddeningly slow ones.. https://mstdn.social/@markhburton/112569345405741429
#ClimateDiary#GE2024 I take it back! Two weeks in and I AM excited about these elections. I am hopeful that apart from Tory annihilation (yay) and Labour majority (no to neg feelings on this), this will be the election where the #GreenParty really surges, and where hopefully independents like Jeremy Corbyn, Faiza Shaheen and Andrew Feinstein win some seats. In other words, an election where we (eco-socialists) can and do vote for the actual people we want. It’s a start. https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/112488900685395946
#ClimateDiary I don’t know whether anyone else does this, but with so much I read about what is happening right now, like this on #Arizona and heatstroke measures, I can’t help imagining it both as a document read by later historians (“how it all unfolded”) and as a report from the future - ie, this is what I thought would start happening in the future, if we don’t do anything to prevent it.
It is a lot to process that this really is our reality, right now 1/2
#ClimateDiary#Arizona 2/2 But i also feel we need to do these kind of “stepping back”, imagining-reading-about-a -different-time exercises, to appreciate the enormity of what is happening.
Reading it just like that, it can very quickly all seem entirely normal.
Trying to say: Our reality now IS actually pretty dystopian by any measure (not just climate change, also Gaza, AI, etc), but when you are living through it, every day mundanity dominates and you mostly just don’t notice.
#ClimateDiary 3/2 By strange serendipity i just came across an older post by myself (by searching “sportsday”, would you believe it). This is an article about how even when you are living right through catastrophic events there csn be a lot of very normal, banal days too. Obviously not always true but chimes with above
I discovered yesterday that our school excludes pupils who have accumulated a certain number of behaviour points from Sports Days and Proms, as a form of punishment. Do you think this pedagogically productive?
(Behaviour points are given for both major and minor infringements, like chatting in class)
Thank you for everone who participated in this poll ⬆️! That was a new one for me - poll as catharthis, and it really worked. Thank you! Still pondering whether to send the poll outcome to the school, maybe with something along these lines … seriously, Govian UK schools are not providing the education our children need. #ClimateDiary
Wie ich lese, gibt es einen Erdrutsch bei Rorschach. Ich hoffe, das bleibt der einzige flutbedingte Zwischenfall bei meiner Bahnfahrt nach Wien.
Cetero censeo: Wir brauchen dringendst die Zustimmung zum #EURenaturierungsgesetz in 🇦🇹. Und: wir brauchen unbedingt starke grüne Stimmen bei den #Europawahlen am 9. Juni! #Gummistiefelpolitik ist mehr als entbehrlich, mehr noch: Augenauswischerei.
Diese ganzen gekauften Halbhirne in Regierungen haben einfach nicht verstanden welche Stunde für das Überleben der Menschheit (unter anderen!) schon geschlagen hat, aber wenn sie es verstanden haben, dann sollte man sie geteert und gefedert aus den Ämtern jagen. #ClimateDiary
#climateDiary
TIL that Graham Stringer, who has been the Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton since 1997, and is running again, has been a Trustee of the disaster-capitalism, climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) since 2015.
That’ll really help build Great British Energy
🙄🙄🙄
#ClimateDiary ‘An intergenerational crime against humanity’: what will it take for political leaders to start taking climate change seriously?
“Forget the critical decade, what happens every single month during the next handful of years is crucial in determining how quickly we drain the remaining carbon budget needed to achieve the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.”
May was the 28th month in a row to be the hottest on record.
Spring was also one of the 4 wettest on record, with ~50% more rain than an average spring.
Expertenrat veröffentlicht Einschätzung, wonach die Erreichung der Klimaziele fragwürdig ist.
Am gleichen Tag lassen sich Politiker:innen verschiedenster Parteien mal wieder in Gummistiefeln in Hochwassergebieten ablichten und versprechen zu helfen. Also, nicht mit stringenteren Maßnahmen zur Emissionsreduktion oder sinnvollen Anpassungsmaßnahmen. Wo kämen wir denn da hin! Freiheit!
#ClimateDiary adding this Alan Rusbridger article: about @wblau showing the above graph ⬆️ and others to the Dutch king and queen, anongst a room full of journalist; reflecting on the contrasting absence of #ClimateEmergency discussion in UK elections. #GE2024