Green New Deal is democratische noodzaak, geen 'socialisme'

War II-scale action on climate. Here’s what that looks like.
Door Joe Romm, Think Progress / Climate Progress, 12 februari 2019

The Green New Deal resolution [volledige tekst: PDF] introduced last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) states that fighting climate change requires “a new national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II.”

The world’s leading climate scientists agree. In 2015, for instance, they called for a sweeping mobilization — “a radical transition (deep decarbonization now and going forward),” as they described it — to avoid catastrophic impacts of climate change. And last October, the world’s nations unanimously agreed with our top scientists that preserving a livable climate requires “system changes” across the economy that “are unprecedented in terms of scale.”

De klimaatcrisis als (ont)sluitstuk van patriarchaal-culturele trauma's

Illustraties: Perrin Ireland
 

Climate Trauma: Toward a New Taxonomy of Trauma
Zhiwa Woodbury, Ecopsychology, Liebertpub.com, 31 januari 2019

[...] After years of viewing the crisis through the lens of cultural trauma, it finally dawned on me that we are making a grave mistake by relegating trauma theory to the “symptom box” in our analysis of the climate crisis, rather than seeing the crisis itself as a new form of trauma. In other words, the climate crisis does not just induce trauma under certain circumstances—it is a new  form of trauma that pervades the circumstances of our life.

[...] Of more pressing relevance than latency in considering the implications of Climate Trauma is the idea of dissociation in the face of emotional overwhelm. “Dissociation is the human capacity to mentally escape an insufferable reality” (White[1], 2015, p. 194). Could this natural human capacity be both the understandable response to Climate Trauma—the most insufferable reality we could possibly impose on our world or our children—as well as a potentially salutary explanation for the lack of any cogent moral or spiritual responsiveness?

Homo ecocidens: met de insecten sterft de natuur

Door Damian Carrington, The Guardian, 10 februari 2019

Exclusive: [Most] Insects could vanish within a century at current rate of decline, says global review. [...] “The [insect] trends confirm that the sixth major extinction event is profoundly impacting [on] life forms on our planet. [...] Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” [...] [the scientists] write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

Foto: Entomologische Verein Krefeld

Later toegevoegd:

Global insect collapse will be ‘catastrophic’ for food production, scientists warn
Door Joe Romm, Think Progress, 13 februari 2019

Humans are on track to wipe out insects within decades, study finds.

Zeespiegelstijging: Nederland sluit de ogen voor mogelijke ondergang (en steekt de kop in zandsuppleties)

De zeespiegelstijging is een groter probleem dan we denken. En Nederland heeft geen plan B
Door Rolf Schuttenhelm, Vrij Nederland, 9 februari 2019

[...] De zeespiegelstijging is nog lang niet voorbij en gaat mogelijk een stuk sneller dan we eerder dachten. De grote vraag is of het Nederland zoals we dat nu kennen wel te handhaven is.

[...] In dit verhaal komen diverse Nederlandse zeespiegelspecialisten aan het woord, die tot nog toe hun zorgen vooral uitten binnen de eigen kring.

[...] het lijkt wel of we het echte verhaal van zeespiegelstijging in Nederland niet willen weten. Maar we moeten harde keuzes maken, en dat moment is nu.