Greta Thunberg speaks up for the planet at COP26. Too bad Big Oil puts its hands over its ears.
The oil and gas industry has known that we’re destroying the planet for a lot longer than you might believe according to new reporting from DeSmog Blog. This week Lee Camp blows open Big Oil’s big secret. They’ve been covering up the fact that their industry, left unchecked, would lead to serious climate change since at least 1959. Now we all know what oil executives knew more than 50 years ago. But because of their significant efforts to cover the truth up humanity is facing a dire crisis. Big Oil did it all for profit and they’re hoping that with the insane wealth they generated, partially through their lies, that they’ll be able to skip out on the worst impacts of a warming planet. It’s a bet that the general public never had a say in.
There is no Planet B. This is all we got!
COP-Out 26
by C.A. Matthews
[The leaders of the UNFCCC ] gladly welcome those who caused the crisis. COP26 has done nothing but pretend and greenwash. --Mitzi Jonelle Tan, member of Youth Advocates for Climate Action from the Philippines
Never fear, children! Benevolent Big Oil executives will be here to take care of us all in the coming age of frequent famines, floods, and fires. No, really. Stop crying...
That's the take-away I got from the news blurbs coming out of COP26, this year's big UN Climate Emergency gathering. The fossil fuel industry had far more representatives at the Glasgow summit than the environmental groups and organizations had--at least 503 were connected in some manner to the petroleum industry.
Obviously, oil men's opinions matter more than those of silly environmentalists. Treehugger statistics that (some) journalists quote only add to the public's worries about the Earth's ever-increasing temperatures and rapidly rising sea levels. We'd all feel better if we ignored the science and kept driving our big gas-guzzling vehicles to upscale steak houses. Never mind that 99% of the planet's population will suffer because of the greenhouse gases coming out of the Northern Hemisphere. Big oceans separate us--big oceans full of plastic water bottle islands the size of France, that is.
The fossil fuel industry has spent decades denying and delaying real action on the climate crisis, which is why this is such a huge problem. Their influence is one of the biggest reasons why 25 years of UN climate talks have not led to real cuts in global emissions. -- Murray Worthy, Global Witness
So, what kind of actions can we expect from the big name signatories who attended COP26? The shutting down of carbon-dumping coal-fired power plants? The building of more windmill and solar farms to take their place? The outlawing of petroleum powered engines worldwide? Looking at past environmental summits, I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. The wealthiest countries' representatives always give the nicest speeches, full of pleasant platitudes which promise the moon, but they rarely deliver. As long as rich nations can get away with burning fossil fuels at the expense of the rest of the planet's health, they will.
Over the past 25 years, the richest 10% of the global population has been responsible for more than half of all carbon emissions... Rank injustice and inequality on this scale is a cancer. If we don’t act now, this century may be our last. --Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General
[The world’s rich] consume and consume and consume with no thought. --Patricia Espinosa, UN Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
Even more telling, studies show how the top 1% wealthiest, a.k.a. "the billionaires," have caused and are causing more damage to our climate than billions of economically disadvantaged human beings, especially indigenous peoples. Yes, a ballroom of billionaires pollute more than a good portion of the planet's population. But did the COP26 summit address the damage to the climate these extreme polluters create and come up with solutions to stop them?
Why not ask the Big Oil execs, since they're a part of the top 1%. They do seem to be calling all the shots.
The greenwashing of environmental damages that the rich, the billionaires, the Big Oil execs and the fossil fuel industry cause is beyond deplorable. It's immoral. It should be criminal, and these criminals should be held accountable for their actions. But the odds of that happening in the year 2021 are slim to none.
Because until all human beings are seen as equals in the eyes of the law, we will be at the mercy of Big Oil and the billionaires and their politician puppets. The rich and powerful don't seem to care about the Climate Emergency. They're not worried about their mansions being washed off the map, probably because they can afford tickets on Jeff Bezos' rocket. When things get bad, they'll just fly into space and live on an Elysium wheel, twirling many miles above the dying carcass of the Earth.
But all is not lost. Listen to climate activist Greta Thunberg discuss what she believes is happening and what we should do next in this podcast from The Juice Media:
Seen on Twitter:
Last minute tension at the climate summit, as the delegates can't agree on how much mass extinction they think is acceptable.
— Extinction Symbol (@extinctsymbol) November 13, 2021
If you’re upset with the “results” from #COP26 , welcome to the multi-generational battle by Indigenous Peoples to defend Mother Earth. 🌎
— Tina Taphouse (@ttaphouse) November 14, 2021
UN chief Antonio Guterres has said that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is on "life support", and the COP26 summit would probably not see governments make the pledges needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by enough.https://t.co/IrKFZDKfxp
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) November 11, 2021
Hopefully this climate summit will make people finally realise that politicians aren't going to save us.
They're redundant. It's up to us now.— Extinction Symbol (@extinctsymbol) November 13, 2021
Related Articles:
https://popularresistance.org/researchers-urge-world-leaders-at-cop26-to-act-on-science/
https://popularresistance.org/cop26-governments-play-deaf-to-social-movements/
https://popularresistance.org/why-are-you-asking-us-to-compromise-on-our-lives/
https://popularresistance.org/indigenous-campaigners-demand-jpmorgan-end-fossil-fuel-finance/
https://popularresistance.org/judge-allows-testimony-on-impacts-of-climate-change-and-role-of-banks/
Massive Climate Change Cover-Up (complete video) https://www.portable.tv/series/redactedtonight?v=1cf51d44-409d-4a3a-92e7-4e9724cb003f
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From the front lines of the nonviolent struggle to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline to the COP 26 global climate talks in Glasgow, Indigenous leaders and their allies are making one thing clear: In the struggle for a living climate, Indigenous voices cannot and will not be ignored.
At the COP 26 talks, Indigenous leaders from around the world led a march of 150,000 people in the streets of Glasgow to demand world leaders take real action to keep fossil fuels in the ground, not hide behind false solutions.
A panel at the COP about Indigenous resistance to Line 3 highlighted the human rights abuses that took place in Northern Minnesota to force through the hyper-polluting pipeline -- the equivalent of 50 coal power plants.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, hundreds of water protectors are facing criminal charges for standing in defense of the water, the climate, and the treaty rights of the Anishnaabeg people. They stood against the pipeline with their bodies, and were met with police forces - directly funded by Enbridge - and their surveillance, harassments, physical torture ("pain compliance"), and excessive charges, including felonies.
Water protectors and their supporters are demanding that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Governor Walz work with county prosecutors to drop the charges against the water protectors who have resisted the Line 3 pipeline.
Indigenous people are responsible for protecting 80% of the world’s biodiversity. However, projects like Line 3 demonstrate the extent to which Indigenous rights have been continuously ignored and violated by 26 years of COP climate policy.
Our message is clear -- it’s time to back promises with action. It’s time to drop the charges against those who stood against a project that never should have been permitted and against a police force that never should have been bought with Enbridge’s money to begin with.
DONATE FOR WATER PROTECTOR LEGAL COSTS
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In a near-future dystopian world, hope blossoms where mutual aid and democracy begins...
Zonta’s world is turned upside down when Jake arrives at the commune to investigate the disappearance of agents of the Authority. Can she persuade him to switch sides before the Protectors (antifascist fighters) take action?
Available now from Extasy Books: https://www.extasybooks.com/Where-the-Bodies-Lie