Organizers of the March to End Fossil Fuels announced that 500 organizations have endorsed the upcoming mobilization on September 17 in New York City.
Groups including the NAACP, Sierra Club, and Sunrise Movement have signed on to support the march and its demands for Pres. Biden to take bold action on fossil fuels in the wake of a deadly, record-breaking summer of extreme heat and climate disasters. They join the key groups organizing the march, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Organizing Hub, Food & Water Watch, Fridays For Future USA & NYC, Earthworks, Greenfaith, Indigenous Environmental Network, New York Communities for Change, Oil Change International and Oil & Gas Action Network.
In addition to the 500 groups supporting the march, nationally recognized leaders including Sen. Ed Markey, Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson, former President of Ireland and Chair of The Elders Mary Robinson, Jane Fonda, Naomi Klein, Mark Ruffalo, and Bill McKibben are backing the march. More than 10,000 people from across the country are expected to attend, including Goldman Prize winners Nalleli Cobo and Sharon Lavigne, UN youth adviser Ayisha Siddiqa, scientist Peter Kalmus, Gulf Coast leaders John Beard, Jr. and Roishetta Ozane, and Mountain Valley Pipeline fighters including Crystal Cavalier from Appalachia.
The New York City march is part of a mass global escalation to end fossil fuels, with mobilizations occurring around the world, which all take place just days before the UN Climate Ambition Summit. At the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded world leaders come with a commitment to approving no new fossil fuel infrastructure and bring concrete plans to phase out existing fossil fuel production.
A full list of the 500 organizations supporting the March to End Fossil Fuels is available here.
Humans Have Pushed Earth Outside ‘Safe Operating Space for Humanity’
Six of nine critical "planetary boundaries," from climate change to damage to freshwater systems, have been transgressed, according to a new study. The result is that Earth as a system is functioning "well outside of the safe operating space for humanity."
The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances, updates earlier work that created what's known as the planetary boundaries framework. The framework identified nine processes involved in maintaining the Earth as it has been for the last 10,000 years or so.
"This update on planetary boundaries clearly depicts a patient that is unwell, as pressure on the planet increases and vital boundaries are being transgressed," said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the study's senior author, according to a press release.
As temperatures continue to rise with fossil-fuel emissions, the urgency is becoming more acute. The Center for Climate Integrity estimates that 13,700 public schools in the US that didn’t need cooling in 1970 will either have or need it by 2025. Ten states, including Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio, each face more than $1 billion in costs to cool schools. The analysis found that schools typically install cooling systems when the number of days hotter than 80F reaches 32 a year. Since 1970, the number of schools estimated to pass that threshold has risen by 40%.
Islamic Relief Fund collecting donations for Derna Flood.
At least 5,200 people have died and 10,000 more have been reported missing in the disaster, authorities said on 12 September.
Photos shared in media reports on 13 September showed bodies being placed into mass graves as rescue teams waded through chest-deep water to inspect submerged vehicles.
Corpses are lying in the streets and being washed ashore by the current, while safe drinking water is in short supply, according to reports.
The United Nations has described the flooding as a “calamity of epic proportions,” estimating that up to 1.8 million people may be affected.
Islamic Relief is calling for donations to help us provide emergency food and shelter to those affected.
‘It’s like doomsday’
Floodwaters swept through Derna on 10 September after Storm Daniel destroyed 2 dams in the area. Entire neighbourhoods were submerged, with people, cars and bridges being swept out to sea.
Meet the Shadowy Global Network Vilifying Climate Protesters
Earlier this year, news footage began making the rounds on social media of young activists from the German climate organization Letzte Generation (Last Generation) being assaulted as they obstructed streets in an effort to draw attention to the German government’s inaction on climate. A young woman, with her hand glued to the asphalt, was ripped off the road by her hair; a young man was run over by a truck driver; a passerby punched protesters and was cheered on. A few months later, German police raided the homes of Last Generation activists and froze their bank accounts.
What’s happening in Germany—public rhetoric vilifying climate activists, which the media then picks up and amplifies and, ultimately, leads to the criminalization of those activists—is a pattern we’ve seen play out in multiple countries, new research from climate news sites Drilled and DeSmog reveals. That pattern is thanks in no small part to the influence of this little-known network, which has powerful allies in the oil, gas, and extractive industries.
The Atlas Network describes itself as “a nonprofit that aims to secure the right to economic and personal freedom for all individuals” through its global network of think tanks. But before it was a network, it was just one think tank: the U.K.-based Institute of Economic Affairs, or IEA, founded by a man named Antony Fisher.
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