People Before Profit blog

World's largest landfill to become NYC's biggest solar plant

Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Parts of the East Coast are finally adopting solar energy projects, and New York City is leading the charge. Staten Island's Fresh Kills Park - on the site of what is currently the world's largest landfill - will soon be the largest solar energy facility in the city. Once finished, the 47-acre plant, which will be leased to SunEdison, will consist of 35,000 solar panels and produce up to 10 megawatts of power - enough to energize about 2,000 homes.

The plan was announced Nov. 25 by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Parks Commissioner Veronica White, Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, and Director of Long-Term Planning and Stability Sergej Mahnovski. "Soon Fresh Kills will be the site of the largest solar power installation ever developed within the five boroughs," Bloomberg said. "Thanks to the agreement today, we will increase the amount of solar energy produced in New York City by 50 percent, and it is only fitting that Fresh Kills, once a daily dumping ground, will become a showcase for urban renewal and sustainability."

"Daily dumping ground" would be putting it lightly. For 55 years, the Fresh Kills Landfill, which was so enormous it could actually be seen from space, received thousands of tons of New York's garbage, as described in a 2001 report in the Staten Island Advance. In the late 1940s, some New Yorkers formed the Staten Island Anti-Garbage Organization and led protests against the landfill, but to no avail. And the advocacy group Staten Island Citizens for Clean Air (SICCA), which formed in the 1980s, tried and failed to reduce the amount of trash being accumulated there.

Barbara Warren, secretary of SICCA, told the Advance, "To be honest, in the beginning people didn't know how bad it was. But everyone complained about Fresh Kills. It was a nuisance. And it had no permits, and was in complete violation of every environmental law. We didn't even know that until we went to state agencies and filed a Freedom of Information Act request and got all the data."

Decades later, it seems the city is finally taking measures to improve health and make a push for renewable energy. It's worth noting that the states of New York and New Jersey share a reputation for having high pollution and numerous toxic waste sites. New York has 86 areas declared Superfund sites by the EPA, to boot, while the ironically-named Garden State has 113 - the most of any state in the country.

To many, this could also be an indication that New York City, which saw its infrastructure take a heavy beating after Hurricane Sandy, is finally learning its lesson and upgrading to clean energy. If this new facility is a sign of more solar implementation to come, New York would be following in the footsteps of New Jersey, which last year was ranked as number one in the U.S. in solar energy.

In New Jersey, 800 landfills and 10,000 abandoned industrial areas are currently being converted into massive solar farms, after the approval of a $446 million solar energy proposal by Jersey's Board of Public Utilities. Power company PSE&G is currently building solar farms in Kearny, Edison, Hamilton, Linden, and Hackensack. Meanwhile, the town of Garfield has opened a new Weatherization and Green Technology Training Center and entered into a 15-year contract with solar company Amberjack Energy to work toward making the town completely reliant on solar energy.

For New York, the Fresh Kills development is seen as a major victory. Marcia Bystryn, president of the New York League of Conservation Voters, said, "Not long ago, few could have imagined that Fresh Kills would be transformed into a clean energy facility. This is one of the most exciting clean energy projects in development in the entire city, and it will serve as a powerful symbol of the environmental renaissance now under way on Staten Island."

"Developing solar energy here shows that large-scale renewable energy projects are possible in New York City, but this is only a first step," said deputy mayor for operations Cas Holloway. "If we are serious about meeting New York City's tremendous energy needs from renewable resources, we need the state and federal governments to work with us to make solar and other renewable energies easier to develop, install, and access on the energy grid."

Photo: An artistic rendering of what the 47-acre Freshkills solar facility will look like upon completion on Staten Island. NYC.gov

Oil sands are Canada's environmental nightmare

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:23:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, Canada -- The tar sands oil development project in Canada's northern Alberta continues to exact a heavy environmental price, contaminating large parts of the province with heavy metal pollution and carcinogens and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The oil sands in Northern Alberta are Canada's largest source of new oil production, much of it being exported to the U.S. by rail and providing an estimated 20 percent of all fuel. Despite mounting damage, the right-wing Conservative Party national government of Stephen Harper and its Conservative counterpart in Alberta are supporting the growth of this industry at all costs. Unlike conventional oil extraction, oil companies use a variety of methods to extract a thick form of petroleum known as bitumen. The methods include open pit mining and injecting steam and natural gas into the ground to heat the gooey, tar-like substance and force it to the surface. Bitumen is then turned into oil through an energy-intensive process that causes widespread environmental damage.

Despite assurances from oil companies that they are following strict environmental regulations, the Joint Oil Sands Monitoring program, a provincial-federal initiative, recently discovered an increase in mercury levels in the eggs of predatory birds living downstream from the oil sands, with some samples above the threshold that could be considered dangerous. While federal scientists did not link it with the oil sands, and instead said further research was required to determine its exact source, it is the third peer-reviewed study since 2010 to show rising mercury levels.

"These studies suggest there is a problem and provide critical insight into the impacts of the oil sands industry," Jennifer Grant of the Pembina Institute, a leading Canadian environmental think tank located in Alberta, said in an email interview. "In other scientific journals, higher levels of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic compounds (known as carcinogens) have been found in higher concentrations downstream of oil sands operations relative to upstream."

A 2010 study undertaken by Erin Kelly and David Schindler from the University of Alberta had earlier linked high levels of toxic contamination with oil sand mining. The study found levels of the pollutants cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and silver exceeded federal and provincial guidelines for the protection of aquatic life in melted snow and water collected downstream from oil sands operations. "They're all elements that are known to be toxic at low concentrations", said Schindler. The scientists based their findings on 35 water samples drawn from the Athabasca River, a major river near the oil sands, and from its tributaries, the Athabasca Delta and Athabasca Lake, upstream and downstream from the oil sands.

The oil sands are also wreaking destruction on the vast boreal forest, stripping the equivalent of 34.5 football fields of trees from the land each day in order to dig for new bitumen, said Grant.

Huge tailing ponds filled with toxic waste are expanding across the Albertan plateau. Oil companies use two to four barrels of water to extract and upgrade one barrel of bitumen, which is later mixed with additives to make oil. The waste water, contaminated with heavy metals, bitumen residues, clay, sand, bitumen, salts, toxic compounds such as metal, polcyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, naphthoric acids and solvents added to the bitumen during the separation process, are then drained into tailing ponds that cover 176 kilometers. These ponds are toxic to aquatic life, birds and wildlife.

"Modeled estimates suggest that approximately 11 million liters of tailings waste leak from these lakes everyday" wrote Grant. Already these tailing ponds have killed hundreds of migrating ducks and birds. The tailing ponds are so toxic that companies must fire air guns to keep birds and animals away from the ponds.

Oil companies have not yet fulfilled promises to develop new technologies to treat toxic water in the tailing ponds, and fears exist that this dirty water will sit there for decades, leaking toxic water.

Greenpeace Canada charges that the tar sands are polluting the Athabasca River, lacing the air with toxins, turning farmland into wasteland and increasing greenhouse gas emissions through the clear-cutting of trees. The organization is calling on Canada's federal government to halt the extraction and processing of bitumen.

Fort Chipewyan, a First Nations community living downstream from the tar sands, has been hit hard by the oil sands development. Health studies show they have higher rates of cancer and autoimmune diseases since the advent of the tar sands.

Meanwhile, the Harper government and its provincial Conservative counterpart, which maintain they are protecting the environment, have gutted environmental regulations and allowed oil companies to do as they please. A report this year, based on years of painstaking collection of data through access-to-information requests, reveals that less than 1% of environmental violations in the oil sands are subject to any prosecution. Kevin Timoney and Peter Lee of Global Forest Watch, in a 677-page report, written from documents found in Alberta's environmental data library in Edmonton, compiled a list of 9,262 infractions since 1996, ranging from excessive smokestack emissions and bitumen spills into the Athabasca River to discoveries of toxic waste dumps in the bush.

Many of the files they were given were incomplete, full of errors and not well organized. The public was never informed of many environmental infractions, they report. Only 37 cases were prosecuted, for an enforcement rate of 0.9 %, and the median fine levied against companies was $4,500. "Alberta's environmental regulations in the bitumen sands regions are not being upheld" concludes the report.

Much like the previous Bush administration in the U.S., the Harper government is waging a war against government scientists responsible for environmental regulation, research and consumer safety. Ninety percent of scientists, in a poll undertaken by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, representing 4,069 federal scientific workers, believe the Harper government has silenced them, while 24 percent have said that the government has instructed them to exclude or alter documents for nonscientific reasons. Fifty percent know of cases where the health and well being of the public have been put at risk by political interference.

Before he became prime minister in 2006, Harper, a right-wing Christian fundamentalist, used to question the science of global warming, and claimed it was a "socialist plot" when he headed the National Citizen's Association, a corporate lobbying group. His government also pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol, the worldwide agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The oil sands are also Canada's largest new source of greenhouse gas emissions, as companies use ever larger amounts of natural gas, and clear cut forests, to extract and process bitumen. Environment Canada said recently that emissions growth from the Albertan oil sands is overshadowing reductions in other parts of the economy, meaning the country will likely fail to reach its international pledge to cut greenhouse gases. Following six years of overall reductions, carbon emissions are set to increase 20 percent above Canada's Copenhagen accord target of 612 megatons.

Despite mounting environmental damage, the Harper government has spent millions of dollars in taxpayers' money to finance TV ads to persuade Canadians and lobby leaders in Washington and Europe that the oil sands are clean, ethical and green. The European Union, under its Fuel Quality Directive, has labelled oil from the oil sands a dirty fuel. This measure, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, discourages European refiners from importing Canadian bitumen. The Harper government hopes to persuade the Obama administration to allow the construction of the Keystone pipeline which would would bring oil sands oil from Alberta to refiners along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Photo: Syncrude Canada's Mildred Lake plant in the Athabascan oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. Syncrude is one of the world's largest producers of synthetic crude oil from oil sands. Wikimedia Commons

Round two for the Mi’kmaq blockade

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 13:54:00 +0000

On November 18th the Mi'kmaq Nation went to a courthouse in Frederiction, New Brunswick, hoping to win an injunction against Southwestern Energies (SWN) to stop the shale gas "exploration" on Mi'kmaq land.

Justice Judy Clendening ruled against the injunction claiming there was not an adequate case against the company on the two issues cited: that fracking is harmful to the land and therefore harmful to the people and that a violent conflict was inevitable if SWN was allowed to continue their work.

After the ruling Clendening said, "In my view and at this stage, and without any real evidence of the irreparable harm that may be occasioned on Elsipogtog; it is apparent that SWN is suffering monetary losses, and there is no evidence of the degrees of harm to Elsipogtog that is related to the Crown's request to consult,"

The court hearing was arranged after SWN tried on November 14th to get seismic testing equipment on Mi'kmaq land. The effort was met with indigenous resistance. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) armed with live guns confronted the demonstrators.

The RCMP surrounded the SWN equipment but the protest held a strong line of defense. Arrests included one warrior woman named Lorraine Clair who is still being held and is waiting for a court date. By the end of the day the indigenous forces were able to send SWN home resulting in a small victory against the oil giants.

After the court hearing Lorraine Clair released a statement to her comrades telling them not to give up and to find strength within each other.

The Mi'kmaq people are dusting themselves off but they are not done fighting. They plan to hold the blockade and continue a peaceful resistance against SWN. The growing movement of solidarity for the Blockade continues to grow. They plan to take SWN back to court at a later date.

The blockade however now faces a volatile time. The ruling means that the law will not be on the side of the people.

Many Mi'kmaq are worried about what is going to happen now and are wondering how far the Crown is willing to go.

The Canadian government has shown the First Nations people that a multi-billion dollar company is more important than the lives and wellbeing of the Mi'kmaq people.

The Mi'kmaq people are dedicated to protecting Mother Earth not just for themselves but for all. Once the land is scarred and ripped apart and the water turned to dust by the fracking, will people then cry out against the oil companies? Will people then see that they should have fought alongside these warriors to help save the land?

Photo: The Mi'kmaq blockade. EarthFirstJournal

False victory? Coal plants being closed, dirty power will replace them

Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:22:00 +0000

One might see it as a good development that the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is planning to shut down eight coal-burning generating stations across Alabama and Kentucky. While, indeed, this will be a blow to the profiteering coal industry (reducing coal production by 3,300 megawatts in those states), it could be little more than a false triumph in terms of health and the environment. That's because the TVA is planning on replacing those stations with nuclear plants and natural gas facilities.

The Obama administration has cracked down on carbon and mercury output, particularly when it is triggered by coal-fired power plants. And TVA board members were obligated to respond by phasing out some of these coal facilities, though not without Republican opposition. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., met with the president of the TVA in an attempt to stop the coal plant shutdowns, albeit unsuccessfully.

Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, praised the shutdowns, remarking, "This is a great move for public health, clean air and water, and our climate. It will also help protect families across the southeast from rising energy bills as the cost of coal-generated electricity continues to increase. I grew up in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee and went to college at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, so I know firsthand how much that region has struggled with coal pollution. Residents, businesses, and industries have spoken loud and clear: they want the TVA to provide affordable, reliable, and clean power."

Unfortunately, the TVA seems to have no plans for implementing renewable energy, and that is why many environmentalists' reactions to the victory have now soured. According to TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield, coal usage is "dropping fast as a drilling boom in the U.S. pushes down the price of natural gas, the fuel that competes with coal for power generation."

He failed to mention the destructive practices associated with natural gas facilities, particularly fracking and chemical dumping. Currently, TVA executives are looking to build a new 800-megawatt natural-gas-fired plant in either Alabama or Kentucky.

But perhaps just as disconcerting to activists is the fact that the TVA is now constructing a new nuclear power plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., after having signed a contract with the Babcock & Wilcox Company. That company owned the reactor that was destroyed by a nuclear meltdown in the infamous Three Mile Island disaster. The new plant is only the first step in the TVA's campaign to step up its atomic output, in addition to natural gas.

Hitt, from the Sierra Club, stressed the importance of replacing these dangerous, unreliable fossil and nuclear fuels with cleaner, safer energy. "TVA's next steps are critical," she said. "The utility must consider the workers and communities and make sure their livelihoods are protected. But we urge the TVA to focus on replacing these retiring coal plants with clean and affordable energy technologies that will help create jobs and affordable electricity for decades to come. Wind and solar power are cleaner and cheaper than fossil fuels like natural gas, and there are dozens of examples of for-profit and public power utilities that are making huge investments in clean energy.

"We urge the TVA not to choose to rely on natural gas. It's time to leapfrog over dirty fossil fuels that will continue to exacerbate environmental and public health issues. This is the TVA's choice. They can get their fiscal house in order by developing and deploying groundbreaking energy efficiency programs that deliver real results, and by seizing this moment and leading on clean energy."

Photo: Bruce Schreiner/AP

Anti-fracking activists celebrate victory in a fourth Colorado city

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:42:00 +0000

It turns out that it was a clean sweep for opponents of fracking during last week's elections in Colorado.

Voters in the city of Broomfield narrowly approved a five-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. The initial vote tally indicated that the ballot measure had failed by 13 votes, but by the end of an exhaustive recount on Thursday it was revealed it had actually succeeded by 17 votes. The result is expected to be legally certified today, but because the vote was so close there may still be one more recount.

If the latest vote count holds up, it means that measures to ban or suspend fracking succeeded in all four Colorado cities where they were on the ballot. That despite the oil and gas industry pouring more than $870,000 into efforts to defeat the measures, which were promoted by cash-poor but determined grassroots efforts. Boulder and Fort Collins voters extended existing moratoriums on fracking, while Lafayette straight-up outlawed the practice.

It seems that Coloradoans really don't dig it when energy companies pump their land full of chemicals and pollute their air.

All three of the moratoriums and Lafayette's ban will face legal challenges from the fracking industry and from the administration of Gov. John Hickenlooper (D). They accuse the cities of illegally "taking" minerals that don't belong to them.

This article was reposted from Grist.org. Find the original article here.

Photo: Michele Haskell/ Times Herald-Record/AP

Princeton University confronts meningitis epidemic that Cuba can prevent

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 12:59:00 +0000

Princeton University students have a problem, one not of their own making. Since March, seven of them have contracted bacterial meningitis due to the type B form of the meningococcal microorganism. Vaccines that work against microbes causing the vast majority of cases of bacterial meningitis are readily available in the United States, but not a vaccine capable of preventing type B meningococcal meningitis. As a result, Princeton students are at risk. Yet 55 million doses of a type B vaccine have been administered in 15 other countries, mostly in Latin America.

The vaccine's name is VA-MENGOC-BC, and it comes from Cuba. Under the anti-Cuban U.S. economic blockade, Cuban exports to the United States are forbidden.

Panic at Princeton induced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to import enough BEXSERO Type B vaccine developed by Switzerland's Novartis Corporation to vaccinate 8,000 Princeton students. BEXSERO is new and has recently been cleared for use in the European Union and Australia.

Meningitis means inflammation of the lining of a victim's brain and spinal cord. Without treatment for bacterial meningitis, damage to underlying structures is likely and many survivors end up with disastrous handicapping conditions. Even with treatment, 10 percent of infected persons die. The same causative bacterial agents can be responsible for life threatening blood stream infections. In 2000 meningococcal disease caused 171,000 deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Vaccines exist for preventative use against the three microorganisms most commonly associated with bacterial meningitis, meningococcal bacteria among them. Vaccines are available in the United States for warding off four types of the meningococcus. There is no vaccine in the U.S. directed at the fifth, the type B form. Currently type B disease accounts for one third of all U.S. meningococcal cases.

Cuba's public health system encompasses not only curative and preventative care but also biomedical research and manufacture. In response to an epidemic of type B meningococcal meningitis that began in 1976, Cuba's Finley Institute, led by Dr. Conception Campa, developed VA-MENGO-BC, carried out trials, and readied the vaccine for use beginning in 1991.

At the epidemic's height, the general incidence of type B meningitis was 14.4 victims per 100,000 people. The rate for children under age 6 exceeded 160 per 100,000. The general infection rate in 1989, prior to the vaccine's introduction, was 6.5 per 100,000. It fell to 0.8 per 100,000 in 1993, and to 0.2 per 100,000 in 2006. Observers worldwide concur that the vaccine protects individuals and keeps the illness from spreading. Epidemiologists have documented comparable success in other countries, notably in Brazil where millions have received the Cuban vaccine. Adverse effects have been minimal. Consistent with its design, the vaccine has been shown to protect also against type C meningitis.

Scientists have experienced difficulties in arriving at a useful type B vaccine, mainly because material in the microorganism's polysaccharide coat used as potential antigens are often not recognizable as foreign material by the human host. Consequently they fail to stimulate production of protective antibodies. Novartis touts its BEXSERO vaccine for the broad spectrum of type B protection it provides, the result of four new antigenic components used in its manufacture. Cuban scientists, however, were pleased with what looked like protection their vaccine offered against type B strains "that differ from the vaccine strain."

Apart from technical difficulties necessitating extra time and money and the lack of an epidemic to address, it is not clear why the United States never developed an anti-type-B meningococcal vaccine. But why Cuba did so is clear from Dr. Concepción Campa's explanation in 2007.

Campa told an interviewer, "Cuba has a research approach that doesn't only take into account the Cuban population's health, but also global population health, especially the poor of the world ... In many countries, including the United States, children of all ages die from meningitis B."

The interviewer asked, "What countries have been using the Cuban vaccine? Is it sold, donated or traded?" According to Campa, "The vaccine has been donated to countries in Africa, to Uruguay when there was an outbreak there, and is used in vaccination campaigns in Brazil, Colombia, and other countries. Regarding vaccine sales, we generally take into account where a vaccine will be administered. It's not the same to sell a vaccine to the private sector, where they charge an arm and a leg, as to a public health system for vaccination campaigns or when there's an epidemic ... Cubans in general have a very special connection with other countries because wherever there's pain it's our pain... [D]eveloping countries have fewer possibilities for easing that pain."

Photo: A researcher at a huge Cuban biotech center on the outskirts of Havana, which pioneers in developing new vaccines. PBS NewsHour CC 2.0

Koch-owned pipeline spews oil in Texas

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 15:54:00 +0000

Continuing to prove that oil spills are the new normal, a pipeline in Smithville, Texas leaked about 17,000 gallons of crude on October 30. The spill occurred just 40 miles southeast of Austin, and contaminated a local private pond and two reservoirs (which reportedly aren't used by the public) before damage control got under way. What makes this incident particularly outrageous is the fact that the pipeline is owned by the billionaire capitalist Koch Brothers, through Koch Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

This spill is yet another reminder of the crumbling infrastructure in the U.S. Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said pipeline leaks are far from a rare occurrence. He noted, "Over the past two decades, more than 5,600 failures in oil and natural gas pipelines - many of which predate the Eisenhower administration - have resulted in more than 100 million gallons of oil spilled. We should make investments now to update our nation's aging pipelines in ways that make them safer, more efficient, and environmentally sound."

But greedy corporations cannot be counted on to make such upgrades, especially Koch Industries, which has a legacy as filthy as the Smithville crude. Its history includes the funding of right-wing think tanks (some of which help to promote climate change denial); attempts to buy elections; theft of oil from Native American reservations; and a long list of other crimes, both environmental and civil.

The Koch brothers have also put $50 million toward think tanks and Congress members in support of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. And they, together with the American Legislative Exchange Council, have launched numerous attacks on renewable energy as well, while at the same time throwing their full support behind fossil fuels, which obviously mean higher profits for corporations. But corporations' recent habit of touting pipelines as a safe way to transport oil has come under fire, as they have been proven wrong time and again this year.

The faulty pipeline in Smithville was discovered during a routine aerial inspection, and though crude has now stopped spilling, experts are still trying to determine the source of the leak. In other words, it has not yet been plugged, nor has the pipeline been replaced. Koch Pipeline Co. declared in an official statement that it had "no estimated time for repairs."

Meanwhile in Congress, there is a perverse effort to enable oil industries to wreak further havoc. On October 29, a day before the Texas incident, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing for bipartisan legislation called the North American Energy Infrastructure Act. It would speed up the permitting process for oil and natural gas pipelines, particularly those that crossed country borders (like the planned Keystone XL), by removing President Obama's authority to issue such permits, instead leaving that up to other agencies.

Lois Epstein, a civil engineer and pipeline expert with the Wilderness Society, suggested that the recent spat of oil spills this year was bound to happen. "Many of us have been asking for this for over a decade," she remarked. "We really have regulatory paralysis in terms of pipeline safety requirements."

Photo: A cleanup expert's gloves are covered in crude in Smithville, Texas. AP

Climate change is not just about the weather

Mon, 04 Nov 2013 17:01:00 +0000

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the process of finalizing the different sections of its massive every-seven-years report. The first portion of the 5th Assessment has already been released, and the next is scheduled for release in March. Copies of the draft of that section, about the impact of climate change on human society, have recently been leaked.

While the draft is not finalized yet and may undergo revision, it offers dire warnings about the interactions between a warming world, other natural systems on which humans depend, and human social interactions.

The latest leaked draft predicts that as global warming changes the climate, resulting in both more rain in some areas and more drought in others, extreme weather events and sea level rise, human societies will be increasing affected. This will lead in a variety of ways to increasing stresses on people, agriculture, water systems, the world's refugee crisis, and human habitation near oceans, among other impacts.

The report predicts that as a result our future looks likely to be one with growing poverty, growing water and food stresses, flooding and the spread of desertification, ocean acidity and overfishing destroying many fisheries, spread of diseases, as well as extinction of many species of animal and plants that can't adapt quickly enough to changes in their habitat.

Climate change is not just about the weather getting hotter. It is about the linked natural and human systems we all depend on. As severe drought causes crop failure in important agricultural areas, food prices increase. In an effort to increase the stressed food supply, some farmers draw down the water table for irrigation, mining water from underground aquifers that is not being replenished. As flooding impacts agricultural production in other areas simultaneously, prices rise even further. Over the past decade there have been several spikes in world food prices, leading to food riots. This was one factor in the Arab Spring revolts.

This illustrates the interconnections affected by climate change. Climate change is not the sole or main cause of the problems the world faces, not by itself, not yet. But it makes virtually all other problems worse. A United Nations study of Darfur cited the effects of climate change on water and agriculture and land as one of a number of interlinked factors driving the conflict. Human access to protein is challenged by these physical changes to the climate and our agricultural practices.

Meanwhile, even companies that occasionally admit that climate change is a problem (even as they fund climate change deniers) try to limit the impact on their particular company and business. For example, in Chevron's "7 Principles for Addressing Climate Change," they appeal to our sense of fairness: "Broad and equitable treatment of all sectors of the economy is necessary to ensure no sector or company is disproportionately burdened." At the same time, the industry is planning to take advantage of the melting of Arctic ice by drilling in the Artic Sea, in one of the areas most inhospitable for safe oil exploration.

Fossil fuel companies are feeling pressure from the growing climate change divestment movement. While it will not likely cut into their massive profits soon, it places these companies on the defensive. Business professionals are beginning to build a case for divestment on purely financial terms. Cities and states around the world are attempting to grapple, sometimes in conflict with central governments, with necessary adaptations to climate change, including through divestment Issues related to climate change and fossil fuel use are beginning to affect local elections.

Other environmental battles continue to play an increasing role in the public dialogue. Effort to build unity between environmental struggles and the labor movement and other progressive movements are growing.

As news reports continue over the next months until the complete final IPCC 5th Assessment is released, the scientific arguments for more climate change activism are reinforced. The history of the coming decades will be one of massive environmental struggles, alongside the struggles of other progressive movements to save humanity from exploitation and oppression.

The science is not divorced from these movements - it adds depth and detail to the reasons why humanity needs to fight to take more serious action to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and fight to demand that corporations pay the costs of their pollution. As prominent Indian activist Dr. Vandana Shiva says, "It is not an investment if it is destroying the planet."

Photo: Following the Copenhagen Climate Change talks in December 2009, the United Nations Office in the Russian Federation, together with the Young Peacekeepers Movement, sponsored an art contest called "People in the face of climate change." UN Development Program in Europe and CIS CC 2.0