People Before Profit blog

Hemingway’s grandsons lead environmentalist delegation to Cuba

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 15:19:00 +0000

Following in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund (LAWGEF) organized a delegation headed by John and Patrick Hemingway, grandsons of Ernest, to travel to Cuba and work with researchers to promote cooperation between the United States and Cuba in the field of marine conservation. The trip served the dual purpose of commemorating Hemingway's life in Cuba and his love for the country, and his passion for the preservation of the Florida Straits. The group was able to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Hemingway's Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 and the 80th anniversary of Hemingway's first journey from Key West to Havana on his cabin cruiser, Pilar, in 1934. Representatives from LAWGEF were joined on this trip by scientists, researchers, and experts on the life and literature of Ernest Hemingway. Participants were able to tour many of Hemingway's favorite haunts on the island, and met with Cuban researchers and scientists to discuss environmental initiatives.

To further understand and celebrate the life of Ernest Hemingway, trip participants sailed from the Hemingway Marina near Havana to the fishing village of Cojimar, the setting of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Townspeople and school children lined the docks waiting for the Hemingways. The mayor of Cojimar led a ceremony to honor the anniversary of Hemingway's initial voyage on Pilar from Key West to Havana. At Hemingway's one-time home and now museum, Finca Vigía, a ceremony was held to honor Hemingway's literary accomplishments, specifically his Nobel Prize awarded in 1954.

Besides celebrating the life and work of the renowned author, the trip serves an example of how cooperation between Cuba and the United States is beneficial to both nations and essential to preserving our natural resources. As trip participants and grandsons of Ernest Hemingway, John and Patrick Hemingway, wrote upon returning from the trip:

"We hope that our journey to Cuba will begin to address these problems and restore balance to an important and delicate ecosystem that is of vital importance to both the American and Cuban people. We also hope that the cooperative nature of our trip will help demonstrate that better relations between the United States and Cuba are possible, and desirable. We support these changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba: The fundamental right to travel to Cuba without restriction should be restored to U.S. citizens; Cuba should be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which it is not. It's time to move beyond more than 50 years of antagonism to normalized relations."

The trip was a definite success, attracting international media attention and jumpstarting talks addressing the importance of scientific cooperation between the United States and Cuba in order to preserve the natural resources of the Gulf Stream and the Florida Straits. Additional information, photos from the trip, participant reflections, and a complete listing of media coverage of the trip can be found at lawg.org.

The above article is reprinted from the website of the Latin America Working Group.

Photo: Ernest Hemingway (center). John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Keystone XL struck down for now

Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:01:00 +0000

After receiving a total of 59 votes in the Senate - 45 Republican, 14 Democratic - a bill that would approve Keystone XL came one vote shy of its needed support on Nov. 19, putting a stopper on the troubling project for now. The victory settled the nerves of environmentalists and spared President Obama the task of vetoing the legislation, as he was likely to have done. Though the GOP has vowed to renew the fight to push the project through, those who value the safety of nature and people, including indigenous groups throughout the U.S., can now celebrate a moment of triumph.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., staked her hopes of winning a fourth Senate term on the Keystone measure, engaging in frantic last-minute lobbying, especially trying to acquire the needed votes from her fellow Democrats - the majority of whom, alongside Obama, wholly oppose the bill. "I'm going to fight for the people of my state until the day that I leave," Landrieu claimed. Her efforts were seen by many as unwise, especially as her state - a long-embattled victim of Big Oil in its own right - had nothing to gain from the project's approval, as the pipeline would not go through Louisiana, and would thus create no jobs there. This is a particularly important point, as it rendered her statement rather hollow.

For the Republican Party's part, they will gain an additional eight or more Senate seats in 2015, and are expected to seize that opportunity next year to try and ram the legislation through once more. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who will become Senate Majority Leader in January, said, "I look forward to the new Republican majority taking up and passing the Keystone 'jobs bill' early in the New Year." The GOP's language surrounding the bill, which emphasizes job creation and support for working families, is alarmingly misleading, as several labor unions pointed out yesterday. This is because it will not generate the job numbers that Republicans suggest, and moreover, will pose a risk to the environment that most Democrats, and the President, agree is not worth taking. Nevertheless, the GOP will likely try again in January or February, and might even try and integrate the measure into a broader bill that Obama would find harder to veto.

Landrieu asked, "What is everybody upset about?" from the Senate floor on Nov. 18, adding, "We already have 2.6 million miles of pipe in America." But environmental activists and those affected by the oil industry have been answering that question since the project's inception back in 2008.

"If she wants this pipeline so badly, it can go through her front yard and not any one of ours," said Karthik Ganapathy, communications manager for environmental advocacy group 350 Action. "For somebody that had the Gulf oil spill and the devastation it brought to her state, she should understand how important it is that we don't have these types of environmental disasters," added Art Tanderup, a Nebraska farmer and member of the Cowboy Indian Alliance, a group uniting workers and Native Americans against the pipeline.

Environmental groups are excited about this temporary victory, but it is tempered by an ongoing sense of uncertainty. Still, many believe the President will make the right decision, despite Republican efforts to fight him tooth and nail on this issue. "Since day one, the decision on the Keystone XL pipeline has belonged to President Obama," said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. "And he has repeatedly said he will reject this pipeline if it contributes to the climate crisis. As there is no doubt that it does, we remain confident that is precisely what he'll do."

Photo: AP

Climate agreement with China kills major rightwing argument against carbon curbs

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:23:00 +0000

During President Obama's visit to China, both countries announced a new climate change agreement that effectively takes away one of the right wing's major arguments against action to curb global warming.

For the first time, China has agreed to set a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases it will emit by 2030, increasing its reliance on renewable energy. This is significant for two reasons-one, China is now the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in the world, and two, the US government and conservatives have used China's previous unwillingness to set such limits as an excuse to avoid any and all binding targets on U.S. emissions. The U.S., as part of this agreement, sets ambitious goals for reductions in carbon pollution by 2025.

The bilateral agreement is also significant because it comes in advance of UN sponsored climate talks in Paris in the fall of 2015, aimed at forging a binding international treaty on climate change.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, notes both the historic nature of the agreement and also its limitations, in his commentary on Huffington Post. He points out that this agreement comes barely more than a month after the giant People's Climate March in New York City on Sept. 21. This massive outpouring set the pace for the upcoming struggles over environmental issues. He also notes that this agreement by itself is no reason to slow down or stop the mass struggle for more aggressive climate action.

And have no doubt that there will bee sharp struggles. Mitch McConnell, the likely new Senate majority leader in 2015, has already announced that he opposes the new deal; that he will oppose the efforts of the EPA to regulate new and existing power plant carbon pollution and that he places a high priority on Congress passing legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Some Democrats propose a vote to approve the Keystone pipeline during the lame duck session to boost the chances of Mary Landrieu winning re-election to the Senate from Louisiana.

The battles over climate change and other environmental issues will play a larger role in electoral and legislative struggles, and we can already see glimpses of splits in the ruling class. A new study confirms that the opposition by conservatives is not some kind of general rejection of science, it is a reaction against the steps needed to find solutions. That reinforces the points made author Naomi Klein in her new book, "This Changes Everything" that right-wing politicians recognize climate change as being a challenge to the capitalist system.

The new agreement will only escalate the intensity of right-wing opposition to any and all steps to tackle climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and all forms of carbon pollution. But it offers renewed hope for a serious international agreement to replace the expired Kyoto Accords.

Photo: The massive Sept. 21 New York People's Climate March is seen as a major impetus behind the historic carbon emissions deal just signed by the U.S. and China. People's Climate March/Flickr/Heather Craig

See also: The environmental movement: which way forward? by Marc Brodine, published October 28 in Political Affairs.