News Feeds | ecology.iww.org (2024)

Yale Environment 360 - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 06:23

While forest managers have proved adept of stamping out small wildfires, they have been less successful at suppressing larger, more devastating burns. The result is that the average wildfire is more severe than it would be without human intervention.

Read more on E360 →

Categories: H. Green News

Utility Dive - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 06:12

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Mining.Com - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 05:36

Researchers are evaluating several paths to create super diamonds, scientifically known as eight-atom body-centred cubic (BC8) crystals.

A recent paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters explains that BC8 is a distinct carbon phase: not diamond, but very similar and it is predicted to be a stronger material, exhibiting a 30% greater resistance to compression than diamond. The crystalline high-pressure carbon phase is theoretically predicted to be the most stable under pressures, surpassing 10 million atmospheres.

BC8 is believed to be found in the centre of carbon-rich exoplanets, whose presence is plausible based on recent astrophysical observations. These celestial bodies, characterized by considerable mass, experience gigantic pressures reaching millions of atmospheres in their deep interiors.

“The extreme conditions prevailing within these carbon-rich exoplanets may give rise to structural forms of carbon such as diamond and BC8,” Ivan Oleynik, a physics professor at the University of South Florida and senior author of the article, said in a media statement. “Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the properties of the BC8 carbon phase becomes critical for the development of accurate interior models of these exoplanets.”

BC8 is a high-pressure phase of both silicon and germanium that is recoverable to ambient conditions, and theory suggests that BC8 carbon should also be stable at ambient conditions.

Supercomputer simulations predicting the synthesis pathways for the elusive BC8 super-diamond. (Image by Mark Meamber, LLNL).

According to Oleynik and his colleagues, the most important reason that diamond is so hard is that the tetrahedral shape of the four-nearest-neighbour atoms in the diamond structure perfectly matches the optimal configuration of the four valence electrons in column-14 elements in the periodic table (beginning with carbon, followed by silicon and germanium).

“The BC8 structure maintains this perfect tetrahedral nearest-neighbour shape, but without the cleavage planes found in the diamond structure,” Jon Eggert, co-author of the paper, said. “The BC8 phase of carbon at ambient conditions would likely be much tougher than diamond.”

Through multi-million atomic molecular-dynamics simulations using the fastest exascale supercomputer in the world, the team uncovered the extreme metastability of the diamond at very high pressures, significantly exceeding its range of thermodynamic stability.

The key to this success was the development of very accurate machine-learning interatomic potential that describes interactions between individual atoms with unprecedented quantum accuracy at a wide range of high-pressure and temperature conditions.

“By efficiently implementing this potential on GPU-based (graphics processing unit) Frontier, we can now accurately simulate the time evolution of billions of carbon atoms under extreme conditions at experimental time and length scales,” Oleynik said. “We predicted that the post-diamond BC8 phase would be experimentally accessible only within a narrow, high-pressure, high-temperature region of the carbon phase diagram.”

In the researchers’ view, the significance of this study is twofold. First, it elucidates the reasons behind the inability of previous experiments to synthesize and observe the elusive BC8 phase of carbon. This limitation arises from the fact that BC8 can only be synthesized within a very narrow range of pressures and temperatures.

Additionally, it predicts viable compression pathways to access this highly restricted domain where BC8 synthesis becomes achievable. Oleynik, Eggert, and others are collaborating to explore these theoretical pathways using Discovery Science shot allocations at the National Ignition Facility, a laser-based inertial confinement fusion research device located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

The team dreams of, one day, growing a BC8 super diamond in the laboratory if only they could synthesize the phase and then recover a BC8 seed crystal back to ambient conditions.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

The Green Connection - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 05:19

Categories: G1. Progressive Green

Solar Industry Magazine - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 05:05

Duke Energy Progress has requested approval by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) to build and own a 76 MW utility-scale solar power facility adjacent to the existing Robinson Nuclear Plant site located in both Chesterfield and Darlington counties.

“Making smart investments in South Carolina’s energy future is a priority for Duke Energy: one that focuses on delivering reliable, affordable service every day to the customers and communities we serve, and on transitioning to cleaner energy options and a lower carbon future,” saysMike Callahan, Duke Energy’s South Carolina state president. “The proposed Robinson Solar Center is part of the thousands of megawatts of solar that will help us do that.”

If approved, construction is expected to begin on the approximate 345-acre existing site in 2026 with the facility targeting full operation by 2027.

The post Duke Energy Progress Sooks to Add Solar Power in South Carolina appeared first on Solar Industry.

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Mining.Com - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 05:03

Coloured gemstones miner Gemfields (LON: GEM) posted on Monday a 86%drop in pre-tax profit for 2023 due partly to the cancellation of a high-quality emerald auction in November, a lower number of carats sold and a write-down in its platinum group metals investments.

The London-based company experienced a 23% drop in revenue, amounting to $262 million from $341.1 million, and recorded a loss after tax of $2.8 million, a significant shift from the $74.3 million profit reported in 2022.

The decline was attributed partially to unrealized fair value losses of $28 million from the company’s 6.54% equity stake in South African platinum group miner Sedibelo Resources.

Gemfields warns of $2.8 million loss on write-down

The estimated value of this investment was revised down to $4 million, a decrease of $28 million from its worth in 2022.

Gemfields highlighted that inflationary pressures have been impacting its revenues as operating expenses remain high.

Despite a slight decrease in global commodity prices towards the end of 2023, concerns regarding high interest rates and geopolitical tensions persist worldwide, leading to increased costs, the company said.

The miner reduced its final dividend to 0.857 US cents from 4.125 US cents, funding the payment from its income reserves.

“Gemfields had a year of both achievements and challenges in 2023, “ chief executive Sean Gilbertson said in a statement. “The group recorded its second highest annual revenues [the highest was in 2022] and saw healthy prices paid at our auctions of rough emeralds and rubies.”

Emerald auction completed

The overall lower quality and quantity of premium emerald production at Kagem led to the cancellation of the November auction, which was completed last week — from March 5 to March 22.

The sale brought in $17.1 million, lower than the $25.5 million achieved at the previous auction held from August to September 2023.

It sold 93% of the emeralds offered, equivalent to 3.85 million rough stones at an average price of $4.45 per carat.

Managing director of product and sales, Adrian Banks, said the March auction offering included large quantities of lower-quality emeralds, which are typically destined for smaller manufacturers in India, through the company’s direct sales channel.

He said those parcels accounted for 55% of the auction by weight, resulting in the lower overall dollar-per-carat figure realized at the auction.

Since July 2009, Gemfields has held 47 emerald auctions that have generated over $1 billion in revenues.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

La Via Campesina : International Peasant Movement - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 04:38

ECVC Press Release: March 22, 2024

ECVC farmers will mobilise for a third time in Brussels on the 26 March, led by one of our Belgian member organisations, FUGEA. While we acknowledge some progress has been made, we demand an adequate response to our key demands centred on fair incomes and fair prices for farmers and farm workers:

1. Put an end to free trade agreements and unfair competition, starting with a definite halt to negotiations on EU-Mercosur agreement.
2. Strengthen the EU Directive on Unfair Trading Practices to legally ensure that prices are higher than our production costs (read our proposal).
3. Regulate markets via the CAP to ensure fair and stable prices, protected from speculation.
4. Ensure a sufficient budget and a fair distribution of CAP aid to enable a viable transition to agro-ecology and sustainable practices.
5. Reduce the administrative burden on farmers, through measures that respond to current climate and environmental challenges.

Recent proposals from the European Commission[1]*, which will be discussed at the AGRIFISH meeting, are insufficient to tackle the root causes that have driven farmer protests across Europe for months.

The priority is to ensure as many farmers as possible stay in and take up the profession, while providing support for more sustainable models. For this, we need remunerative prices and support that correspond to our efforts. European policies, and the CAP in particular, must be capable of regulating markets and supporting the transition.

We note that progress has been made on the potential revision of the EU Directive on Unfair Trading Practices and the creation of an observatory on production costs, margins and commercial practices in the agri-food supply chain. But this is still not enough to guarantee fair and stable prices that provide farmers with a decent income.

We have repeated our demands throughout our mobilisations, as well as in meetings between ECVC and FUGEA and the AGRIFISH Council President David Clarinval, the cabinet of Charles Michel and Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski. They will be repeated to President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen on 10 April.

We will therefore take to the streets once more on Tuesday 26 March. We will be joined by allied organisations, NGOs and workers’ unions who have strongly supported our mobilisations and demands. Meeting point at 10.30 am at the crossroads between rue de la Loi and rue des Taciturnes.

[1] * https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_24_1493

The post FUGEA and ECVC farmers return to Brussels in the face of inadequate European proposals that fail to address priority issues appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Categories: A1. Favorites, A3. Agroecology

Clean Energy Canada - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 03:44

B.C.’s nascent LNG industry evokes strong opinions from all sides. While perhaps the one thing everyone can agree on is that Canada is late to the LNG party, on everything else, common ground is elusive.

LNG may have looked like a viable path for B.C. a decade ago, but this isn’t necessarily the case today. In fact, B.C. LNG looks more and more like a bet, and perhaps more than any other in recent provincial memory, it is a bet with big costs and big risks. LNG is a bet on one vision for our economy over another. It’s a bet on a particularly draining use of our electricity system over other priorities in need of power. And it’s a bet on our climate.

Many of B.C.’s proposed LNG projects would come online in a global LNG market anticipated to see export capacityincreaseby 43 per centby 2030, but there is no consensus from governments or industry on future global demand. Japan’s LNG imports, for one, havesteadily declinedover the last decade and fallen to their lowest level in 14 years as the country restarts nuclear power plants and builds out renewables.

Adding further uncertainty to B.C.’s LNG industry is the question of where the electricity will come from to power new projects. If the federal and provincial governments live up to their climate commitments (namely on methane reduction, industrial carbon pricing, an emissions cap and ensuring that new LNG projects reach net zero on scope 1 and 2 emissions),over eight Site C’s worthof additional electricity would be required to electrify the six LNG projects in B.C. currently proposed or under construction.

In the past, the province would look to its neighbours to import power, but they are also experiencing electricity shortfalls. Importing one Site C’s worth of power costs $600 million based on last year’s average daily market rate, meaning that if the province can’t generate enough power to support LNG, the ratepayer or taxpayer will need to make up the difference.

Put another way, that’s a considerable annual bill that will be put to B.C. ratepayers or potentially taxpayers. LNG is a risk for household affordability, too, if B.C. families pay more for electricityand natural gasas the LNG industry drives up the price of both.

If the twin headwinds of oversupply and insufficient electricity weren’t difficult enough to overcome—assuming they can be overcome—a larger issue looms heavily over the LNG debate.

When accounting for the full life-cycle emissions of LNG,numerousstudiesshowthat it is far from clear whether LNG exports can lead to a reduction in global emissions, withestimatesvaryingwidely. Key uncertainties include levels of methane leakage and venting along the supply chain, assumptions around the global warming potential of methane, emissions from shipping the LNG to its destination, and the extent to which LNG replaces more polluting energy sources versus clean energy.

Additionally, there is a risk that LNG crowds out public and private sector investments in renewable energy and locks in infrastructure that is incompatible with a net-zero future. In fact, the International Energy Agencyfindsno need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in a world that achieves net zero by 2050.

Indeed, when understood as a choice between diverging pathways, LNG finds one more majority consensus. More British Columbians than evernow saythey would prefer the government focus on developing renewables (69 per cent) over LNG (15 per cent) in comparison to responses to this question from 2022 (64 per cent for renewables) and 2020 (61 per cent).

When online poll respondents last month were presented with a number of emerging economic development opportunities, renewable electricity was most popular (84 per cent), followed by manufacturing clean technologies (80 per cent), clean hydrogen (75 per cent) and sustainably produced metals and minerals (67 per cent). Natural gas production (48 per cent) and exporting LNG (39 per cent) were the least popular options presented.

As for whether B.C. LNG projects should receive government support to cover the cost of electrifying their operations to reduce emissions, a significant majority (65 per cent) said they believe companies should bear this cost without taxpayer dollars, compared to just 15 per cent who support this use of public funds.

Ultimately, LNG is a bet with many risks and many costs, and the market—not the taxpayer—should bear the financial risks.

This post first appeared in Business in Vancouver.

The post B.C.’s late LNG bet appears risky in a competitive market appeared first on Clean Energy Canada.

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Mining.Com - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 03:41

Taseko Mines (TSX, LON: TKO) (NYSE: TGB) said on Monday it’s acquiring the remaining 12.5% interestin the Gibraltar mine, the second largest open-pit copper operation in Canada, from current holders Dowa Metals & Mining and Furukawa.

The move will boost the Canadian miner’s attributable copper production by 14% and increase cash flow as the company progresses with construction at the Florence copper project in Arizona, CEO Stuart McDonald said.

The definitive agreementwill see Taseko pay C$117 million ($86.1m) over a period of ten years for the shares held by Dowa and Furukawa in Cariboo Copper Corp.

With the move, the Vancouver-based company will be the sole owner of Cariboo Copper Corp, effectively gaining a 100% interest in Gibraltar in south-central British Columbia.

It also gives it additional offtake rights as the Cariboo offtake contract comes back to Taseko, providing potential cost savings, McDonald said.

On top of the initial C$5 million ($3.7m) to be paid to Dowa and Furukawa (C$2.5 million each) after closing the deal, Taseko may be responsible for contingent payments depending on copper prices and Gibraltar’s cashflow, the company said.

“We have established a positive relationship with Dowa and Furukawa over the last 14 years,” McDonald noted. “Given that both groups are reducing their copper smelting businesses and are exiting their copper mining investments, we’ve been able to structure this exit from our long-term partnership in a mutually beneficial manner.”

The company posted its highest ever revenue of $525 million for 2023 earlier this month, thanks mainly to the contribution of Gibraltar mine. The revenue represented a 34% increase compared to 2022.

In 2023, themine produced a total of 122.6 million pounds of copper, with an average copper recovery rate of 82.6%and head grade of 0.25%. This production was higher than the company’s original guidance and also 26% higher than in 2022.

Taseko is also close to beginning production at Florence, which is expected to happen in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Categories: J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Land Workers' Alliance - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 03:34

The post Reflections on 2 years as Wales Membership Co-ordinator – Amber Wheeler appeared first on Landworkers Alliance.

Categories: A3. Agroecology

La Via Campesina : International Peasant Movement - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 02:37

ESAFF Uganda believes that journalists and communicators are key stakeholders in driving the agroecology agenda. It’s believed that once their capacity and knowledge in agroecology are built, they play a critical role in increasing comprehensive awareness and appreciation of agroecology among policymakers, consumers, and small-scale farmers as the main pillar in building a sustainable food system and ensuring food sovereignty, hence shaping the food systems discussion towards agroecology.

In a landmark event organised by the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESAFF) Uganda, journalists and communicators from across the region convened in Kampala to champion the cause of agroecology. The conference, held on January 25th, 2024, served as a platform for media professionals to discuss their pivotal role in advocating for sustainable food systems and safeguarding food sovereignty. The conference, themed “Promoting the Beauty of Agroecology,” brought together over 50 journalists and communicators representing various media houses in Uganda and East Africa.

Dr. Ivan Lukanda, a prominent figure in agricultural sustainability, delivered a keynote address emphasising the critical role of the media in ensuring citizens’ access to healthy and culturally appropriate food in the East African Community (EAC) and across Africa. He emphasised that corporations, with government support, control industrial agriculture, which threatens the local ecological systems that 70% of the world relies on for food production. He added that this situation has resulted in a food crisis, high prices, export-oriented production, biofuel use, food as animal feed, poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Corporations are actively seeking control over land, water, seeds, and markets, leading to social, cultural, environmental, and ecosystem concerns.

“When practicing agroecology and discussing responsible governance, it is crucial that our governments not only remain responsive to large organisations but also extend their consideration to small organizations. Additionally, there should be a focus on circular economies, which involve viewing agriculture in conjunction with other aspects. The primary advocacy is for the establishment of national standards for organic produce,” Dr. Lukanda added.

During a panel discussion, Mr. Baliraine emphasised that food sovereignty primarily focuses on addressing the rights of people to access healthy and culturally appropriate food. He emphasised the regional diversity in food preferences, emphasising that the choices enjoyed in Northern Uganda may differ from those in the central and other regions.

Ms. Masudio acknowledged the increasing momentum of the women’s forum in agroecology, emphasising its significance in fostering women’s participation in this domain. She noted a positive shift in the recognition of women’s substantial contributions to the agriculture sector and agroecological practices in Uganda. While historically overlooked, the progress in media awareness is evident, with documented stories showcasing women’s work in agroecology being published across various channels. Ms. Masudio highlighted the embrace of technology by women, enabling them to share their experiences and work more widely.

Additionally, journalists had the opportunity to discuss their most significant experiences and challenges while reporting on agroecology. Nearly every journalist present seized this opportunity to sound an alarm and strongly criticise editors for refusing to publish agroecology stories, despite their national significance aligning with government objectives of achieving food security and addressing climate change in the country.

During a panel discussion, Zuwena Shame, a journalist from Tanzania and an alumnus of the Agroecology School for Journalists and Communicators, shared her challenges and triumphs in promoting agroecology through her work. She recounted the difficulties she faced in getting her agroecology-related content published by her editor and the media house.

“Most editors may reject agroecology-focused pieces, deeming them not suitable for the media house. Despite encountering resistance and contending with the prevalence of conventional stories, some of us will persevere and continue to write on agroecology.” Zuwena alluded

“Most of the journalists are out of touch with what small-scale farmers are doing on the ground, and they are missing a lot. I want to thank ESAFF Uganda for this platform for building our capacity in reporting and writing about agroecology, said Jackson Okata, Mt Kenya Times.

According to Marko Taibot, most of the journalists’ stories do not surface or ever make it to the media due to a lack of good equipment to use. “Most of us do not have cameras that can take good photos. In my experience with the Daily Monitor, any story must be accompanied by a good photo in order for the story to feature,” Marko added.

“Coming from a country like Kenya that is faced with a lot of food insecurity, our context on food systems differs a lot. Most Kenyan journalists are basically reporting on conventional farming and the extensive use of agrochemicals because our land has been heavily depleted and most of the crops can only survive with agrochemicals, says Joyce Chimbi of Talk Africa. She added that most editors cannot publish agroecology stories because they believe that it cannot work for Kenyan farmers.

During the conference, the Agroecology School for Journalists and Communicators, an initiative by ESAFF Uganda, warded journalists who had completed the Agroecology Course for Journalists and Communicators. One distinguished awardee extended appreciation to ESAFF Uganda, acknowledging the organisation’s efforts in curating comprehensive materials and investing in resources that facilitated a profound understanding of agroecology. The participants at the school highlighted that the initial intent of enrolling in the course was to broaden reporting skills and comprehension of agroecology. However, the experience exceeded expectations, leaving participants not only motivated but also inspired to actively participate in and promote agroecological practices.

In his closing remarks, Sir Sunday Bob George, the Senior Agricultural Officer for Food Security at the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries, advised journalists to steer clear of potential harm while telling impactful stories on agroecology. He strongly cautioned them against making comparisons between organic and conventional farming in a manner that portrays the latter negatively. This approach, he emphasised, not only ensures their safety while reporting but also increases the likelihood of getting their stories published.

“I urge all journalists and communicators to promote and speak about the beauty of agroecology to the public in several dimensions. That is the only way people will be interested in taking up agroecology,” he said.

The post Media Urged to Spotlight the Aesthetic Splendour of Agroecology to the Public appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Categories: A1. Favorites, A3. Agroecology

Clean Energy Canada - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 02:00

VICTORIA — Expanding LNG in B.C. comes with risks to B.C.’s economy and energy system, finds a new report from Clean Energy Canada, An Uncertain Future.

B.C.’s nascent LNG industry has a number of proposed LNG projects, some of which have not yet been built or even approved, but the business and environmental case for expanding the industry is built on questionable foundations.

Specifically, it is unclear who will be buying B.C. LNG in the coming years and decades as forecasts for future LNG demand vary significantly. Japan’s LNG imports, for one, have steadily declined over the last decade and fallen to their lowest level in 14 years as the country restarts nuclear power plants and builds out renewables. Meanwhile, global LNG export capacity is anticipated to increase by 43% by the end of the decade, just as many of B.C.’s export projects are planned to come online, with LNG oversupply set to be most pronounced in B.C.’s intended export markets.

Expansion would also come at a cost to the province’s electricity system. If all six LNG facilities were to be built, they would require around 43 TWh of electricity per year—equivalent to the electricity from more than eight Site C dams. In the past, B.C. could rely on neighbouring provinces and states for electricity imports, but they are now also facing shortages. What’s more, importing just one Site C’s worth of electricity would cost B.C. ratepayers, or potentially taxpayers, around $600 million annually.

Despite being touted by proponents as a coal-displacing climate solution, the climate case for LNG is also far from clear. Abroad, LNG will not necessarily reduce global emissions when accounting for factors such as methane leakage and the risk that it could compete with renewables and nuclear.

And here at home, aggressive LNG development would jeopardize B.C.’s abilities to meet its climate targets. The combined emissions of all proposed projects would make up 40% of B.C.’s total emissions in 2030, assuming the province met its climate target. It is far more likely that B.C. would greatly miss its target with LNG adding so much climate pollution to the province.

As the report articulates, there are a number of steps governments should take to ensure B.C. is taking the best path on LNG, including aligning industrial strategy and electricity-related decision-making around a net zero future. Amending the environmental assessment process to account for emissions at all points of the supply chain, not just those in B.C., would also reveal a clearer climate picture.

The report concludes that B.C. should be highly skeptical of investing in the expansion of an industry whose market is far from guaranteed, and which risks crowding out public and private investments in cleaner industries better poised for growth in the coming decades.

Read the full report

KEY FACTS

• The International Energy Agency holds that there is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in a world that reaches net zero by 2050.
• Global LNG export capacity is anticipated to increase by 43% from today by the end of the decade (as B.C.’s export projects are planned to come online). B.C.’s key competitors—namely Australia, Qatar, Malaysia, the U.S., and Russia—are projected to add around 50% more export capacity by 2030 compared to today.
• If all six LNG facilities were to be built, they would require around 43 TWh of electricity per year. That’s 69% of B.C.’s total 2022 demand, or the equivalent of the electricity from more than eight Site C dams.
• Importing just one Site C’s worth of electricity would cost B.C. ratepayers, or potentially taxpayers, around $600 million annually.
• The U.S. government anticipates that LNG exports could cause domestic natural gas prices to increase by up to 28% over the next 25 years.

RESOURCES

Report | An Uncertain Future

The post Expanding B.C. LNG involves risky trade-offs for province’s electricity system, economy, and climate goals: report appeared first on Clean Energy Canada.

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In Florida, the effects of climate change are hard to ignore, no matter your politics. It’s the hottest state — Miami spent a record 46 days above a heat index of 100 degrees last summer — and many homes and businesses are clustered along beachfront areas threatened by rising seas and hurricanes. The Republican-led legislature has responded with more than $640 million for resilience projects to adapt to coastal threats.

But the same politicians don’t seem ready to acknowledge the root cause of these problems. A bill awaiting signature from Governor Ron DeSantis, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January, would ban offshore wind energy, relax regulations on natural gas pipelines, and delete the majority of mentions of climate change from existing state laws.

“Florida is on the front lines of the warming climate crisis, and the fact that we’re going to erase that sends the wrong message,” said Yoca Arditi-Rocha, the executive director of the CLEO Institute, a climate education and advocacy nonprofit in Florida. “It sends the message, at least to me and to a good majority of Floridians, that this is not a priority for the state.”

As climate change has been swept into the country’s culture wars, it’s created a particularly sticky situation in Florida. Republicans associate “climate change” with Democrats — and see it as a pretext for pushing a progressive agenda — so they generally try to distance themselves from the issue. When a reporter asked DeSantis what he was doing to address the climate crisis in 2021, DeSantis dodged the question, replying, “We’re not doing any left-wing stuff.” In practice, this approach has consisted of trying to manage the effects of climate change while ignoring what’s behind them.

The bill, sponsored by state Representative Bobby Payne, a Republican from Palatka in north-central Florida, would strike eight references to climate change in current state laws, leaving just seven references untouched, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Some of the bill’s proposed language tweaks are minor, but others repeal whole sections of laws.

For example, it would eliminate a “green government grant” program that helps cities and school districts cut their carbon emissions. A 2008 policy stating that Florida is at the front lines of climate change and can reduce those impacts by cutting emissions would be replaced with a new goal: providing “an adequate, reliable, and cost-effective supply of energy for the state in a manner that promotes the health and welfare of the public and economic growth.”

Water floods part of a street that runs near the Strait of Florida during the seasonal king tides in October 2019 in Key West, Florida. Researchers say the Florida Keys will see increased flooding as sea levels continue to rise. Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Florida politicians have a history of attempting to silence conversations about the fossil fuel emissions driving sea level rise, heavier floods, and worsening toxic algae blooms. When Rick Scott was the Republican governor of the state between 2011 and 2019, state officials were ordered to avoid using the phrases “climate change” or “global warming” in communications, emails, and reports, according to the Miami Herald.

It foreshadowed what would happen at the federal level after President Donald Trump took office in 2017. The phrase “climate change” started disappearing from the websites of federal environmental agencies, with the term’s use going down 38 percent between 2016 and 2020. “Sorry, but this web page is not available for viewing right now,” the Environmental Protection Agency’s climate change site said during Trump’s term.

Red states have demonstrated that politicians don’t necessarily need to acknowledge climate change to adapt to it, but Florida appears poised to take the strategy to the extreme, expunging climate goals from state laws while focusing more and more money on addressing its effects. In 2019, DeSantis appointed Florida’s first “chief resilience officer,” Julia Nesheiwat, tasked with preparing Florida for rising sea levels. Last year, he awarded the Florida Department of Environmental Protection more than $28 million to conduct and update flooding vulnerability studies for every county in Florida.

“Why would you address the symptoms and not the cause?” Arditi-Rocha said. “Fundamentally, I think it’s political maneuvering that enables them [Republicans] to continue to set themselves apart from the opposite party.”

She’s concerned that the bill will increase the state’s dependence on natural gas. The fossil fuel provides three-quarters of Florida’s electricity, leaving residents subject to volatile prices and energy insecurity, according to a recent Environmental Defense Fund report. As Florida isn’t a particularly windy state, she sees the proposed ban on offshore wind energy as mostly symbolic. “I think it’s more of a political kind of tactic to distinguish themselves.” Solar power is already a thriving industry that’s taking off in Florida — it’s called the Sunshine State for a reason.

Greg Knecht, the executive director of The Nature Conservancy in Florida, thinks that the removal of climate-related language from state laws could discourage green industries from coming to the state. (And he’s not ready to give up on wind power.) “I just think it puts us at a disadvantage to other states,” Knecht said. Prospective cleantech investors might see it as a signal that they’re not welcome.

The bill is also out of step with what most Floridians want, Knecht said. According to a recent survey from Florida Atlantic University, 90 percent of the state’s residents accept that climate change is happening. “When you talk to the citizens of Florida, the majority of them recognize that the climate is changing and want something to be done above and beyond just trying to build our way out of it.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Florida is about to erase climate change from most of its laws on Mar 25, 2024.

Categories: H. Green News

Green European Journal - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 01:30

While farming and nature are inextricably bound together, political bargaining often sets the two in opposition. Recent protests across Europe and worldwide show growing frustration among farmers. The European Commission is responding with row-backs on environmental standards. Could farmers be brought back onside with a Common Agricultural Policy U-turn on trade?

Imagine a job where you never get a day off. Where your work, providing an essential public service, requires you to take on hundreds of thousands of euros in debt over decades. Where you never know how much you’ll get for what you sell. Where mainstream media either ignores or vilifies you. Where your health is at risk from prevailing practices. Where you don’t earn enough to retire with a pension. Where, once you do retire, no new generation is willing to take up the reins because the quality of life is considered low. Welcome to today’s farming in Europe. And not just in Europe but worldwide.

It’s not hard to see why recent weeks have witnessed waves of European farmers’ protests from Brussels to Madrid and Warsaw. Headlines have been filled with images of tractors blocking motorways and city centres, slurry dumped at supermarkets, police being sprayed with manure and pelted with eggs. Farmers are vociferously raising their voices demanding dignity, support for their livelihoods, viability of small farms, a future: “No farmers, no food!”

In Brussels, many of those on the streets have been demonstrating against the free trade agreements that undercut their prices and livelihoods. In Poland, Germany, and Romania, farmers are rejecting the influx of cheap Ukrainian grain and its impact on their livelihoods. In India, farmers are once again out on the streets, resisting the latest attempts to dismantle commodity price support policies, without which their already-strained livelihoods will be even further devalued.

These protests are not isolated incidents but rather a global expression of frustration and disillusionment with a system that prioritises profit and global competition over people. They are stirring up important debates about regulation, fair prices, trade agreements, and the future of our food. In Europe, the negotiations for a deal with the Mercosur trade bloc loom large, threatening to undercut local producers and exacerbate the challenges they face.

These protests are not isolated incidents but rather a global expression of frustration and disillusionment with a system that prioritises profit and global competition over people.

Yet, as these protests unfold, panic-stricken politicians – in the heat of a “mega” election year – seem more inclined to throw environmental protection under the bus than address the legitimate grievances of those who feed us. The European Commission has already unscrupulously junked plans to cut pesticide use, scrapped a strategy on sustainable food systems, and loosened environmental and labour requirements that farmers must respect to access farming subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Missing the point

In the scheme of farmers’ struggles, the Commission’s response completely misses the point. Many farmers are fighting against deregulation: namely, free trade agreements that set unequal competition, the dumping of cheap produce on their markets, and the dismantling of market support. Scrapping green protections won’t help farmers tackle soaring input and land costs, falling farmgate prices, cut-price competition, a subsidy system that favours the big players, the debt and uncertainty suffocating farmers, nor the outsized power of retail and food giants who profit from their labour. In the European Union, farmer incomes are around 40 per cent lower than non-agricultural incomes. Postponing urgent and necessary action to protect the ecosystems on which farmers depend also panders to far-right agendas, and validates a false narrative of a war between farmers and climate action.

It cannot be denied that some farming groups have voiced opposition to environmental regulations – raising uncomfortable questions for green movements. Flaws have been identified in the Commission’s initial efforts to promote the European Green Deal, indicating that a change of approach is needed if we are to bring farmers on board for a more sustainable food and farming model.

All the same, the interests of farmers and the environment coincide. Farmers and farmworkers are the first-level, silent victims of polluting, industrialised food systems: the severe health impacts of occupational exposure to pesticides – too often ignored or concealed – correlate with the development of a wide variety of diseases ranging from respiratory effects to various types of cancer. They would be the first to benefit from phasing out harmful pesticide use. Also, when it comes to climate impacts, farmers are among the first casualties. For example, floods, droughts, and storms wiped out some 10 per cent of Italian farmers’ production in 2022, driving 6 billion euros in losses. No farmers, no environmental transition!

Farmers’ interests are not fundamentally opposed to the Green Deal, the Farm To Fork Strategy, or a future CAP that supports a green transition. This misconception is often peddled by big agri-food lobbies and political parties seeking to exploit current tensions – lazily parroted by some media outlets.

What is unsustainable is environmental and climate rules that leave farmers unable to compete on a level playing field, struggling to make ends meet amidst unfair competition and floods of cheap imports. Too often, the costs of environmental regulation are imposed on farmers while the benefits flow to the rest of society. In short, a transition that is not a just transition will fail. Farmers aren’t asking for handouts but for recognition of their essential role in society – and they deserve nothing less.

Dialogue

There is huge scope to bring farmers back onside. Fair and just transition plans decided between farmers and the many who sympathise with their plight are a must. To move forward, we must acknowledge the inherent injustices and power imbalances within our food systems. Instead of pitting farmers against environmentalists or consumers, we must work together to build a food system that pays a decent wage, is resilient, and is respectful of our planet’s limits.

This means implementing policies that address the uneven playing field created by international trade agreements and corporate greed. The right kind of support and processes, co-constructed with farmers and citizens, bring economic benefits for farmers transitioning towards sustainable food and agricultural systems. Studies conducted in France, for example, show that agroecological farms generally have better medium-term economic results than conventional practices.

Instead of pitting farmers against environmentalists or consumers, we must work together to build a food system that pays a decent wage, is resilient, and is respectful of our planet’s limits.

Belatedly realising the extent of farmer anger, the Commission has convened a series of farmer and civil society dialogues. These could be a useful forum to begin the conversations needed to rebuild trust. But they will only be effective if the Commission genuinely listens to the concerns of farmers, regardless of the size and location of their holdings, as partners in crafting solutions – not just listening to the influential few. Acknowledging uncomfortable home truths about free trade agreements and corporate price-gouging, addressing the marginalisation of small-scale farmers in the decisions that directly affect them, recognising farmers’ knowledge, and decentralising decision-making processes, methods, and funds to take decisions and plan transformations of territories at a local level are all necessary.

Through dialogue and deep collaboration between farmers, farmworkers, rural communities, and citizens it will be possible to create common visions, and co-design pathways towards a fair and sustainable food system – to bring farmers off the streets and back behind a Green Deal, which is, first and foremost, a fair deal.

Two long-standing challenges must be tackled head-on. Firstly, instead of U-turns on environmental measures, the Commission must be willing to change course on trade. Secondly, reimagining the CAP is essential – prioritising not commodity production but environmental sustainability, equity, and economic viability for all farmers.

Fair trade

For decades, the EU’s liberalisation of agricultural markets and pursuit of bilateral trade agreements has left farmers increasingly exposed to unfair competition. Food is unlike any other economic sector. It is a basic human need and it should be treated as such.

From the start, the Achilles’ heel of the Farm To Fork Strategy and the Green Deal was the external dimension. The Commission willed an environmental transition that didn’t affect its trade policy. But this is not tenable and is why recent calls for a “Global Green Deal” should now be heard.

A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism – essentially, a carbon tax applied to imported products – has been introduced in some sectors of production that are particularly carbon-intensive, including cement, electricity, aluminium, fertilisers, and fossil energies. But, so far, the mechanism hasn’t been applied to agriculture, unprotected from environmental dumping. The Farm To Fork strategy has remained vague and toothless on this point. For all the talk of mirror clauses, sustainability chapters, and levelling up, substandard imports continue to undercut the products of European farmers. This has left farmers vulnerable to market disruption – as experienced with the importation of cheap grain from Ukraine.

A fair and green deal for farmers must consider a carbon border adjustment for agriculture. It requires a complete rethink of the trade deal with Mercosur – or the suspension of negotiations altogether. Cracking down on price-gouging by fertiliser giants and input suppliers is also a must. As is taking action throughout the food supply chain to ensure fair prices that reflect the cost of sustainable production, including much tougher action on unfair trading practices, corporate abuses of power, and cut-price supermarket buyers squeezing farmers to the bone – taking inspiration from Spain, where selling below the price of production has been prohibited.

Reimagining CAP

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is in dire need of a reformation to address the disparities, poverty, and environmental harm that continue to plague European farmers.

A cornerstone of EU policy since its inception in the 1960s, the CAP has significantly transformed both Europe’s socio-economic and environmental landscapes. Originally conceived as a response to food shortages following World War II, the CAP aimed to increase food security, production, and incomes. It focused primarily on price support mechanisms, and subsidies for key commodities such as grains, dairy, and sugar. While these policies initially achieved their objectives, they led to overproduction, environmental degradation, and unfair dumping of surpluses on Global South markets.

The Common Agricultural Policy is in dire need of a reformation to address the disparities, poverty, and environmental harm that continue to plague European farmers.

Over the decades, to achieve greater “market orientation”, the CAP has shifted to awarding farmers a flat-rate subsidy based on the hectares of land they farm – thus privileging large-scale operations. A smaller pot has also been available to fund rural development and conditional “greening” measures. Today, the EU’s biggest budget line disproportionately benefits the largest farms specialised in industrial agriculture and livestock production, leaving small-scale and family-owned farms struggling to compete. 80 per cent of subsidies flow to just 20 per cent of farmers.

Now, the challenges posed by ecological crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, the prospective accession of agricultural powerhouse Ukraine into the EU, and today’s farmer protests are calling the entire model into question.

In this context, the stop-start implementation of the Green Deal has failed to change the shape of the CAP or to shift the fundamentals of EU agriculture, while adding a sense of complexity. Lobbying by big economic interests has contributed to curtailing reforms and rising uncertainty. Only large farms can afford to cover the bureaucratic costs tied to the current system and compete in the low-cost mass production model, which rewards economies of scale and capital-intensive forms of production. The current absence of “vision” (in the words of the former Agriculture Commissioner) risks ceding ground to those vested interests who have captured the bulk of CAP funds to date, ignoring the threats to farmer livelihoods from trade and deregulation.

The Commission is threatening to water down green requirements in the CAP by making them only voluntary, which would be an abdication of leadership. The Commission should urgently accelerate its thinking about the next CAP reforms to envision a bold and positive future for EU farmers, and a just transition – rather than clinging to the same old failed recipe. This means moving beyond the simple idea of innovation, digitalisation, and ever-larger farms as silver bullets to modernise agriculture. Europe’s investment in CAP must be to guarantee fair prices for farmers’ produce, transparent supply chains, healthy food, and support for agroecological farming – rewarding farmers, small and big, not for land ownership but for their environmental stewardship.

This must go hand in hand with a broader strategy to re-envision Europe’s food systems from the ground up, with social justice, environmental transition, and health at its core. The Farm to Fork Strategy needs to go back to its origins, returning to a truly integrated and comprehensive food policy for Europe, with joined-up steps to promote just and sustainable food systems in Europe and globally, with the right governance structures for an integrated food system policy.

Farmers’ protests have been a long time in the making. They are a wake-up call for policymakers to rethink our approach to food systems, and to prioritise the well-being of farmers and rural communities alongside the resilience of our farming and our environment. As we stand on the cusp of major European elections, the choices we make will shape the future of our food system for generations to come. Let’s choose solidarity over scapegoating, cooperation over culture wars, and a future where farmers can thrive alongside the communities they live in and the land they steward.

Categories: H. Green News

Food Tank - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 00:00

The National STEM Challenge, presented by EXPLR, is featuring students for their innovative projects focused on bolstering food security, advocating for sustainable agriculture, and advancing agricultural technology. In April, 2024 students recognized through the Challenge will travel to Washington, D.C. to present their work at the National STEM Festival.

The nation-wide challenge invited submissions of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) innovations, inventions, and research from students in grades 6-12. The projects covered six themes, including Future Food.

“As a STEM-Bassador, an EXPLR co-founder, and board member I believe this work to be the most important of my lifetime,” Chef Andrew Zimmern tells Food Tank. “Just look at what these current pioneering change makers are doing! Sustainable food wraps, bio fortifying eggs, remaking how we identify crop disease while we still have a chance to prevent massive losses, soil conservation and repair. These aren’t future changemakers, they are changing our world right now! And we are bringing them to the world, front and center.”

Hao Li, an 11th grader from North Carolina, is one of the students being recognized for her award-winning submission in April. Looking to address food spoilage, Li sought to understand the science of food ripening. Through her research, she uncovered the role that the compound 1-Methylcyclopropene can play in counteracting the effects of ethylene gas, a natural hormone that speeds up ripening. To extend the shelf life of products, she developed a wrap prototype that she hopes can shape future approaches to preservation.

Another STEM Champion, 11th grader Laasya Acharya from Ohio, focused her project on improving crop disease protection methods—an issue that results in the loss of 40 percent of global crops, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Acharya developed Ceres, a device that utilizes advanced imaging and neural networks to identify diseases in fruits, crops, and vegetables. As it develops, she is aiming for at least 85 percent accuracy and a detection time of under 10 seconds per image, while keeping costs below US$40.

And Shelby Scout Hoobler, an 11th grader from Wyoming being recognized for her submission, sought to rejuvenate overgrazed riparian areas. Through detailed soil sample analyses that pinpoint nutrient deficiencies, Hoobler hopes to restore these vital ecosystems and develop a scalable model for environmental recovery efforts globally.

“This is a big topic in Wyoming and the west, so it is exciting for the National STEM Challenge to elevate this type of research,” Hoobler tells Food Tank.

Li, Acharya, and Hoobler, along with 123 of their peers, will gather at the National STEM Festival from April 12-13, 2024, co-presented by EXPLR and the U.S. Department of Education. The event will spotlight their innovative projects to a wider audience but also facilitate interactions with leading figures in government and industry. Organizers hope that this will help to lay the groundwork for future collaborations and breakthroughs.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement?Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo Courtesy of Shelby Hoobler

The post Pioneering the Future of Food: Student Innovators Lead the Way in National STEM Challenge appeared first on Food Tank.

Categories: A3. Agroecology

Ecologist - Mon, 03/25/2024 - 00:00

Categories: H. Green News

Green Energy Times - Sun, 03/24/2024 - 23:11

Headline News:

• “To Make Water Last Year-Round, Kenyans In Dry Regions Are Building Sand Dams On Seasonal Rivers” • Kenyans are building sand dams so they can harvest water from seasonal rivers. The barriers, typically made of concrete, impede water flow so grains of sand settle behind them, creating artificial aquifers that fill up during rainy seasons. [ABC News]

Kerio River after a rain (Rainier5, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)

• “Climate-Conscious Investors Put Nuclear Dead Last On List Of Desirable Australian Ventures” • Nuclear energy ranks last on the list of climate technologies big institutional investors want, according to a survey of climate conscious investors with A$37 tillion ($24 trillion) under management. Fewer than 10% of the group are considering nuclear power. [The Guardian]
• “Report: More Profits Must Go To Local Communities From Renewable Energy Projects” • The Welsh Government must find a way to retain a greater share of the profits from commercial renewable energy projects for the public good, a report from the Institute of Welsh Affairs says. Local energy sources provide a way to retain local wealth. [Nation.Cymru]
• “Canada Pushes Nuclear Power To Get At Oil Sands” • Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said discussions are already taking place with the oil industry and the province of Alberta to use nuclear power to extract oil from oil sands. He believes nuclear energy helping get heavy crude out of the ground will help cut greenhouse gas emissions. [Reuters] (What‽)
• “Lower Priced Tesla “Model 2” Production To Begin In 2025” • After CleanTechnica’s Zach Shahan termed the coming affordable Tesla the “Model 2” as a joke for a while, Elon Musk said it won’t have that name. Elon Musk loves letters; the Model 3 exists only because Ford has rights to “Model E.” Regardless, the new Tesla is expected to start at $25,000 or less. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Categories:

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change - Sun, 03/24/2024 - 21:25

Are you undocumented in Canada? Are you thinking of applying for permanent residency under H&C (Humanitarian & Compassionate application)? Come to an online workshop on Thursday, April 11 at 8PM EDT | 5pm PDT to learn more about strategies and tips to strengthen your H&C applications! Sign up below and keep reading for more information!

Join this SAFE and ANONYMOUS workshop to:

1. Learn what an H&C application is,
2. If and when you should apply for it,
3. What you need to do to make your application successful (separate from your lawyer),
4. Learn about the promised regularization program for PR for all undocumented people if we win!

This workshop:

1. Provides general legal information, but not legal advice. We will not be able to answer detailed one-on-one questions.
2. Will be on Zoom. You will receive the Zoom link after you register using your email. In the workshop, you do not need to share your real name or turn your camera on.
3. Is for undocumented people only, not service providers from organizations.

The post Humanitarian & Compassionate (H&C) Workshop for Undocumented People appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Categories: C4. Radical Labor

Tempest Magazine - Sun, 03/24/2024 - 19:59

Tempest Collective: Your book Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America presents a rich and detailed history of the impact of McCarthyism on the Left and on U.S. society more broadly. We’d love to talk to you today about some of the lessons we can draw from this history in seeking to understand what some have called the “new McCarthyism” today. But first I wonder if you could speak to the tension in the term “McCarthyism” itself. McCarthyism was never about one individual but a much broader set of institutional forces. Could you discuss how you understand the conditions that gave rise to what we call McCarthyism? Do you think we have entered or are entering a period that we can meaningfully understand through the lens of McCarthyism? If so, how? Or if not, where do you think the analogy falls short?

Ellen Schrecker: The comparison to what’s happening today is apt—because McCarthyism was not about one person. And what’s happening today within our society and the erosion of democratic practices and values is not just about Donald Trump.

And we have to keep that in our heads at all times. We’re fighting a worldwide phenomenon—and it’s absolutely terrifying. It’s so much worse today. I am so much more frightened now. And I lived through McCarthyism.

I grew up in the 1950s. Everything was shoved under the rug. My sixth-grade teacher was fired because he had once been a member of the Communist Party. But what we’re seeing today is worse because it’s dominating the mainstream.

Joe McCarthy hopped onto a bandwagon that was already playing at full amplification in the spring of 1950. The anticommunist Red Scare, which probably is the best term for the phenomenon we call McCarthyism, really began in the late 1940s. Anticommunism existed ever since the Communist Party was founded in 1919, but it never dominated domestic politics until the late 1940s.

It was a product of the early years of the Cold War. The United States had emerged from World War II victorious and very wealthy. What triggered McCarthyism was the Republican Party’s defeat in the election of 1948. They had been running on their normal program, which was to get rid of the welfare state, and it turned out that the voters liked the welfare state. You know, they liked Social Security, the various programs helping farmers, helping unemployed workers. They liked those. Well, who wouldn’t? So, the right realized they couldn’t win political power by relying on opposition to the New Deal.

So, what did they do? They said, well, the New Deal has been run by Communists. And Communists, as we know, took over Eastern Europe—which happened. And they stole the secret of the bomb—which also happened.

This McCarthyist scenario provided an opportunity that was picked up by mainstream Republican politicians. It soon developed into a huge attack on anything that smacked of the Left. Every part of the government bought into it.

In Congress, for example, there were very clever, very ideological, and opportunistic politicians like Richard Nixon, who became a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and became palsy with [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover, who was feeding him information. Nixon got headlines and attention and made a career out of it that led to the White House. And Hoover became the eminence grise of the Cold War Red Scare—devising and often running most of the repressive measures that constituted McCarthyism.

Nixon’s ascent encouraged other politicians to think, “We can do that.” And Joe McCarthy comes along. McCarthy was able to get enormous amounts of press, enormous amounts of attention claiming without any evidence, “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” What’s important to realize is there had been Communists in the State Department, but they were all kicked out when the Cold War started.

McCarthy was hardly the only conservative politician to ride the Red Scare for his own benefit, for his own career. But it got named “McCarthyism” after the word was invented by a cartoonist named Herblock, who did wonderful cartoons during this period making fun of the Cold War Red Scare for attacking a nonexistent enemy.

Cartoon by Herbert Block (aka Herblock), October 31, 1947, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

TC: In your book, you look at the impact of McCarthyism in many spheres, but in particular how it impacted the labor movement.

ES: Back in the days before McCarthyism, there was a very strong labor movement in the United States, which was always being attacked by the business community. They did not want to share their profits with the workers. They wanted to cut costs. They didn’t want to ensure that the workplace was safe for its workers because that might cut into their profits.

So, once the Republicans and other conservatives gained power, the main target of the Cold War anticommunist Red Scare became organized labor. In the United States, the labor movement has always attracted the far Left. Why? Because they’re Marxists. What do the Marxists want? They want the victory of the working class. So, they do what they can to help the working class gain power. They join unions. And they organize them effectively. They’re very good at that. As a result, Communists gained influence within the labor movement. The Republicans and their political allies knew that—as did non-Communists who were vying with the Reds for control over the labor movement— [and] who, along with conservative politicians and federal bureaucrats like Hoover, kicked the Communists out of the mainstream labor movement.

The labor movement was essentially defanged. Until very recently, it did not push for social justice issues like racial equity, but only for higher wages and benefits for its members. Above all, it stopped organizing and mobilizing its members—with the result that today we have a very enfeebled labor movement, and we have to build it back.

But it is being built back, which is just so heartening. My sister, who lives in Philadelphia, just sent me an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer. The faculty at the University of Pennsylvania had a huge demonstration to insist that the rich trustees are not going to tell us what to teach our students, because they don’t know a thing about chemistry, or about 17th-century history, or about slavery, and we’re not going to let them impose lies on our students.

TC: You have studied university-based movements, including in your latest books, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s and The Right to Learn. Clearly the right has undertaken a major offensive against academic freedom, affirmative action, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and other forms of antiracism, and faculty tenure protections. You also see now expression of solidarity with Palestine being repressed. Why is the right focusing so much of its energy here?

ES: That is such a good question that I’ve been trying to answer myself. Largely, I think, because universities are a pushover. They have long been one of the institutions that still harbors, protects, and even fosters criticism of the status quo.

We can look at what happened to universities during McCarthyism. And that’ll give us a little background for what’s happening today. You know, mainstream liberals have been accustomed to giving universities a free pass. Higher education helps democracy. It creates knowledge about the world we live in that’s important to have. But universities are no different from the rest of society. And, as many on the Left learned in the 1960s, they do not deserve the halo around them.

Those of us trying to protect American universities have to rethink the mission of higher education. We can’t just say it’s good in and of itself. We’ve got to be a lot more concrete, and we’ve got to fight back.

Right-wing business groups and philanthropists, people like the Koch Brothers, have been creating a sort of alternative university over the past 40 or 50 years by creating think tanks, subsidizing books and publications, using lawsuits, and gaining power within the judiciary.

But we can fight back. This didn’t happen in the age of McCarthyism. And I’m really thrilled at what is happening within the labor movement. I’m thrilled by what the United Autoworkers is doing—and they have thousands of members within the academy, as do the teachers unions, and the SEIU and other unions that have gone out and organized on campuses all over the United States, I’m thrilled with what the American Association of University Professors chapter at the University of Pennsylvania is doing. I’m thrilled by the fact that people are beginning to say that if we don’t fight back, we’re going to lose everything. And they’re winning.

TC: One of the ways McCarthyism works is through a chilling effect, encouraging self-censorship among people fearful of losing their jobs for lending the wrong book from their library, teaching the wrong lessons in their classroom, or attending a protest. What do you say to people who are understandably struggling with these fears?

ES: Everybody is afraid. Understandably. I’m not—because I’m retired. They’re not going to stop me from publishing or speaking out. What do I have to lose?

But people have to act collectively. You can’t just be an individual. We are not going to win if the only people who are fighting back are heroes.

The only way out of our mess is collective action—because in union, there is strength. Trying to be an individual hero is really reserved only for the bravest of the brave. Then they are people waving the flag on the barricades with nobody around them.

We don’t need heroes. My book about McCarthyism and the universities actually had a hero, Chandler Davis. By the way, he recently died. And his wife, a historian named Natalie Zemon Davis, also just died. She was amazing. One of the greatest historians of the 20th century.

Chan, as he was called, was a mathematician at the University of Michigan. When he was called up before HUAC in the spring of 1954, he decided he was not going to use the Fifth Amendment but the First Amendment to defend himself, hoping to challenge McCarthyism and provoke a critical judgment from the Supreme Court. But the court did not intervene in his case, so he went to prison for six months. He came out blacklisted completely. He had to go to Canada to get a job. In Canada, he helped take care of the young men crossing the border to avoid the draft during the war in Vietnam.

The only way forward is through collective action…I hope people are going to begin to recognize that this is what happened with the Vietnam War, which is an example of how collective action on the part of faculties changed history.

But we don’t need many more Chandler Davises. What we need is people who are willing to go to the demonstration because everybody else in their department is going to that demonstration. The only way forward is through collective action, is to work through faculty unions or through some ad hoc group that will organize on their campuses to roll back the attack on democratic teaching and learning.

I hope people are going to begin to recognize that this is what happened with the Vietnam War, which is an example of how collective action on the part of faculties changed history. If the faculties hadn’t begun the teach-ins that educated people about what was wrong with what the United States was doing in Vietnam right at the time, when Lyndon Johnson escalated the Vietnam war in 1965, there wouldn’t have been an antiwar movement by 1967 that, for example, made it impossible for members of the Johnson administration give talks at mainstream universities and that ultimately gained enough power to force an end to war. We don’t remember that.

So, today we have a similar educational task—among many others—of explaining that opposing bombing Gaza to smithereens is not antisemitism. It is just being critical of the foreign policy of a nation that is treating people in an inhumane and perhaps genocidal way. Do not close your eyes. Please open them and look at all the other people who have opened their eyes as well—and work together.

Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons; modified by Tempest.

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”

Categories: D2. Socialism

Lock the Gate Alliance - Sun, 03/24/2024 - 18:33

Categories: G2. Local Greens