*SUSTAINABILITY: The United States Will Rejoin Paris Climate Accord
By Theresa Machemer in Smithsonian Magazine
The move is one of several climate-related actions taken by President Joe Biden on his first day in office
On his first day in office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed 17 executive orders, including one stating the administration’s focus on addressing climate change and rejoining the Paris Climate Accord. The international accord goes into effect for the U.S. in 30 days, on February 19.
President Barack Obama signed an executive order to commit the U.S. to the Paris Climate Accord in 2015 alongside a goal to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2025, from levels detected in 2005. In 2017, President Donald Trump moved to withdraw the U.S. from the accord, a decision which went into effect last November. By that point, the U.S. was only about halfway to the emissions reduction target.
As a part of the Paris Accord, participating countries are expected to create new climate action goals every five years. Because emissions reduction efforts were stunted during the previous administration, experts point out President Biden will need to enforce more aggressive environmental policies than his predecessors in order to get back on track. The World Resources Institute has proposed that the U.S.’s 2030 goal should be to reduce emissions by 45 to 50 percent from 2005 levels, Lili Pike reports for Vox. CLICK FOR MORE
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International lawyers draft plan to criminalise ecosystem destruction
Plan to draw up legal definition of ‘ecocide’ attracts support from European countries and small island nations
November, 2020 by Owen Bowcott in the Guardian
International lawyers are drafting plans for a legally enforceable crime of ecocide – criminalising destruction of the world’s ecosystems – that is already attracting support from European countries and island nations at risk from rising sea levels.
The panel coordinating the initiative is chaired by Prof Philippe Sands QC, of University College London, and Florence Mumba, a former judge at the international criminal court (ICC).
The aim is to draw up a legal definition of “ecocide” that would complement other existing international offences such as crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. CLICK FOR MORE
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City of Asheville committee to hold climate justice public input session
The Sustainability Advisory Committee on Energy and the Environment (SACEE) will hold a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 28. The City of Asheville declared a climate emergency when City Council approved and adopted Resolution 20-25 on Jan. 29, as endorsed by SACEE. In declaring this emergency, the City has recognized not only the importance of taking action to reduce the impacts of climate change but also the importance of incorporating social justice into those actions.
As stated by the NAACP: “Environmental injustice, including the proliferation of climate change, has a disproportionate impact on communities of color and low-income communities in the United States and around the world.” CLICK FOR MORE>
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CCL October Monthly Meeting (every 3rd Monday each month) October 19th, 6:30-8:30PM
Zoom Virtual Meeting Info:
You will need to enter a password to join the zoom meeting.
Link: https://citizensclimate.
Password: 123
You can enable your computer audio speakers once you get in. If you’d rather join by phone, call (646)558-8656 and then enter 3501474594#
All political parties are welcome to join in this effort – conservative, liberal , progressive, libertarian, etc. Come enjoy good conversation with positive actionable items to help move us forward on the most important topic of our time. Please just email us.
RSVP to the shareable Facebook event »
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in Hyperallergic by Marc Scroggins
Marcella Durand’s Apocalyptic Pastoral
Durand’s urban environment in The Prospect is a source not of solace but of anxiety.
The cover of Marcella Durand’s The Prospect (Delete Press, 2020) is a strange marriage of the pastoral and the apocalyptic. The 2010 photograph shows the performer Kazu Nakamura, resplendent in white, his arms spread, in the middle of a Wordsworthian meadow. But this is no simple meadow: it is the North Mound of the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island — officially closed to new trash in 2001 and in the process of becoming a vast park. Behind Nakamura’s patch of pasture, beyond a band of dark foliage (and a billboard advertising “YOUR AD HERE”), we can see a vista of oil refinery buildings. CLICK FOR MORE>
