Environmental Uncertainties Halt Deep Sea Mining

By Catherine WilsonReprint |      |  Print | Send by email

The Asia Pacific region is characterised by high marine biodiversity. Credit: Andrew Heyward/AIMS

SYDNEY, Dec 17 2012 (IPS) - The world’s first deep sea mineral (DSM) mining venture in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific has come to a halt after two years of development.

While the mining company is embroiled in a disagreement over project funding, unprecedented opposition by politicians, academics and local communities has focussed on the unknown environmental and social impacts of this untried mineral extraction process.

Deep sea mining, considered the new resource frontier, has been the subject of debate since the 1960s. But financial and technological constraints have hindered the viability of ventures.

Now, the gradual depletion of land-based mineral resources, a rise in demand for metals by growing economies in Asia and rapid technological advances have generated new interest in deep sea mining.

What is Canada and the rest of the world going to do to stop the US from spraying stratospheric aerosol over the planet?

By Joan Russow PhD

Clobal Compliance Research Project 

Friday April 27 2018, 

At COP 21Ban Ki Moon, in Paris, urged states to negotiate with a global vision not with national vested interests (Cop21 press conference)

GLOBAL VISION 

A global vision  would be: 

to address article 2 of the UNFCCC and at a minimum to immediately end all subsidies for fossil fuel, to calculate the carbon budget for each state,

to divest in fossil fuels and to reinvest in renewable energy, to conserve sinks -such as old growth forests and bogs, to strengthen conservation of  biodiversity, 

to avoid all false solutions such as nuclear, geo-engineering and biofuels which would all violate principles within the UNFCCC, to compensate for historical  emissions,

and to institute a fair and just transition for workers affected negatively by the new vision.  and to promote nature based solutions  and socially equitable

and environmentally sound such as solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal

REDEFINING WHAT CONSTITUTES TRUE SECURITY:

COMMON SECURITY

. “True security exists when all are secure, through common security.” (Olof Palme, 1982) whose objectives could be extended to include but not limited to the following:

(a) To achieve a state of peace, and disarmament; through reallocation of military expenses and delegitimization of war;

(b) To ensure the preservation, conservation and protection of the environment, the respect for the inherent worth of nature beyond human purpose, to reduce the ecological footprint and to move away from the current model of unsustainable and excessive overconsumption

(c) To enable socially equitable and environmentally sound employment, energy and transportation and the right to development,

(d) To promote and fully guarantee respect for human rights including  labour rights, civil and political rights, indigenous rights, social and cultural rights – right to food, to housing, to safe drinking water and sanitation , right to education and right to universally accessible not for profit health care system; right to water and sanitation

(e) To fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals.

(f) To respect the international rule of law, its instruments and the jurisdiction and decisions of the international Court of Justice

THERE SHOULD BE LEGAL MEANS FOR  IMPLEMENTATION 

All states have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and incurred an obligation under article 2.

under Article 2 of the UNFCCC, the signatories incurred the following obligation; “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere must be at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

The major fossil fuel states have failed to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system

The developing states especially the least developed and low-lying states could take the major fossil fuel states to the international Court of Justice

Or to the ICC and be prosecuted for crimes against humanity, and against the ecosystem and for Criminal negligence

 But the US and other fossil fuel states have not ratified the Rome statute, the UN General Assembly could invoke article 22 and set up a tribunal

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COP24 in Katowice  must avoid the systemic constraints that undermined COP21

SYSTEMIC CONSTRAIN

TS PREVENTING THE COMMITMENT TO URGENCY

IN COP21 IN THE PREAMBLE IS THE “RECOGNITION THAT CLIMATE CHANGE REPRESENTS AN URGENT AND POTENTIALLY IRREVERSIBLE THREAT TO HUMAN SOCIETY AND THE PLANET” YET THE EXISTENCE OF SYSTEMIC CONSTRAINTS PREVENTED COP21 FROM EMBODYING THIS RECOGNITION

1.THE BEST IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD- THE COMPROMISERS CREDO

2 BASELINES TARGETS TIMEFRAMES WERE ALL OUT OF SYNC

3. -EXPEDIENT OMISSION; GLOBAL CARBON BUDGET. HISTORICAL AND PER CAPITA EMISSIONS

4. THE SHORTNESS OF INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY AND THE UNDERMINING OF LEGAL OBLIGATIONS FROM ARTICLE 2 3 AND 4

5. A SOLUTION SHOULD NEVER BE EQUALLY BAD OR WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM IT IS INTENDED TO SOLVE

6.SOME STATES ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHER

7. THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR; THE  TYRANNY OF CONSENSUS

8 THE FAILURE TO REVERSE THE EXEMPTION FOR THE CONTRIBUTION TO GREEMHOUSE GAS EMISSION

9. RELUCTANCE TO USE THE INTERNATIONAL COURT AGAINST THE MAJOR EMMITTERS FOR THEY VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLE 2 OF THE UNFCCC

10. IGNORING COMMITMMENT FOR FUNDING SOURCE

By Andrea Diaz, CNN - Updated 6:16 PM ET, Wed April 18, 2018

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was greeted in Britain's capital with a 98-foot long fake pipeline that blocked the main entrance to the Canadian High Commission."

Greenpeace activists build an "oil pipeline" next to a cutout of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was greeted in London on Wednesday with a 98-foot fake pipeline meant to challenge his support of a controversial oil pipeline in his country.

The stunt, which blocked the main entrance to the Canadian High Commission, was orchestrated by Greenpeace activists who oppose a multibillion-dollar pipeline planned in western Canada across indigenous lands.

The Trans Mountain expansion, approved in 2016, will help oil companies reach new markets by expanding the capacity of North America's only pipeline with access to the West Coast, and it will nearly triple the number of oil tankers traveling the shared waters between Canada and Washington state.

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

Nuclear Reactors, Bankrupting Their Owners, Closing Early

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/06/nuclear-reactors-bankrupting-their-owners-closing-early/

by JOHN LAFORGE

Photo by Nuclear Regulatory Commission | CC BY 2.0

On January 22, FirstEnergy Corporation announced that its faulty and nearly-self-destructed Davis-Besse power reactor east of Toledo, Ohio, will be closed well before its license expires. But the shutdown is not because the reactor represents reckless endangerment of public health and safety. FirseEnergy was fine with that. No, the old rattle trap can’t cover its costs any more, not with the electricity market dominated by cheaper natural gas, and renewable wind and solar.

Scientists Warn of Permanent Drought for 25% of Earth By 2050 If Paris Goals Not Reached

“Only Our Youth Can Save the Planet” – Kumi Naidoo

By Pascal LaureynReprint |      |  Print | Send by email

Kumi Naidoo

SUVA, Fiji, Dec 20 2017 (IPS) - “Today’s youth should think of new solutions for old problems like climate change and social injustice.”

That’s the strong message of the South African activist Kumi Naidoo. The former executive director of Greenpeace says young people need to be more innovative and visionary, “because the solutions of my generation have failed.”

After battling apartheid in South Africa, Kumi Naidoo led numerous global campaigns to protect
human rights.

Among other organizations, he headed CIVICUS, an alliance for citizen participation. It was at the International Civil Society Week (ICSW), organized by CIVICUS in Fiji in December, that Naidoo spoke out on youth and innovation.

“My advise for young people is: don’t put any faith in the current leaders. They are the biggest bunch of losers you are going to find. Because they are unwilling to accept that they have got us into this mess,” says Naidoo.

“Basically, we are using old solutions that have never worked in the past anyway,” Naidoo contin-ues.

Joan Russow PhD

Global Compliance Research Project 

At COP 21, Ban Ki Moon, in Paris, urged states to negotiate with

a global vision not with national vested interests (a paraphrase of statement at 

Cop21 press conference)

A global vision  would be to address article 2 of the UNFCCC and at a

minimum the following: (i) to immediately end all subsidies for fossil fuel, 

(ii) to calculate the carbon budget for each state,(iii) to divest in fossil fuels

 and to reinvest and invest in renewable energy, (iv) to conserve sinks

-such as old growth forests and bogs, to strengthen conservation of  biodiversity,

 (v) to abandon false solutions such as nuclear, geo-engineering and biofuels

which would all violate principles within the UNFCCC

 (vi) to compensate for historical emissions, and (vi) to institute a fair and just

transition for workers affected negatively by the new vision. (vii) to promote nature

based solutions and socially equitable and environmentally sound energy such as solar,

wind, tidal, and geothermal, (viii) end the exemption for miitary contribution to

greenhouse gas emissions, and (ix) reallocate the military budget and transfer the funds to address climate change