Month: January 2017

Trump’s Immigration Ban: Map

The Decolonial Atlas

trumpmuslimban

Trump’s Immigration Ban Excludes Countries With Business Ties, Includes Most Countries US has Bombed in Past Year.

President Trump has signed an executive order that bans citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East from entering the United States for 90 days, according to the White House. His proposed list doesn’t include Muslim-majority countries where his Trump Organization has done business or pursued potential deals. Properties include golf courses in the United Arab Emirates and two luxury towers operating in Turkey.

Sources:
http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/2017/01/05/bombs-dropped-in-2016/

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-trump-immigration-ban-conflict-of-interest/

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Save the Reefs: How to Preserve the Caribbean’s Underwater Landscape

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Douglas Klug via Getty Images

As beautiful as the Caribbean is above water, an even more breathtaking and diverse landscape exists just below the surface, where an ecosystem of reefs boasts some of the best scuba diving and snorkeling on the planet. The Caribbean accounts for around 7 percent of the world’s shallow coral reefs, home to dozens of types of coral and as many as 700 species of reef fish.

Beyond being home to diverse sea life, the reefs also shelter island shorelines from the threat of devastating hurricanes. By acting as a natural barrier to buffer the effects of waves and erosion, reefs are essential to coastal communities. And with 70 percent of Caribbean populations living along coastlines, reef health is critical in this region.

But the Caribbean reefs are part of an ecosystem that could be in danger of extinction. The coverage of coral reefs in the…

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Latin America and the Caribbean could be first developing region to eradicate hunger

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Nursery at agro-forestry concession, Ya'axche, Punta Gorda, Belize Nursery at agro-forestry concession, Ya’axche, Punta Gorda, Belize

Community of Latin American and Caribbean States food security plan offers a clear pathway to zero hunger within ten years, FAO Director-General says.

Latin America and the Caribbean could be the first developing region to completely eradicate hunger if its governments further strengthen their implementation of a food security plan developed by the CELAC bloc, FAO’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today.

Speaking at the Summit of Presidents and Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Graziano da Silva stated that, “CELAC’s Food Security, Nutrition and Hunger Eradication Plan (FNS) represents the crystallization of governments’ political will to eradicate hunger before 2025.”

Approved by CELAC in 2015, the plan promotes comprehensive public policies to reduce poverty, improve rural conditions, adapt agriculture to climate change, end food waste…

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Saint Lucia attends marine workshop

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Saint Lucia attends marine workshop

Press Release – Leading marine experts from the Caribbean and the UK are joining up this week at a three-day workshop aiming to support the sustainable growth of marine economies in the region.

In the Caribbean region, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are set to benefit from the Commonwealth Marine Economies (CME) programme workshop.

The marine workshop, hosted by the British High Commission in Kingston Jamaica, is being attended by senior-level representatives from governments, regional agencies, external science agencies, academia and key donors.

The initiative is part of the UK Government funded CME programme, and follows on from similar consultation events held in the Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.

Discussions will focus on what and how shared expertise, collaboration and co-ordination with existing regional projects can best help achieve sustainable blue growth.

Key themes to be addressed will include…

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CRFM and fisheries powerhouse, Norway, launch fact-finding mission

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CRFM_-Norway-and-Belize-reps-meet.jpg From  left to right: Milton Haughton, CRFM Executive Director; Dr. Åge Høines, Senior Scientist, Institute of Marine Research, Norway; Dr. Johán Williams, Special Director, Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs; and Hon. Dr. Omar Figueroa, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry, the Environment and Sustainable Development and Climate Change, Belize

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and the Government of Norway have launched a two-week mission to explore the development of a regional technical assistance project to be funded by Norway. The project would support the region’s fisheries and aquaculture sector by strengthening evidence-based management.

Dr. Åge Høines, Senior Scientist, Institute of Marine Research, Norway; and Dr. Johán Williams, Specialist Director, Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, began meeting on Monday, January 16, with CRFM Executive Director Milton Haughton at the CRFM Secretariat in Belize City, after which the team embarked in a two-week…

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Three Pillars

Three Pillars


Naysayers about the potential for a radical shift in the foundational structure of civilization argue by looking backward, not forward. “It has never happened before and so it cannot happen now.” But there are three fundamental differences.

First, the change of our climate away from the Holocene and into the Anthropocene is without any historical analog, even looking back hundreds of millions of years. Nafeez Mosadeq Ahmed terms this “Earth System Disruption.”

Industrial civilization is undergoing a second geophysically driven change that will shake it to its roots. It has never happened before and it cannot happen again. You can call this “peak oil,” but as Richard Heinberg pointed out, its really “peak everything.”

The thin driving wedge that will crack open our assumptions about what is normal will be financial collapse, but that is just a reflection of what the peak oil community has been saying since M. King Hubbert presented a paper to the 1956 meeting of the American Petroleum Institute:

[W]e are living on a finite world and infinite growth of material consumption is simply not possible.

Nor, as Paul and Anne Ehrlich warned nearly half a century ago, is exponential population growth. Ahmed terms this “Human System Destabilization.”

The unprecedented part — something few advocates for a renewables revolution yet grasp — is that each time humans moved from one dominant energy supply to the next it was towards greater caloric density at lower cost. We went from firewood to charcoal, to whale oil, to coal and coal gas, to petroleum and natural gas, and each time we got more bang for our buck, production and automation revolutionized, and our population and its footprint leaped another notch. After conventional oil peaked in the first years of the new millennium (just as Hubbert forecast in 1974), unconventional sources like fracked gas and oil shales filled the gap, but with a significant hitch — they cost more.
http://bit.ly/2jp900d

Five Pacific islands lost to rising seas as climate change hits

Five Pacific islands lost to rising seas as climate change hits

The submerged islands were part of the Solomon Islands, an archipelago that over the last two decades has seen annual sea levels rise as much as 10mm (0.4in), according to research published in the May issue of the online journal Environmental Research Letters.

The missing islands, ranging in size from 1 to 5 hectares (2.5-12.4 acres) were not inhabited by humans. But six other islands had large swaths of land washed into the sea and on two of those, entire villages were destroyed and people forced to relocate, the researchers found.

One was Nuatambu island, home to 25 families, which has lost 11 houses and half its inhabitable area since 2011, the research said.

The study is the first that scientifically “confirms the numerous anecdotal accounts from across the Pacific of the dramatic impacts of climate change on coastlines and people,” the researchers wrote in a separate commentary on an academic website.

The scientists used aerial and satellite images dating back to 1947 of 33 islands, as well as traditional knowledge and radiocarbon dating of trees for their findings. More

These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times

 

These are not normal times. These are extraordinary times. And extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.
When you have a spokesperson for the president of the United States wrap up a lie in the Orwellian phrase “alternative facts”…
When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question…
When you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….
These are not normal times.
The press has never seen anything like this before. The public has never seen anything like this before. And the political leaders of both parties have never seen anything like this before.
What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. “A lie, is a lie, is a lie!” And if someone won’t say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar’s malignant reach into our society.
There is one group of people who can do a lot – very quickly. And that is Republicans in Congress. Without their support, Donald Trump’s presidency will falter. So here is what I think everyone in the press must do. If you are interviewing a Paul Ryan, a Mitch McConnell, or any other GOP elected official, the first question must be “what will you do to combat the lying from the White House?” If they dodge and weave, keep with the follow ups. And if they refuse to give a satisfactory answer, end the interview.
Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that question. More

Vacancy – Research Associate

caribbeanclimate

Climate Analytics is seeking a Research Associate in the field of Ecological and Climate Economics to expand its science unit. The successful applicant will strengthen Climate Analytics’ Science Team through strong skills in quantitative and qualitative research methods, working closely with research associates in Berlin, the Pacific and Caribbean Small Island States and (West-)Africa. The position will contribute to the IMPACT project, an international project jointly implemented between Climate Analytics and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and other partners. The project focuses on providing support for the implementation of science-based climate change strategies and improving access to international climate finance, by providing robust methods and analyses as well as through scientific capacity building. The position will be based with the CCCCC in Belmopan, Belize, and will require frequent regional and international travel.

Starting date: As soon as possible

Location: Belmopan, Belize

Terms: Fixed term contract until 09/2019 with…

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The Coming Tsunami of Grief

Kevin Hester

As runaway abrupt climate change and it’s brutal reality bares down on us with the speed of a tsunami, another little discussed side affect is grief. I shall try to cover it in this blog and provide some avenues for readers to seek solace and solidarity below.
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Those of us who are monitoring the unraveling of the biosphere will be fully aware of this aching phenomenon already but our numbers are relatively few (sic) due to the lies and obfuscating taking place regarding the severity of the crisis, yet when the awareness of the imminent demise of our species dawns on the afflicted planets populace, all the symptoms of grief will manifest on a monumental scale!

Sadness, depression, anger, denial, resignation, pick your poison (sic), try and be gentle with yourself and those you interact with. Embrace your grief, acknowledge it, share it with those you trust. Support those of…

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