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Trumping nature
EnvironmentSuch is the depth of Trump’s planned assault on environmental regulation that it bathes his predecessors in a greenish light. As the U.S. turns back the clock on its already grossly inadequate measures to mitigate the most menacing ecological fallout from industrial capitalist civilization, the countdown to ecocide accelerates. And while some of the harm Trump & Co. wreak in other policy areas may ultimately be reversible, the injury to ecosystems will be all but irremediable.
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World’s biggest coal company closes 37 mines as solar power’s influence grows
EnvironmentThe largest coal mining company in the world has announced it will close 37 mines because they are no longer economically viable. Coal India, which produces around 82 per cent of India’s coal, said the mines would be decommissioned by March 2018. The closures, of around 9 per cent of the state-run firm’s sites, will reportedly save around 8,000,000,000 rupees (£98m).
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All fossil-fuel vehicles will vanish in 8 years in twin ‘death spiral’ for big oil and autos
EnvironmentNo more petrol or diesel cars, buses, or trucks will be sold anywhere in the world within eight years. The entire market for land transport will switch to electrification, leading to a collapse of oil prices and the demise of the petroleum industry as we have known it for a century. This is the futuristic forecast by Stanford University economist Tony Seba. His report, with the deceptively bland title Rethinking Transportation 2020-2030.
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The tragedy of liberal environmentalism
EnvironmentThe tragedy of liberal environmentalism is that it occupies the political discourse as the most pragmatic, the most possible way to a better future, but implementing this watered down, technical environmental politics is not at all smooth, or easy. It is rather Sisyphean. This is the tragic political circumstance of our times: What is framed as easy, as the most compatible with the status quo, is actually so very hard.
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A Record-Setting Climate Going Bonkers
EnvironmentAd interim, America’s 19th century frontier mentality, which helped to shape democracy in the first place, has come back to overturn democracy and dictate climatic upheaval and destruction with its concomitant sharp turn away from democratic spirits in favor of a return to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, circa 1881.
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Beyond Petroculture: strategies for a Left energy transition
Canadian PoliticsEnergy can be a politics by other means. It is a way of enacting and enabling Left principles of social equality and environmental responsibility in relation to a new set of discourses and co-ordinates. Real energy transition opens the way for social and political transition, and does so on the basis of equality of social capacity and a commitment to protecting the planet.
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Note to Justin Trudeau: Climate leaders don’t build pipelines
Canadian PoliticsSocial change does not come from asking a politician a hard question, from a single moment of glory. Social change comes from sustained resistance by huge numbers of people over extended periods of time. Don’t let the powers-that-be-damned make you think you can only engage in democracy once every four years.
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Canada Post workers fight for a fairer, greener future
EnvironmentCanada Post could become the hub of a greener economy in our communities. The infrastructure exists and, combined with postal banking, Canada Post can once again become a powerhouse for community connections. The vision of Delivering Community Power is limited only by a lack of political will and the stubborn opposition of the Harper holdouts currently running the show at Canada Post.
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Rafe Mair to Justin Trudeau: BC is not yours to give away
Canadian PoliticsWe’ve seen how your lot cares about BC. When we hear soothing words from industry and the federal government about how they will treat our assets with care and respect, we think of our sacred salmon, which has been at the mercy of industry and the federal government – a government flooding our waters with diseased foreign fish to this day – ever since Confederation.
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Energy producers have an obligation to improve environmental reporting
EnvironmentPublic demand for further consideration of environmental concerns from energy producers and transmitters will only continue to grow. Hydroelectricity has major social and environmental advantages as a renewable energy source, but the industry is not meeting modern standards of corporate social responsibility as far as clearly reporting the planning and monitoring procedures to the public.
