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An unlikely offender: Bitcoin has the carbon footprint of a small nation
EnvironmentThe cryptocurrency Bitcoin has become a difficult topic of conversation among Canadians. With no known founder, no set headquarters, and little regulation, this relatively new, mysterious form of money has managed to both entice and confuse us all. The environmental impact of Bitcoin, however, is only just being understood. This summer, a report released by the scientific journal Joule, revealed that the mining of Bitcoin produces levels of CO2 equal to a small nation—and these emissions are increasing every year.
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Is Justin Trudeau really a climate criminal?
Canadian PoliticsThe Liberals spent $4.5 billion on the Trans Mountain pipeline and related infrastructure. This important government intervention is designed to expand extraction of heavy carbon emitting tar sands oil. Overwhelmingly, scientists argue that these fossil fuels must stay in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic climate disturbances. While some might consider it hyperbolic, the case for labeling Trudeau a climate criminal is overwhelming.
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Protest Alone Won’t Save Our Planet
EnvironmentProtests are not without limits. They can move one forward on the path to seriously confronting concentrated wealth and power, but they can also serve as pressure-reducing safety valves, providing emotionally potent illusions of popular power and functioning as strange vehicles of incorporation and co-optation. The deadly system marches on, without serious disruption of its inner workings.
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We’re stepping up – join us for a day to halt this climate crisis
EnvironmentOn September 27, at the request of the young people who have been staging school strikes around the world, we’re walking out of our workplaces and homes to spend the day demanding action on the climate crisis, the greatest existential threat that all of us face. It’s a one-day climate strike, if you will – and it will not be the last. This is going to be the beginning of a week of action all over the world. And we hope to make it a turning point in history.
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Why Friday’s Climate Strike gives me hope for the future of our planet
EnvironmentI know all too well that my son will probably read this one day. I hope that he will see the positive results of our actions. Depending on our choices and decisions in the coming years, he can learn about this chapter in human history, one in which we made real sacrifices and stopped a serious catastrophic event. Or, he can learn about how we failed to rise to the occasion and left his generation to deal with the consequences of our inaction.
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Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin: If We Want a Future, Green New Deal Is Key
EnvironmentClimate change is by far the most serious crisis facing the world today. At stake is the future of civilization as we know it. Yet, both public awareness and government action lag way behind what’s needed to avert a climate change catastrophe. In the interview below, Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin discuss the challenges ahead and what needs to be done.
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Why Should You Climate Strike on Friday, Sept. 27?
EnvironmentA year ago, inspired by Greta Thunberg, young people around the world began ‘climate-striking’ — walking out of school for a few hours on Fridays to demand action against global warming. In March, when 1.4 million kids around the world walked out of school, they asked for adults to join them next time. That next time is Sept. 20 (in Canada and a few other countries on Sept. 27) and it is shaping up to be the biggest day of climate action in the planet’s history.
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We may have a livable planet, or we may have unlimited growth. We cannot have both.
EnvironmentWe need to decide what we value more: a healthy planet in which our natural bounty is harnessed to protect the ecosphere and sustain a livable home for all, or the sale of that bounty to the highest bidder, and the destruction of our collective ecosystem in the name of economic development. Both of these choices have consequences. Only one of them leads to a better future for the rest of humanity.
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In the fight against eco-fascism, we need to politicize nature
EnvironmentAs the devastating effects of the climate crisis continue to be felt around the globe, global warming and its ecological consequences are now being used by fascists to justify acts of racist murder. This extreme and violent reaction to the existential problem of our time, otherwise known as eco-fascism, is apparent in the manifesto written by the El Paso shooter who murdered 22 people and injured 24 others in early August.
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There’s Only One Antidote for Climate Despair—Climate Revolt
EnvironmentThe lesson here is not that any one strategy is particularly efficacious. It’s that collective action is the surest antidote to solitary despair. This is something that Americans have largely forgotten. When I asked Clare Farrell, another founding XR organizer, how she managed to keep afloat despite the ever-rising tide of apocalyptic news, she answered by recalling an early XR slogan: “Hope dies, action begins.”
