I hope it was by Zoom

Six World Leaders on Navigating Climate Change, Without the U.S.

International collaboration on climate change is fraying. The Trump administration withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement, the 2015 treaty aiming to limit global warming, and has penalized the renewable-energy business and promoted fossil fuels. Ten years after Paris, a vast majority of countries are not on pace to meet their climate targets. With the United States sidelined and China ascendant as a clean-energy superpower, the global map of alliances on climate action is being redrawn. On top of all this, the planet keeps warming.

Debates around climate change often focus on the world’s largest economies and biggest emitters. But much of the hard work of figuring out how to adapt — both to a hotter planet and to a new geopolitical landscape — is happening in countries that have contributed relatively little to the problem yet are still navigating complex climate-related issues. Hoping to better understand how global warming and the changing world order are affecting some of these often-overlooked places, I spoke with six world leaders from different geographic regions. I heard some common themes: the ravages of extreme weather, the difficulties posed by the Trump administration’s retreat. But these conversations also illustrated the intensely varied predicaments facing world leaders right now.

They talk to

• Hilda C. Heine, president of the Marshall Islands, who says ‘We will be submerged by 2050 if the world doesn’t do its part.’
• Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia
• Mohamed Irfaan Ali, president of Guyana, who says ‘We can’t be naïve. The world will need fossil fuel a long time into the future.’
• William Ruto, president of Kenya who said ‘When it comes to emissions, we are paying for a crime that others committed.’
• Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of Bangladesh
• Petteri Orpo, prime minister of Finland who said ‘We are going to change our whole society.’

Orpo’s full quote

Today we produce more than 95 percent of our electricity carbon-neutral. We are going to change our whole society to use clean energy and get rid of fossils and to be carbon neutral. And we can do it. Our companies are committed. And our people, the whole of society, is committed to these targets.

You will change whether you like it or not. Oh, also the NY Times

It’s Gridlock Week in Manhattan as U.N. General Assembly Starts

It’s that time of year when Midtown East in Manhattan both brims with action and comes to a standstill.

The 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, starting Monday, will bring together more than 140 world leaders to discuss contentious issues like the war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is known by many diplomats as the World Cup of diplomacy.

But it is known by many New Yorkers as a pain in the neck.

The main event, which takes place this week along First Avenue between East 42nd and 48th Streets, brings with it impassable streets in Midtown East as well as intermittent closures citywide. The Department of Transportation is encouraging New Yorkers to use public transit and other “nondriving modes” for getting around Midtown over the next five days.

They want New Yorkers to take mass transit while the all the big shots, including the 6 mentioned above, take fossil fueled trips in big SUVs, along with their whole retinues. Climate doom is for you peasants.

The cult is really looking for things to fearmonger over (the question mark in the headline is not mine. Not sure why it is there)

How Climate Change Is Quietly Damaging Your Skin?

When we think about climate change, images of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and extreme weather often come to mind. But there’s a more personal—and often overlooked—dimension to this global issue: your skin. Yes, the largest organ of your body is silently bearing the brunt of a changing climate. From increased UV radiation to humidity fluctuations, climate change is influencing skin health in subtle but significant ways.

Global temperatures have steadily climbed over the past century, and with them, heat-related skin issues are on the rise. Prolonged exposure to higher temperatures can exacerbate conditions like:

• Heat rashes and hives: Sweat ducts can become blocked, leading to irritation and inflammation.
• Rosacea and eczema: These conditions are often aggravated by environmental stressors like heat and pollution.
• Acne flare-ups: Increased sweating can clog pores and worsen breakouts, especially in humid climates.

Yes, you’re sweating because of 1.7F increase in global temperatures since 1850. You can really notice.

As the ozone layer thins, more ultraviolet (UV) rays are reaching the Earth’s surface. This intensification of UV exposure accelerates:

Obviously, it’s all about Trump in this astroturfed suit, which, sad to say, I missed earlier in the year

The Youth Activists Suing Trump Are Fighting Climate Change and Authoritarianism

Does the United States Constitution guard against executive abuses of power that deprive children and youth of their fundamental rights to life and liberty?

That was the fundamental question Julia Olson, an attorney and the founder of Our Children’s Trust, posed to Judge Dana Christensen this week during a two-day hearing in a federal courthouse in Missoula, Montana.

The case, Lighthiser v. Trump, began in May when 22 young climate activists, aged 7 to 25, filed a lawsuit in the District of Montana asking the court to declare three Trump administration executive orders unconstitutional and prevent their implementation. The plaintiffs say the orders show the Trump administration’s intention to increase fossil fuel development, block renewable energy, and terminate congressionally mandated climate change science and research—all “under the false claim of an energy emergency, while the true emergency is that our fossil fuel-based energy system is polluting the air, water, lands, and climate on which Plaintiffs’ lives, liberties, and personal security depend.”

In some ways, Lighthiser v. Trump is the logical next step for OCT and the U.S. climate litigation movement, which aims to compel the government to take meaningful action to address the climate crisis—or prohibit it from making the crisis worse—through the judiciary. The lawsuit follows two of OCT’s recent wins, Held v. Montana and Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation, and “further builds American constitutional jurisprudence on fossil fuel activities infringing the fundamental rights of youth,” according to the nonprofit law firm.

Sadly, the government lawyers never asked “have you youts given up your own use of fossil fuels and made your lives carbon neutral?” But, in fact, the Chief Executive does have the authority to put out those EOs, in the same way Biden apparently had authority to go the other way.

In other ways, Lighthiser is unlike anything that has come before. For one, this week’s hearing marked the first time a U.S. federal court heard live testimony in a constitutional climate change case. And, as Mat dos Santos, one of the OCT attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told me, “Lighthiser goes beyond the traditional climate cases that Our Children’s Trust is famous for, because it’s really a case about our democracy and whether this president has the power to act on his own initiative without any regard for how that power was supposed to be divided up amongst the other branches of government.”

Yeah, and it is all about force every American to comply with the insane, doomsday beliefs of the cult, while very few actually practice what they preach. They couldn’t really convince people to act in practice via 35 years of scaremongering. They couldn’t get as much legislation passed as they wanted. So, now they sue. If this makes it to the Supreme Court the cult will lose.

We know which way the Democrats will vote on this: will all the Republicans in Congress vote for it, or, will a few get squishy?

Congresswoman Hageman Introduces Legislation to Protect the American Taxpayer from Climate Change Reparations

Today, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (WY-AL), alongside Congressman Tom Tiffany (WI-07), introduced legislation protecting the American taxpayer from attempts by international courts to impose climate change reparations on the U.S.

In July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), issued an advisory opinion contending that international climate change treaties are binding on UN member states, and that breaching these agreements is an “international wrongful act.” According to the ICJ, countries that produce or consume fossil fuels could be subject to orders demanding they cease all “climate change” activities and pay full reparations to harmed nations.

Reps. Hageman and Tiffany’s bill would block the use of federal funds to pay a demand for reparations issued by any international bodies or courts for alleged violations of international law.

“The UN’s war on affordable and reliable energy is well known. This is just another effort to push forward with radical policies that have no basis in fact or science. Pursuant to the ICJ theory, every single country in the world would be subject to paying reparations, as every single country consumes fossil fuels. Yet, we know that such an outcome isn’t the UN’s intent. This is just another effort to force America to prop up the economies of failed states and impoverished nations. American citizens are not going to be forced to pay reparations based on vague, speculative claims about so-called climate damage,” said Rep. Hageman. “This bill protects both U.S. sovereignty and Congress’s constitutional authority. It guards against financial risks born of international lawsuits or opinions built on unproven assumptions.”

If other nations want to pay, have at it. It’s very sketchy as to if the US is even subject to the ruling by the ICJ, which is also non binding because it was just an advisory opinion. It makes the lawyers happy, though.

But, what if a Democrat wins in 2028? That wacko could start directing US money to the scam. This law could stop that.