October, 30 2015, 08:30am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Hoda Baraka, 350.org Global Communications Manager, hoda@350.org, +201001-840990
350 Responds to the UNFCCC INDC synthesis report released today
350.org Strategy and Communications Director Jamie Henn released the following statement in light of today's aggregate assessment of the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) ahead of the Paris climate talks this December:
WASHINGTON
350.org Strategy and Communications Director Jamie Henn released the following statement in light of today's aggregate assessment of the intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) ahead of the Paris climate talks this December:
"We're going to need to see more ambition in Paris. The targets currently on the table still aren't enough to prevent climate catastrophe. To close the gap, politicians must settle on a clear mechanism to increase ambition, make real financial commitments, and agree to a unifying goal of completely decarbonizing the global economy. Our movement will continue to do our part by stopping new fossil fuel infrastructure, accelerating the transition to 100% renewable energy, and putting hundreds of thousands in the streets to demand stronger action.
While the current pledges are inadequate, they're still enough to send a clear signal to investors that the age of fossil fuels is over--there's no way to meet these targets, let alone the stronger ones necessary, without a full scale transition to renewable energy. We've seen a wave of fossil fuel divestment commitments in the lead up to Paris and we expect to see even more after a deal is signed. Unless they fundamentally transform themselves, fossil fuel companies are going to suffer the same fate as the dinosaurs they burn: extinction."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
LATEST NEWS
World Marks Six Months of 'Relentless Death and Destruction' in Gaza
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for an "immediate humanitarian cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid."
Apr 07, 2024
Peace and human rights advocates on Sunday renewed calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an increase in lifesaving humanitarian aid for its starving people as the embattled enclave marked six months since the start of Israel's genocidal retaliation for the October 7 attacks.
In the six months since Israel began bombarding Gaza by air, land, and sea following the Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 people in Israel, with over 240 Israelis and other people taken hostage, Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 116,000 Palestinians, counting those believed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings. Gazans—especially children—are starving to death as Israel severely restricts the amount of aid allowed to enter the strip. Women are "burying their newborns every day" as they have nothing to feed them.
Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, perhaps permanently, in what many Palestinians and international observers are calling a new Nakba, the ethnic cleansing catastrophe perpetrated by Jewish militants during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Gaza's infrastructure has been obliterated, with reconstruction expected to cost $18.5 billion, or nearly Palestine's entire annual gross domestic product.
"Over the last six months, the Israeli military campaign has brought relentless death and destruction to Palestinians in Gaza—with more than 32,000 people reportedly killed and more than 75,000 injured—the vast majority women and children," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
said during a press conference marking six months of a war in which the International Court of Justice has found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide.
"6 months on, we are at the brink of mass starvation, of regional conflagration, of a total loss of faith in global standards & norms."
-- @antonioguterres says it's time to silence the guns in Gaza to ease the suffering & prevent a potential famine. https://t.co/KQwr03M8yo pic.twitter.com/sNmmW07IA7
— United Nations (@UN) April 5, 2024
"During my visit to the Rafah crossing 10 days ago, I met veteran humanitarians who told me categorically that the crisis and suffering in Gaza is unlike any they have ever seen," Guterres continued. "Meanwhile—as I saw on my way to the Rafah crossing—long lines of trucks loaded with humanitarian aid continued to face obstacle after obstacle."
"When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened," he said. "More than half the population—over a million people—are facing catastrophic hunger. Children in Gaza today are dying for lack of food and water. This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people."
Guterres noted the 196 humanitarian aid workers—including more than 175 U.N. personnel and members of Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Crescent, World Central Kitchen, and other organizations—who have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets over the past six months.
"I repeat my urgent appeals for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid," Guterres said.
From New York to New Zealand—where Indigenous Māori people danced a haka for a free Palestine—demonstrators took to the streets to condemn Israel's genocide and demand an immediate cease-fire.
There were also protests in cities including Tel Aviv and New York calling for the release of all Israelis and others held hostage in Gaza. New York rabbi Ellen Lippman said she wouldn't be attending the rally because she "cannot call for the release of the hostages without an explicit demand for an immediate cease-fire and an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza."
Left-wing Israelis held vigils outside the U.S. embassies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Friday to demand an end to Washington's military and diplomatic support for Israel's genocide.
"The United States supplies the guns, and Israel pulls the trigger," organizer Erez Bleicher told the crowd.
U.S. President Joe Biden in recent days has urged an immediate cease-fire, even as the U.S. continues to provide the bulk of Israel's weapons. In a Thursday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," the White House said in a statement. "He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps."
Israel responded by saying it would temporarily allow more aid to enter Gaza.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Study Reveals Up to 11 Million Tons of Plastic Polluting Ocean Floors
"Every minute, a garbage truck's worth of plastic enters the ocean," researchers said.
Apr 07, 2024
The amount of plastic waste littering the Earth's ocean floors could be up to 100 times the quantity floating on the surface, according to a study published this week.
Researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)—an Australian government agency—and the University of Toronto in Canada found that up to 11 million tons of plastic are polluting the planet's ocean floors, including microplastics and larger objects like fishing nets, cups, and bags.
"We know that millions of tons of plastic waste enter our oceans every year but what we didn't know is how much of this pollution ends up on our ocean floor," CSIRO senior research scientist and study co-author Denise Hardesty said in a statement. "We discovered that the ocean floor has become a resting place, or reservoir, for most plastic pollution, with between 3 to 11 million tons of plastic estimated to be sinking to the ocean floor."
Study leader Alice Zhu, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, said that "the ocean surface is a temporary resting place of plastic so it is expected that if we can stop plastic entering our oceans, the amount would be reduced."
"However, our research found that plastic will continue to end up in the deep ocean," Zhu stated. "These findings help to fill a longstanding knowledge gap on the behavior of plastic in the marine environment."
“Understanding the driving forces behind the transport and accumulation of plastic in the deep ocean will help to inform source reduction and environmental remediation efforts, thereby reducing the risks that plastic pollution may pose to marine life," she added.
The study is part of CSIRO's Ending Plastic Waste program, whose goal is "an 80% reduction in plastic waste entering the Australian environment by 2030."
Humans produce approximately 440 million tons of plastics annually, or roughly the combined weight of every person on the planet. Plastic pollution harms not only the environment and ecosystems, but also human health and economies.
Plastic use is expected to double by 2040. Negotiations on a global plastics treaty have made little progress amid lobbying by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Orbán Challenger Promises New Era of Hungarian Politics at Massive Budapest Rally
"We were pitted against each other instead of allowing us to band together," said political newcomer Péter Magyar. "We will put an end to this now."
Apr 07, 2024
At least tens of thousands of Hungarians took to the streets of Budapest on Saturday to rally against right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and in support of a political newcomer who recently launched a movement that plans to field candidates in European and local elections in June.
Demonstrations against Orbán's increasingly autocratic 14-year rule were sparked by Péter Magyar, a lawyer and former associate of the prime minister who recently released an audio recording exposing corruption in the ruling Fidesz party. Protesters gathered Saturday in Kossuth Square outside Parliament, waving Hungarian flags and chanting "Orbán resign!", "We are not afraid!", and other slogans.
"Step by step, brick by brick, we are taking back our homeland and building a new country, a sovereign, modern, European Hungary," Magyar, 43, told supporters.
"Our elected leaders have incited the Hungarian people against each other for the past 20 years," he added. "Whether the fate of our country went well or we were close to bankruptcy, we were pitted against each other instead of allowing us to band together. We will put an end to this now."
One protester toldAgence France-Presse that "something needed to be done because it's insane how much this government has gotten away with."
Magyar, the ex-husband of former Justice Minister Judit Varga, last month released an audio recording of his ex-wife discussing an attempt by members of Orbán's inner circle to interfere in a corruption case. Varga and Hungarian President Katalin Novak resigned in February over an unrelated child sex abuse pardoning scandal.
Zsuzsanna Szigeti, a 46-year-old healthcare worker attending Saturday's rally, toldReuters that "we had known that there is corruption, but [Magyar] says it as an insider and confirmed it for us."
Domestic and international critics have accused Orbán of systematically eroding Hungary's democratic institutions, tightening his grip over the country's political system, and consolidating control over much of the media to strengthen Fidesz and its parliamentary supermajority. European Union leaders have condemned Orbán's rule, calling his government a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy." Orbán describes it as "illiberal democracy," while touting its universal appeal to international conservatives, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
European leaders also bristle at Orban's warm personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, although the Hungarian leader did condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine and voted along with the rest of the 27-nation E.U. to impose economic sanctions on Moscow.
Human rights have deteriorated markedly during Orbán's tenure, especially for LGBTQ+ people, migrants, women, and Roma. The E.U. has withheld billions of dollars in funding in response.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular