June, 07 2016, 04:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Rafael Ordóñez, Communications, Greenpeace Spain  +34 651 99 52 50
Paul Johnston, David Santillo and Stephanie Tunmore from Greenpeace Research Laboratories, Â Exeter Tel +44 1392 247920
Increased Extreme Weather Events Predicted Due to Effect of Climate Change on the Arctic
The effects of climate change on the Arctic -- including melting ice and sea level rise -- may possibly alter weather patterns in the northern hemisphere. These effects could include hotter, drier summers in some areas, wetter summers in other areas, and cold, stormy winters in others, according to studies compiled by the Greenpeace Research Laboratories in the report, "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic" which is published today.
MADRID
The effects of climate change on the Arctic -- including melting ice and sea level rise -- may possibly alter weather patterns in the northern hemisphere. These effects could include hotter, drier summers in some areas, wetter summers in other areas, and cold, stormy winters in others, according to studies compiled by the Greenpeace Research Laboratories in the report, "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic" which is published today.
Greenpeace Spain Arctic campaigner Sara del Rio, said:
"There seems no doubt that warming of the Arctic region is a major contributory factor to mid-latitude weather patterns. Although scientists are trying now to understand better the influence of the complex atmospheric processes of the poles, under a precautionary approach, it is extremely urgent to take action to combat climate change and to protect the Arctic."
The Arctic ecosystem is warming more than twice as fast as any other region in the world, the total area of summer sea ice in the Arctic has decreased substantially over the last 30 years while sea ice volume has reduced even more substantially. This means that more heat is being exchanged between the Arctic ocean and the surrounding atmosphere and the reflective ability of the ice (surface albedo) is reduced. Furthermore, the release of harmful greenhouse gases from their long-term storage in the Arctic permafrost will further add to global climate change.
As the Arctic environment is integral to global climate systems, there have been notable alterations in storm tracks, the jet-stream, as well as northern oceanic circulations. Blocked atmospheric planetary waves are leading to 'stuck' weather patterns that cause more persistent weather at a given location. These changes appear to be influencing the weather across mid-latitudes, with profound effects on our daily lives.
"A series of unprecedented weather extremes have been recorded throughout the last decade - 'Super-storms', droughts, heat waves, floods and record breaking snowy winters. Climate modelling suggests that these extreme weather events will become even more common in the future, causing heavy human and economic losses," added del Rio.
As the sea ice recedes in the Arctic Ocean, fishing, maritime transport and hydrocarbon exploration will encroach further on the northern waters, including those beyond national controls, increasing the threats that this currently still relatively pristine region is already facing.
Despite these threats and likely increasing pressures in the future, this fragile and critically important ocean is still the least protected worldwide. Greenpeace advocates the establishment of an Arctic Sanctuary (a highly protected area prohibiting all extractive industries in the international waters around the North Pole). The designation of the "Arctic Ice High Seas Marine Protected Area" by the OSPAR Commission would be a step towards this goal and would provide some protection for the Arctic's vulnerable species and habitats during a time of global change. It will also allow a precautionary and adaptive management of any future human activities across the region.
Voices for the Arctic
Along with the report, Greenpeace has produced a pack of Photoshopped artistic images that illustrate the impacts of climate change around the world. Greenpeace is asking people around the word to send their reasons to save the Arctic using the site www.voicesforthearctic.org . Greenpeace, has already gathered almost 8 million signatures demanding Arctic protection and will deliver people's statements for Arctic protection during a grand piano performance played by Ludovico Einaudi.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
US Democracy Defenders Applaud Fresh Push for 'Urgently Needed' Voting Rights Bill
"It will take passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to curb this new generation of assaults on the freedom to vote," said one campaigner.
Sep 19, 2023
Although it is nearly certain to go nowhere in a Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives, pro-democracy groups nationwide celebrated on Tuesday as Congresswoman Terri Sewell reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
"Generations of Americans—many in my hometown of Selma, Alabama—marched, fought, and even died for the equal right of all Americans to vote," Sewell (D-Ala.) said in a statement. "But today, their legacy and our very democracy are under attack as MAGA extremists target voters with new laws to restrict voting access."
"The fight for voting rights has never been more urgent," she argued, explaining that the legislation—named for the late Democratic Georgia congressman and civil rights leader—aims to restore and modernize the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), which was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court a decade ago in Shelby County v. Holder.
The bill is backed by every House Democrat but faces tough odds in both chambers. Early last year, Democratic right-wing Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), who switched from Democrat to Independent in December, worked with Republicans to block a megabill that included the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis legislation.
Still, U.S. advocacy groups on Tuesday applauded the lawmakers' renewed push for federal voting rights reforms—as they did in July, when Democratic leaders reintroduced the Freedom to Vote Act.
"The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act is key in preserving democracy, full stop," declared Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert. "A decade after the Supreme Court gutted 'preclearance' protection in the Voting Rights Act, more than half of U.S. states have passed over 90 laws that make it harder to vote for communities of color, in particular."
"Without this legislation, we risk further entrenching anti-democratic, partisan forces that want to choose their own voters," Gilbert warned.
According to the Declaration for American Democracy coalition:
In the last decade since the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision gutted key enforcement mechanisms in the Voting Rights Act, at least 29 states have passed 94 laws making it harder to vote, with at least 11 states enacting 13 restrictive voting laws in 2023 alone.
Attacks on our freedom to vote disproportionately impact Black, Latino, Asian, Native, and other voters of color. Since Shelby v. Holder, the racial turnout gap has grown significantly in 5 of the 6 states previously covered by the preclearance sections of the Voting Rights Act.
Sylvia Albert, Common Cause's director of voting and elections, stressed that "this ongoing effort to suppress the vote harkens back to the shameful Jim Crow era. At that time, it took the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and rigorous enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the wholesale abuses and attacks on the freedom to vote."
"Today it will take passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to curb this new generation of assaults on the freedom to vote and to strengthen the ability of the Department of Justice to protect that sacred freedom with the tools it used for decades," she asserted, specifically calling out Republican-controlled state legislatures that have tried "to silence Black and Brown voters after they showed up to vote in record numbers during the 2020 election."
Noting that the VRA "has a long history of bipartisan support," Leslie Proll of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said: "We applaud our elected officials who have responded to the call of the majority of people in this country who support new legislation to protect the vote. We need federal action now."
Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, also highlighted previous bipartisan support for the VRA, pointing out that "the last time the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized, in 2006, it gained 98 votes in the Senate." He called on Congress to swiftly pass the "urgently needed" John Lewis bill and the Freedom to Vote Act.
Organizations focused on key issues like abortion rights and the climate emergency also demanded action on the proposal.
"This legislation is long overdue," said a 15-member coalition that included Clean Water Action, Climate Hawks Vote, the Climate Reality Project, Earthjustice, EDF Action, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Greenpeace USA, Interfaith Power & Light, League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation, NextGen America, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Zero Hour.
"We cannot effectively tackle the critical issues our nation faces—like combating the climate crisis, advancing environmental justice, and protecting our air, lands, waters, biodiversity, wildlife, and oceans—without fixing the broken system that caters to corporate polluters and disenfranchises too many voters," the coalition argued.
Meanwhile, NARAL Pro-Choice America said on social media that "voting rights and reproductive freedom are deeply intertwined."
"Anti-abortion extremists attack voting rights knowing that it is critical to electing repro champions," the organization added. "Congress MUST pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Very Bad News': Human Activities Increased Extinction Rate of Species Groups by 35 Times
"What we're losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe," one study author said.
Sep 19, 2023
In what researchers call a "biological annihilation," human activities are driving entire groupings of vertebrate species to extinction at a rate 35 times what it would have been without human interference.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday, found that 73 genera—the next thickest branch from species on tree of life—had been lost since A.D. 1500. Without the mass exploitation of the natural world that took off around that date with European colonization, the number lost in the past 500 years would have been only two, and it would have taken 18,000 years to reach 73 extinctions.
"Such mutilation of the tree of life and the resulting loss of ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to humanity is a serious threat to the stability of civilization," study co-authors Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University and Gerardo Ceballos of the National Autonomous University of Mexico wrote in the abstract.
Or, as Ehrlich summarized it in all caps on social media, "New approach to extinction crisis, very bad news."
Previous attempts to grapple with the sixth mass extinction had focused on the number of species lost or at risk. But looking at genera can provide a clear view of the "magnitude and impact" of these losses, the study authors wrote.
Why? Because when one species dies, other species in the same genus can fill its niche in the ecosystem and preserve much of its genetic code, Ceballos toldStanford News. However, when a genus disappears, it leaves a larger gap in both the ecosystem and the genetic record—one that it can take evolution tens to millions of years to fill.
For example, when the passenger pigeon genus went extinct in 1914, the white-footed mouse lost its main food competitor. This combined with a decrease in large predators caused white-footed mouse populations to explode, which has been fatal for humans, because white-footed mice are the primary carriers of Lyme disease.
"We are alarmist because we are alarmed."
"By losing all these genera, we are losing the foundations of the planet to have life in general and human life in particular," Ceballos told The Guardian.
There's also an inherent sadness to the disappearance of so much unique life.
"What we're losing are our only known living companions in the entire universe," Ehrlich told Stanford News.
Ceballos and Eherlich expected genera extinction rates to be lower than species ones, but found in fact that they were about the same. The pair looked specifically at birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Beyond the 73 extinct genera, the planet also lost 10 families and two orders: the elephant bird and the New Zealand moa. Birds overall lost the most genera, with mammals coming in second.
What's more, if the climate emergency, the illegal wildlife trade, and habitat loss continue and all endangered genera go extinct by 2100, their extinction rate would jump to 354 times what it would have been without these human actions.
"People say that we are alarmist by saying that we expect a collapse," Ceballos told The Guardian. "We are alarmist because we are alarmed."
However, both authors emphasized that it was not too late to act.
"As dramatic as the results are, what is important to mention is that we still have time," Ceballos added. Though he noted that "the window of opportunity is closing rapidly."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Auto Giants Refusing Union Demands Paid Just 1% in Federal Taxes on $42 Billion in Profits: Analysis
"The tax system is rigged to benefit multinational corporations over the workers who keep them running."
Sep 19, 2023
Despite reaping tens of billions of dollars in profits between them over the past five years, General Motors and Ford paid an average combined tax rate of just 1% on total pre-tax income, an analysis published Tuesday by economic justice advocates revealed—as the auto giants claimed they cannot afford striking workers' demands for better pay.
The Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) analysis—which posits that "the tax system is rigged to benefit multinational corporations over the workers who keep them running"— notes that over the past five years, GM and Ford made a total of $34 billion and $8 billion respectively, but paid an effective federal tax rate of only 1.3% for GM and -0.2% for Ford.
"While some of those tax savings have found their way into rapidly rising compensation packages for the firms' top executives and board members, wages of rank-and-file workers have lagged," the report states. "Average executive pay at GM and Ford grew by 32% over the past five years, while median autoworker pay grew by just 8.8% over the same period, widening the executive-to-worker pay gap to 183-to-1."
"Over that same period, GM and Ford paid out a combined total of $14 billion in dividends (34 times more than they paid in taxes), spent $3.6 billion on stock buybacks (nine times more than they paid in taxes), and lavished $614 million on top company executives (50% more than they paid in taxes)," the publication continues.
The analysis comes five days into a "stand-up strike" by around 13,000 United Auto Workers (UAW) members at GM, Ford, and Stellantis plants. The workers are seeking better pay and benefits.
"General Motors and Ford are refusing to meet UAW's demands, claiming that what workers are asking for is unreasonable," the report states. "An Americans for Tax Fairness analysis of GM and Ford's most recent [Securities and Exchange Commission] filings finds that what is truly unreasonable is how the auto giants get away with paying practically nothing in federal taxes while further enriching their top executives with huge pay packages and their shareholders with dividend payments and stock buybacks."
ATF executive director David Kass argued that "Ford and GM have thrown their priorities into reverse."
"They're overcompensating their already wealthy executives, board members, and shareholders, while shortchanging the workers and nation that made their success possible," Kass continued. "They need to offer serious proposals for sharing the wealth with rank-and-file employees and start paying their fair share of taxes."
"They're overcompensating their already wealthy executives, board members, and shareholders, while shortchanging the workers and nation that made their success possible."
Kass additionally asserted that the National Labor Relations Board "must ensure these corporations treat their workers justly; and in its upcoming budget negotiations, Congress must ensure big corporations like Ford and GM are contributing what they should to America's fiscal health."
Corporate tax dodging is pervasive in most U.S. industries. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and released in January, more than a third of large, profitable corporations in the United States paid no federal income tax in 2018, the year that the so-called Republican "tax scam" signed into law by then-President Donald Trump took effect.
The GAO report also found that "average effective tax rates—the percentage of income paid after tax breaks—among profitable large corporations fell from 16% in 2014 to 9% in 2018."
Other analyses of more recent data confirms the trend continues. A Center for American Progress study of 2021 investor filings for Fortune 100 companies revealed that 19 of the largest profitable corporations in America "are paying effective tax rates that are in the single digits—or paying nothing at all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular
Independent, nonprofit journalism needs your help.
Please Pitch In
Today!
Today!