February, 08 2024, 02:08pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Elliott Negin,Media Director,enegin@ucsusa.org
First Year-Long Breach of 1.5 Degrees Celsius Could be More Enduring Without Accelerated Action by World Leaders
Statement by Dr. Kristina Dahl, Union of Concerned Scientists
European science agency Copernicus announced today that, for the first time ever, global average heating exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius, on average, for a 12-month period. This new finding comes on the heels of leading scientific bodies in the United States and around the world declaring 2023 as the hottest year on record. It also raises serious concerns about the pace with which world leaders are pursuing the aims of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted by countries in 2015 with the goal of limiting long-term globally averaged temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels to avoid the most harmful climate change impacts.
Below is a statement by Dr. Kristina Dahl, a principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Dr. Dahl was also named in the 2023 TIME100 Next list, which highlights the emerging leaders shaping the future of science, activism, politics, business and more.
“In an ominous signal of the gravity of the climate crisis, the latest scientific data show Earth’s temperature, averaged globally over the last 12 months, was more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial average. It also confirms what communities and ecosystems on the frontlines of climate change experienced in this record-breaking hot year: the toll of a warming world, this year made worse by El Niño, is already too high. This alarming statistic is the latest in a series of powerful warnings of how profoundly humanity’s widespread fossil fuel use has altered the planet we share.
“This data doesn’t mean the primary goal of the Paris climate agreement has been breached, as nations committed to limiting global average temperatures over the long-term—typically considered 20 to 30 years—rather than tying their efforts to a day, month, or year-long anomaly. That said, world leaders should take serious heed of Copernicus’ latest finding by quickening their current snail’s pace to slash heat-trapping emissions and helping to safeguard communities and ecosystems from unavoidable climate impacts. The latest IPCC report found that the planet will likely breach the 1.5-degree-Celsius mark within the next 11 years unless global heat-trapping emissions peak by 2025.
“Fossil fuel companies, meanwhile, continue to operate and plan in ways that would move the planet further along this dangerous trajectory, with more human suffering and ecological destruction in store. Wealthier nations and those who have historically contributed the most to the climate crisis—including the United States—must stop obstructing and instead lead the way in making deep cuts to global warming emissions and providing funding to countries that have contributed the least while bearing the brunt of the crisis.”
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
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The president of Portland State University announced Friday that the school would suspend its connections to the military contractor Boeing as campus protests against U.S. colleges' complicity in Israel's war on Gaza intensified.
In an email to students and faculty, PSU president Ann Cudd wrote that while the university has no investments in Boeing, it "accepts philanthropic gifts from the company."
"In consideration of the strong feelings that have been expressed, PSU will pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants from the Boeing Company until we have had a chance to engage in this debate and come to conclusions about a reasonable course of action," Cudd wrote.
The announcement came amid an upsurge of campus protests nationwide, with students and faculty walking out of classrooms and setting up encampments in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrations have continued spreading in the face of violent police crackdowns and right-wing attempts to discredit them as antisemitic; one tally shows that protests have taken place on at least 75 U.S. campuses over the past week.
Oregon Public Broadcastingnoted Friday that PSU students and faculty have been pushing the university to cut ties with Boeing for months, citing its connections to Israel. Cudd said at a press conference last month that Boeing donated $150,000 to PSU to name a classroom and that a Boeing executive sits on the advisory board of PSU's business school.
On Thursday night, OPB reported, "a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom were holding anti-Boeing signs, set up tents and barricades on Portland State University's South Park Blocks."
"Demonstrators had planned to hold a protest on the PSU campus Monday, but it was not immediately clear if the university's pause on relations to Boeing would change those plans," the outlet observed. One student told OPB that "the funding from Boeing has already been received by PSU for the year, so putting a pause on it doesn't actually do anything."
"It doesn't change anything about the way things are being conducted," the student added.
Boeing is one of the largest military contractors in the world, and Amnesty International has documented at least three cases in which Israeli forces used weaponry made by the company to commit atrocities in Gaza.
In one instance earlier this year, the Israeli military used a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb manufactured by Boeing to attack a family building in Rafah, killing 18 civilians and wounding eight others. In October, Israel used Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions to conduct a pair of airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, killing more than 43 people from two families—including 19 children.
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Some participants criticized Lula—who was notably absent from this year's ATL after attending the previous two camps—for what they said was his failure to fulfill campaign promises to Indigenous Brazilians—although attendees also acknowledged that his administration has taken major steps toward tackling illegal resource extraction and demarcating tribal lands.
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"Twenty years of resistance struggle by the Terra Livre camp. For 20 years we've been coming to Brasília, occupying and seeking our rights," she said. "This year, we're waiting for the government to demarcate all our lands. But the government is letting the [state] governors decide for us."
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Brazilian and international agribusiness interests, including commodity traders like U.S.-based Cargill, are pushing Lula's administration to proceed with EF-170—commonly called the Ferrogrão—over the objections of Indigenous peoples. Kayapó leader Doto Takak-Ire warned last year that the Ferrogrão threatens the survival of no less than 48 native peoples, calling the project "the railway of Indigenous genocide."
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