Tag Archives: Scotland

UN Chief Calls for Global Ban on Fossil Fuel Advertising

“There is no longer any cover for agencies to say that they are doing the right thing when working with polluters,” said one campaigner. “Everyone knows this is wrong, and everyone needs to act.”

By Julia Conley. Published 6-5-2024 by Common Dreams

Over 100,000 marched in Vancouver in solidarity with the youth of the world in the September 27, 2019 Climate Strike.. Photo::Chris Yakimov/flickr/CC

Despite the grim news that scientists on Wednesday reported last month as the hottest May on record globally, marking 12 straight months with record-breaking heat, climate advocates expressed optimism after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres signaled what one called a “game-changing intervention,” urging governments to ban advertisements by fossil fuel firms.

The demand is in line with prohibitions on advertising for other “products that harm human health—like tobacco,” said Guterres.

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Latin America shows why ecocide must be an international crime

Every state has an interest in prosecuting those who destroy our planet – we must ensure there are no ‘safe havens’

By Rodrigo Lledó. Published 5-21-2024 by openDemocracy

A lithium mine in Chile Photo: Reinhard Jahn/CC

Before leaving power in 1990, Chilean general and dictator Augusto Pinochet created a legal framework that guaranteed him absolute impunity. It didn’t work. He was arrested on charges of genocide and terrorism in London in 1998 by order of the Spanish justice system and, upon his return to Chile, finally had to face justice.

Years later, I had the opportunity to lead a team of public lawyers trying nearly 900 cases of crimes against humanity during the Chilean dictatorship. Though Pinochet was already dead, his accomplices had to be duly judged. But decades after his rule, human rights continue to be routinely violated in Latin America, often for defending the environment.

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‘Red List of Threatened Species’: A Grim Tally of Those Facing Extinction

“It’s hard to watch the rise of nationalism in the face of a global threat that requires global cooperation, global action”

By Common Dreams.  Published 9-4-2021

Protesters demonstrate to demand action against the climate emergency on the sidelines of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) congress. Photo: Martin Pigeon/Twitter

Of the 138,374 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival watchlist more than 38,000 are now at risk of extinction, as the destructive impact of human activity on our planet deepens.

An update of the ‘Red List of Threatened Species’ was released Saturday morning. Continue reading

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The time for a four-day week has arrived

A new experiment from Iceland confirms what many of us have long suspected: reducing working hours improves wellbeing and productivity

By Jack Kellam.  Published 7-8-2021 by openDemocracy

Photo: Rawpixel Ltd/flickr/CC

Over the past six years, Iceland has been quietly conducting a major economic experiment. More than 2,500 public sector employees – representing over 1% of the country’s entire working population – reduced their working hours from 40 hours per week to 35 or 36 hours, with no loss of pay.

Trials of shorter working weeks are not new: in recent years a number of ‘four-day week’ experiments have taken place around the world – from Microsoft’s trial in Japan to Unilever’s experiment in New Zealand. But Iceland’s two trials, which took place between 2015 and 2021 among employees of the country’s national government and Reykjavík City Council, are unparalleled in terms of scale and scope. Progress was meticulously monitored by Icelandic researchers, which generated an unrivalled amount of evidence on the impact of shorter working hours. This week the key findings were published in a joint report published by Alda (Association for Sustainable Democracy) and Autonomy. Continue reading

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Biolab for “Most Dangerous Pathogens on Earth” Opened in Wuhan Before Outbreak

23 million people in China “are effectively under quarantine” due to the sudden outbreak of a deadly new virus in Wuhan.

By John Vibes Published 1-23-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

As of Thursday afternoon, 23 million people in seven Chinese cities have been placed on quarantine due to the sudden outbreak of a deadly SARS-like virus called 2019-nCoV.

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Over 1,351 Climate Strikes in 110 Countries Planned for Friday as Global Revolt Escalates

“Activism works. So act.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-21-2019

People in more than 100 countries are expected to take part in well over 1,000 strikes on Friday, May 24 to demand climate action from their governments. (Photo: @ExtinctionR/Twitter)

Two months after what was reportedly the largest international climate demonstration ever, young people around the world are expected to make history again on Friday with a second global climate strike.

Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg, who began the global movement in which students around the world have walked out of their classrooms on a weekly basis since last fall to demand climate action, reported Tuesday that at least 1,351 separate strikes are now scheduled to take place all over the world on Friday. Continue reading

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In ‘Historic Moment’ for Climate Action, Wales Pledges to Leave Its Remaining Coal in the Ground

“More countries must rapidly follow the path of Wales in leaving fossil fuels in the ground and transitioning to renewables.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 10-22-2018

Breaking with its past as one of the world’s top coal users, Wales announced it would end its use of all fossil fuels following the IPCC’s report on the climate crisis. (Photo: Walt Jabsco/Flickr/cc)

Climate action groups on Monday applauded the government of Wales for demonstrating that it is taking seriously the existential and planetary threat posed by fossil fuels by announcing that the country would end its extraction of coal.

Wales’ new proposed plan to reject all future coal mining applications is set to be finalized by the end of the year, a government spokesperson told the BBC last week, as part of the country’s new energy strategy which will aim to ensure that 70 percent of Wales’ energy is derived from renewable sources by 2030. Continue reading

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It’s more than just the NHS that’s at risk in Scotland from TTIP

This article was originally published on December 11, 2014 on openDemocracy.
By Liz Murray

The EU/US Trade Deal poses a threat to Scottish Water’s plans to deprivatise failing PFI facilities.

A protest outside the Scottish Parliament against the smell at SeaField

Last week, a Europe-wide petition against TTIP, the controversial and aggressively neo-liberal free trade deal between the US and EU, reached 1 million signatures. More than 180,000 of those were from the UK. Another petition here in Scotland, calling on the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to oppose TTIP, gained almost 25,000 signatures.Opposition to TTIP is growing at an astonishing speed as the public discover how it threatens democracy, social justice, public services and national sovereignty.

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The Stakes Were High And So Was The Turnout

Yesterday, Scotland’s people went to the polls to vote on a referendum with one question on it: “Should Scotland be an independent country?” The no votes ended up winning (at this time, it looks like a ten point victory), but it still was a historical vote in many ways. As we were reading the news about the returns, we were struck by the contrasts between the Scottish referendum and what’s happening here in the U.S.

Flag of Scotland (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Flag of Scotland (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

The first thing that jumped out at us was the complete 180 degree difference between the U.S. secession movements and the Scottish independence movement as far as their view of the role of government goes. The Scots want more government spending on things such as education; they want the social safety net expanded or at the very least restored to where it was before the 2008 global crash; they want a stronger national health care system; they want a clean, non-nuclear energy plan; they want to remain in the E.U. but as a separate country – in other words, anything but the less government/no taxes/isolationist stance that we hear from secessionists here in the U.S.

The second thing is how easy Scotland makes it to vote. The polls were open for 16 hours; from 6 AM to 10 PM local time. Residents 16 and over were eligible to vote. Every step was taken to ensure that people would be able to vote. Compare this to our country, where the focus seems to be more on restricting the right to vote for large segments of the population through voter ID laws, fewer polling places and reduced voting hours.

The third thing was voter participation. A record number of people came to the polls. And, unlike here in the U.S. where the highest turnout we’ve seen in a national election in the last 100 years was 63%, turnout was estimated to be somewhere in the mid-80% range.

Occupy World Writes has to wonder what would happen in our country if we had such a motivated electorate and the same effort to make voting possible as we saw in Scotland yesterday. We have a dream…

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