Credit: Truthout


– Editor’s note:
With the Trump Administration pulling the U. S. out of the Paris Climate Accord and focusing on fossil fuels, one of the world’s largest contributors to global warming (the USA) is absent on contributing to the survival of the planet’s surface!


– “New UN Report Warns of Impending Catastrophe as World Warms, Glaciers Melt”
“Urgent changes needed to cut risk of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty, says IPCC”

“The biggest news in the corporate media regarding climate change since my last dispatch has been the UN report stating that we have 12 years left to limit a full-on climate change catastrophe. To avoid this fate, we would need to spend those 12 years curbing global emissions dramatically. Essentially, there would need to be a government-mandated plan across the globe that would enable us to limit warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade (1.5°C) rather than the 2°C goal of the 2015 Paris climate talks. Eliminating that extra .5 of warming would save tens of millions of people from sea level rise inundation, and hundreds of millions from water scarcity and a myriad of other catastrophic impacts. Limiting warming to 1.5°C would, scientists have said, require a radical rethinking of virtually every facet of modern society, including an abandonment of our entire fossil-fuel based economy. However, currently, we are headed for at least a 3°C increase by 2100, with no mass government mobilization in sight,” by Dahr Jamail, Truthout.
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– “Demands for ‘Real Climate Action’ as Death Toll From California Wildfires Hits Grim Record”
“‘This is not the new normal. This is the new abnormal,’ said California Gov. Jerry Brown”
by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams.
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– “93 Percent Breathing Polluted Air”
* Worldwide, 93 percent of children live in areas with air pollution at levels above WHO guidelines
* More than 1 in 4 deaths among children under 5 years is related to environmental risks, including air pollution
* In 2016, ambient (outside) and household air pollution contributed to respiratory tract infections that led to 543,000 deaths in children under 5
* In 2016, ambient air pollution led to 4.2 million premature deaths, nearly 300,000 of which occurred in children under the age of 5
* Exposure to air pollution may lead to lower cognitive test outcomes, negatively affect children’s mental and motor development and may influence the development of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
By Dr. Joseph MRead more