This is the 502nd edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the May 27 Green Spotlight. More than 26,(950) environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
HarrisonBeck writes—Why Pulling Out of the Paris Accord is Misguided and Uneconomical: “Two years ago, I travelled to Paris to research and witness the making of the Paris Climate Agreement. I returned from that trip and published this article to express how fearful I was regarding the agreement’s capacity to adequately address the very near and massive impacts of climate change. I am now, ironically, with the White House threatening to pull out of the Paris Accord, compelled to defend the agreement’s merits. With the President promising a decision to either stay in or retreat from the Paris Agreement within the next few days, we shouldn’t just be thinking about how detrimental doing so would be for our country’s capacity to function internationally, as it would isolate the United States in a real and powerful way from nearly every major ally it has. Nor should we be dwelling solely on how bad retreating from negotiations would be for our national security, leaving our coastlines, our farmlands, our national parks, and many of our neighbors and allies in serious risk and dooming many of the world’s most war-torn regions to violence inducing droughts, famines, and floods. We shouldn’t dwell, either, on just how terrible doing this would be for the poorest and most marginalized across the world. After all, the worst impacts of climate change—forced migration and displacement, major storms, flash floods, and famines, impact those already on the margins of our economies. Struggling farmers, impoverished women, the elderly, children, especially orphans, the mentally ill, the sick, and the poor are those without the means of adequately reacting to the impacts of climate change and will be the casualties of the White House’ decision. Rather, while the President and his cabinet weighs backing out of the Paris Climate Accord, we should take special consideration for how detrimental this decision would be for the American economy, realizing that the President’s agenda, whether agreeable or not, is predicated on the betterment and the expansion of that American economy.
Dan Bacher writes—The Epic Battle Between Big Oil and the People of California: “On Thirteenth Street in front of the Sacramento Convention Center where the Democratic Convention was being held on May 20, a group of activists held a mock ‘tug of war’ between the people of California and the oil industry for the loyalty of Governor Jerry Brown. On the left, people pulled an activist wearing a giant papier mache Jerry Brown ‘head’ towards them with the rope. Then others representing oil industry executives, dressed in white shirts and gray ties right next to a big oil barrel emblazoned with “Big Oil $,” tugged ‘Jerry Brown’ in their direction. The ‘tug of war’ took place for around 20 minutes, with neither side winning. The skit depicted the contradiction between Jerry Brown the ‘climate leader,’ who appeals to his Democratic base by preaching against climate change and for green energy, and the other guy, ‘Big Oil Brown,’ who supports the expansion of fracking in California and the construction of the Delta Tunnels — and has received millions in contributions from the oil and energy industries.”
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2sfjJPw
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