Carbon dioxide levels reach highest in human history

Over the weekend, the climate system sounded simultaneous alarms. Near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia, the temperature surged to 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius). Meanwhile, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eclipsed 415 parts per million for the first time in human history.

By themselves, these are just data points. But taken together with so many indicators of an altered atmosphere and rising temperatures, they blend into the unmistakable portrait of human-induced climate change.

Saturday’s steamy 84-degree reading was posted in Arkhangelsk, Russia, where the average high temperature is around 54 this time of year. In Koynas, a rural area to the east of Arkhangelsk, it was even hotter on Sunday, soaring to 87 degrees (31 Celsius). Many locations in Russia, from the Kazakhstan border to the White Sea, set record-high temperatures over the weekend, some 30 to 40 degrees (around 20 Celsius) above average. The warmth also bled west into Finland, which hit 77 degrees (25 Celsius) Saturday, the country’s warmest temperature of the season so far.

Meanwhile, in Greenland, the ice sheet’s melt season began about a month early. In Alaska, several rivers saw winter ice break up on their earliest dates on record.

Data from the Japan Meteorological Agency show April was the second warmest on record for the entire planet.

These changes all have occurred against the backdrop of unremitting increases in carbon dioxide, which has now crossed another symbolic threshold. Saturday’s carbon dioxide measurement of 415 parts per million at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory is the highest in at least 800,000 years and probably over 3 million years. Carbon dioxide levels have risen by nearly 50 percent since the Industrial Revolution.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that, along with the rise of several other such heat-trapping gases, is the primary cause of climate warming in recent decades, scientists have concluded.

Eighteen of the 19 warmest years on record for the planet have occurred since 2000, and we keep observing these highly unusual and often record-breaking high temperatures. They won’t stop soon, but cuts to greenhouse emissions would eventually slow them down.

[The Washington Post]

Over 90,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon

Officials from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said about 90,000 Nigerian refugees in neighboring Cameroon “are safe” and will soon return, be airlifted by the Nigerian Air Force.

The refugees, mostly from Borno State in the northeast of the country, were displaced by the unending Boko Haram insurgency.

The Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria has led to about 100,000 deaths since 2009, according to the Borno State Government.

The terror group, which has been largely decimated since 2015, seeks to impose strict Islamic law in Northern Nigeria.

[Premium Times]

Dozens drown as migrant boat capsizes off Tunisia

At least 65 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have died after their boat capsized in the Mediterranean off the coast of Tunisia, the UN refugee agency says. Some reports put the number on board higher so the toll could rise. Sixteen people were rescued, UNHCR said in a statement.

About 164 people have died on the route between Libya and Europe in the first four months of 2019, UNHCR figures show.

The Tunisian Navy dispatched a ship as soon as it heard about the incident and came across a fishing boat picking up survivors, a statement from the Tunisian defense ministry said.

Thousands of migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Europe every year, and Libya is a key departure point.  Those who make the journey often travel in poorly maintained and overcrowded ships, and many have died.

[BBC]

European Union nations are living far beyond the Earth’s means

The European Union’s 28 countries consume the Earth’s resources much faster than they can be renewed, and none of them has sustainable consumption policies, a report released by the World Wide Fund (WWF) and Global Footprint Network on Thursday said.

“The EU uses up almost 20 percent of the Earth’s bio-capacity although it comprises only 7 percent of the world population,” the report said.

“In other words, 2.8 planets would be needed if everyone consumed at the rate of the average EU resident. This is well above the world average which is approximately 1.7 planets,” it said.

“If everybody in the world had the same ecological footprint as an average EU resident – emitting as much carbon, consuming as much food, timber and fibers, and occupying as much built up space – May 10th would be the date by which humanity would have used as much from nature than our planet can renew in a whole year,” the report said.

[Reuters]

Jimmy Carter lectures Trump that US is ‘most warlike nation in history of the world’

The only U.S. president to complete his term without war, military attack or occupation has called the United States “the most warlike nation in the history of the world.” During his regular Sunday school lesson in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Jimmy Carter revealed that he had recently spoken with President Donald Trump about China.

Carter, 94, said Trump was worried about China’s growing economy and expressed concern that “China is getting ahead of us.” Carter, who normalized diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing in 1979, said he told Trump that much of China’s success was due to its peaceful foreign policy.

“Since 1979, do you know how many times China has been at war with anybody?” Carter asked. “None, and we have stayed at war.” Carter then said the U.S. has been at peace for only 16 of its 242 years as a nation. Counting wars, military attacks and military occupations, there have actually only been five years of peace in US history — 1976, the last year of the Gerald Ford administration and 1977-80, the entirety of Carter’s presidency. Carter then referred to the US as “the most warlike nation in the history of the world,” a result, he said, of the US forcing other countries to “adopt our American principles.”

China’s peace dividend has allowed and enhanced its economic growth, Carter said. “How many miles of high-speed railroad do we have in this country?” he asked. China has around 18,000 miles (29,000 km) of high speed rail lines while the US has “wasted, I think, $3 trillion” on military spending. According to a November 2018 study by Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs, the US has spent $5.9 trillion waging war in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other nations since 2001.

The U.S. has also invaded or bombed dozens of countries and supported nearly every single right-wing dictatorship in the world since the end of World War II. It has overthrown or attempted to overthrow dozens of foreign governments since 1949 and has actively sought to crush nearly every single people’s liberation movement over that same period. It has also meddled in scores of elections, in countries that are allies and adversaries alike.

Carter said of U.S. war spending. “China has not wasted a single penny on war, and that’s why they’re ahead of us. In almost every way.”

“And I think the difference is if you take $3 trillion and put it in American infrastructure you’d probably have $2 trillion leftover,” Carter told his congregation. “We’d have high-speed railroad. We’d have bridges that aren’t collapsing, we’d have roads that are maintained properly. Our education system would be as good as that of say South Korea or Hong Kong.”

[telesurenglish.net] Read more on the subject

Humanitarian Aid and the Loss of Palestinian Rights

After the US withdrew financial support from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), it is the EU which became the largest donor to the organization.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl declared that the EU funding enabled UNRWA to provide another scholastic year for Palestinian refugee children. The EU’s funding commitment, according to UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, reflects the institution’s “preserving the dignity and addressing the needs of Palestine’s refugees.”

All these initiatives, while necessary, are not a substitute for the Palestinian right of return and ceremonial fanfare to celebrate these initiatives are nothing but propaganda for the institutions, enhanced by exploiting the participation of Palestinian refugees as recipients divested of rights.

The international political intent is to isolate Palestinians into humanitarian aid recipients. Incorporating the two-state rhetoric should be non-negotiable normalizes the violations and forces Palestinians into a space where speaking about rights is shunned as ideological, while negotiations and losses for Palestinians are deemed pragmatic outcomes.

[Middle East Monitor]