Our leaders—good and bad—have understood that they must say and do something about climate change; it is, after all, the worst crisis we’ve ever wandered into as a species. The word they like to say is yes!—to new spending on all sorts of things. Which is great: Joe Biden, for instance, convinced Congress to say yes to the IRA, which has tons of money that, as the Economist pointed out this week, seems to be functioning as intended, spurring lots of investment in wind, solar, EVs and so on. But the ultimate goal of climate policy can’t be just to produce more renewable energy; if it doesn’t also dramatically and quickly cut the production of oil, gas and coal then it won’t really help.  That’s why the news about the Biden administration’s capitulation on the Willow oil complex was so woeful. Here was a brand new project on the most remote and untouched corner of the nation, in a place already so damaged by climate change that its builders may have to refreeze the tundra before they can drill—and yet Biden could not bring himself to say no to the Alaska congressional delegation,                                                                                                                                                Vast new oil fields have also been approved for exploitation by Westernmultinational companies in Guyana, Brazil and Uganda, among others. Some developing countries have argued that income from fossil fuel — essential to the prosperity of the industrialized world — is also their right, and that climate change mitigation is largely the responsibility of wealthy nations. In fact, the president of Ghana told visiting vice-president Kamala Harris last week that he too planned to drill for oil, “which my government is seeking to use as the basis to transform its economy." There wasn’t much she could say in return—Ghana’s moral case is obviously stronger than rich Alaska’s. The most remarkable example may be the United Arab Emirates, which will host this fall’s climate negotiations. Sultan Al Jaber, who will serve as host of the talks, runs the Emirates renewable energy company, Masdar, which claims to have invested more than almost any other corporation in solar and wind—more than $30 billion over the last two decades. Over the last two months he’s told various international forums that “we have to rapidly reduce emissions” and that “oil and gas companies need to align around net zero,” and that “we in the UAE are not shying away from the energy transition. We are running towards it.” But as a Guardian expose this week revealed that the UAE in fact is running in precisely the opposite direction: it has plans for the world’s third-biggest expansion of oil and gas drilling. The busy Al Jaber in fact runs not just its renewable energy company but its fossil fuel company as well, and that one plans to spend $150 billion over the next five years (compared, again, with the $30 billion over the last two decades on the clean stuff) to enable an “accelerated growth strategy” for oil and gas production.,,,,,read on        https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/just-say-no?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

JUST THINK OF WHAT $3 TRILLION COULD HAVE BEEN DONE FOR HUMANITY! Iraq War Costs Could Hit Nearly $3 Trillion by 2050: Report. The Costs of War Project said the U.S.-led invasion and occupation "caused massive death, destruction, and political instability," killing hundreds of thousands of people while displacing millions more. The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs said that "this budgetary figure includes costs to date, estimated at about $1.79 trillion, and the costs of veterans' care through 2050."  Since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, between 550,000-580,000 people have been killed in Iraq and Syria, the current locations of the United States’ Operation Inherent Resolve. March 19-20, 2023 marks 20 years since United States forces invaded Iraq to oust dictator Saddam Hussein, under the false claim that his regime was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. The ensuing war, in which U.S. ground presence peaked in 2007 with over 170,000 soldiers, caused massive death, destruction, and political instability in Iraq. Among the consequences was the increase of sectarian politics, widespread violence, and the rise of the Islamic State militant group with its terror attacks throughout the Middle East. Though the U.S. government officially ended its Iraq War in 2011, the repercussions of the invasion and occupation as well as subsequent and ongoing military interventions have had an enormous human, social, economic, and environmental toll. An estimated 300,000 people have died from direct war violence in Iraq, while the reverberating effects of war continue to kill and sicken hundreds of thousands more. The new report includes estimates for Syria, which the United States began bombing during the Obama administration after Islamic State militants rose to power amid the destabilization and power vacuum caused by the Iraq invasion and Syrian civil war. Including Syria, the Costs of War Project says between 550,000-580,000 people have been killed since March 2003, and "several times as many may have died due to indirect causes such as preventable diseases." "More than 7 million people from Iraq and Syria are currently refugees, and nearly 8 million people are internally displaced in the two countries," the publication notes.     https://www.commondreams.org/news/iraq-war-cost 

 UNITED NATIONS- Inadequate progress on climate action makes rapid transformation of societies only option - UNEP.  Climate pledges leave the world on track for a temperature rise of 2.4-2.6°C by the end of this century....Updated pledges since COP26 in Glasgow take less than one per cent off projected 2030 greenhouse gas emissions; 45 per cent is needed for limiting global warming to 1.5°C.....Transforming the electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, and the food and financial systems would help put world on a path to success. Nairobi, 27 October 2022 – As intensifying climate impacts across the globe hammer home the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall rapidly, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris goals, with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place. However, theEmissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window – Climate crisis calls for rapid transformation of societies finds that urgent sector and system-wide transformations – in the electricity supply, industry, transport and buildings sectors, and the food and financial systems – would help to avoid climate disaster. This report tells us in cold scientific terms what nature has been telling us, all year, through deadly floods, storms and raging fires: we have to stop filling our atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and stop doing it fast,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP. “We had our chance to make incremental changes, but that time is over. Only a root-and-branch transformation of our economies and societies can save us from accelerating climate disaster.” A wasted year.... The report finds that, despite a decision by all countries at the 2021 climate summit in Glasgow, UK (COP26) to strengthen Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and some updates from nations, progress has been woefully inadequate. NDCs submitted this year take only 0.5 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent, less than one per cent, off projected global emissions in 2030.This lack of progress leaves the world hurtling towards a temperature rise far above the Paris Agreement goal of well below 2°C, preferably 1.5°C.  https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/inadequate-progress-climate-action-makes-rapid-transformation