Opinion: Rights of Nature Is the Logical Extension of the American Legal System........ Anyone who has seen the egregiously violent and inaccurate Disney film Pocahontas (1995) may have heard the Indigenous value that “every rock, tree, and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name.” But does Nature also have a right to have her day in court? The American legal system is primarily based on a straightforward moral theory: You break it, you buy it. A person or entity who has been legally wronged can sue the alleged perpetrator; the public benefits from these suits because they keep bad actors in check and allow victims to recover from their losses. The Rights of Nature movement has cleared the way for Nature to literally follow suit, seeking damages and relief for her undue losses. Business as usual has and will continue to cost us more of the natural world than we can afford to give. Critics complain that the Rights of Nature movement just opens the door for never-ending lawsuits and siphoning money from the companies that rely on altering the natural environment for profit. If people can sue in the name of the trees, that opens the door for people filing injunctions against every development they fear will permanently and tragically alter and harm the natural environment. These complaints encompass the entire point of the Rights of Nature movement. Speaking for the trees in legalese should be easier. Giving people the legal standing to file lawsuits and plenty of them in the name of nature is the name of the game. And when nature is harmed, demanding consistent repayment from those that cause the damage is how our civil court system creates justice. It is only fair that the current extracting economy should have to pay the price of losses taken by nature. Nature on her own cannot draft a petition, employ counsel, or have an assessment of damages done, but that should not impede her capacity to have her injuries assessed in a court of law.  With every environmental calamity, Nature cries for an advocate. Indigenous communities continue to be the first to answer that call, and Indigenous wisdom teaches that the only way to survive as a people is to ensure that Nature thrives. From controlled burns to tending the wild to managing diverse networks of clans in complex biospheres from swamps, deserts, to plains, to forests, Indigenous people have centuries of experience in preserving Nature’s abundance. For that reason, there is no better community in the United States to plead the Rights of Nature than this country’s First Peoples.            https://bioneers.org/rights-of-nature-is-the-logical-extension-of-the-american-legal-system-zmbz2303/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_button_link&utm_content=original_article&mc_cid=20f5106829&mc_eid=6341daa2a6

Nigeria has the largest economy and population of any country in Africa. It is expected to overtake China to become the world’s second most populous country after India by the end of the century. It was the world’s 25th biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2019, the second highest in Africa after South Africa. The country’s economy is closely tied to oil and gas exports. Profits from fossil fuels currently account for 93% of Nigeria’s total export revenue. The production of oil and gas in Nigeria has also been linked to steep societal inequalities and environmental disasters.  Nigeria has one of the highest rates of energy poverty in the world and suffers from chronic power cuts. In the run up to the 2023 general election, the Nigerian government reversed a pledge to end fuel subsidies amid the threat of protests. A recent analysis of Nigeria’s energy potential found the country could meet 59% of its energy consumption needs with renewables by 2050 – largely solar power. However, national pundits are still advocating for Nigeria to close its electricity gap through the use of more fossil fuels, including the country’s largely untapped coal reserves. Nigeria is already suffering loss and damagefrom climate change. Sharp increases in extreme heatare affecting the many millions of people without access to air conditioning or electricity and changes to precipitation threaten Nigeria’s largely rain-fed agricultural sector. In 2022, Nigeria faced deadly floods made 80 times more likely by human-caused climate change. Current president Muhammadu Buhari announced that Nigeria will aim to reach net-zero emissions by 2060 at the COP26 climate summit in 2021. The government has also pledgedto reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2030, when compared to “business-as-usual” levels. This pledge rises to 47% on the condition of international support.......Politics......Paris pledge.......Oil and gas.......Coal.......Deforestation, wood burning and agriculture......Renewables and ‘green growth’......Climate finance.......Impacts and adaptation             https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-carbon-brief-profile-nigeria/?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-02-19&utm_campaign=This+week+China+s+contradictory+coal+data+Speeding+up+the+phase+down+Extremes+analysed+Snow+loss+Nigeria+profiled                                        Other Carbon Brief Country Profiles........ C Australia......Brazil.....Canada......France......India.....Indonesia......Iran......Japan.......Mexico......Nigeria........South Africa......South Korea........Turkey........United States   

NATIONAL NEOLIBERALISM, CORPORATE STATE and SOCIAL EQUITY & CLIMATE CHANGE- ALL INTERTWINED-  CHILE MAKES ITS MOVE........'Our Future Is Public': Santiago Declaration Envisions End of Neoliberalism Death Spiral. A new manifesto calls for building "a sustainable social pact for the 21st century" in which "our rights are guaranteed, not based on our ability to pay, or on whether a system produces profit, but on whether it enables all of us to live well together in peace and equality." An international coalition made up of more than 200 trade unions and progressive advocacy groups on Thursday published the Santiago Declaration, a manifesto for "a complete overhaul of our global economic system." The undeniably anti-neoliberal document proclaiming that "our future is public" is the product of a meeting held in Chile—the "laboratory of neoliberalism" where Milton Friedman and his University of Chicago acolytes' upwardly redistributive economic model was first imposed at gunpoint by Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military junta. From November 29 to December 2, more than 1,000 organizers from over 100 countries gathered in Santiago to germinate a left-wing movement against "the dominant paradigm of growth, privatization, and commodification." "Who owns our resources and our services is fundamental. A public future means ensuring that everything essential to dignified lives is out of private control." "We are at a critical juncture," the manifesto begins. "At a time when the world faces a series of crises, from the environmental emergency to hunger and deepening inequalities, increasing armed conflicts, pandemics, rising extremism, and escalating inflation, a collective response is growing." "Hundreds of organizations across socioeconomic justice and public services sectors—from education and health services, to care, energy, food, housing, water, transportation, and social protection—are coming together to address the harmful effects of commercializing public services, to reclaim democratic public control, and to reimagine a truly equal and human rights-oriented economy that works for people and the planet," reads the document. "We demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative, and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society." The Santiago Declaration continues......                      *"The commercialization and privatization of public services and the commodification of all aspects of life have driven growing inequalities and entrenched power disparities, giving prominence to profit and corruption over people's rights and ecological and social well-being. It adversely affects workers, service users, and communities, with the costs and damages falling disproportionately on those who have historically been exploited.The devaluation of public service workers' social status, the worsening of their working conditions, and attacks against their unions are some of the most worrying regressions of our times and a threat to our collective spaces. *"This is deeply linked with the patriarchal organization of society, where women as workers and carers are undervalued and absorb social and economic shocks". They are the first to suffer from public sector cuts, losing access to services and opportunities for decent work, and facing a rising burden of unpaid care work".   *"Austerity cuts in public sector budgets and wage bills are driven by an ideological mindset entrenched in the International Monetary Fund and many ministries of finance that serve the interests of corporations over people, perpetuating dependencies and unsustainable debts. Unfair tax rules, nationally and internationally, enable vast inequalities in the accumulation and concentration of income, wealth, and power within and between countries. The financialization of a wide range of public actions and decisions hands over power to shareholders and undermines democracy"........read more    https://www.commondreams.org/news/santiago-declaration-our-future-is-public        

National China Focus: China issues white paper on green development....BEIJING, Jan. 19 2023 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Information Office Thursday released a white paper titled "China's Green Development in the New Era." The 18,000-character white paper mainly focuses on seven aspects of China's green development, including the country's commitment to green growth, a green territorial configuration, adjustment and improvement of the industrial structure, application of green production methods, eco-friendly living, institutions and mechanisms for green development and efforts to build the earth into a beautiful home. It systematically summarizes China's actions and achievements in green development over the past decade, and expounds the country's ideas and experience of green development, Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference on the release of the white paper. "Green is the defining feature of China in the new era, and green development features the Chinese path to modernization," read the white paper.From 2012 to 2021, China planted 64 million hectares of trees, carried out desertification prevention and control over 18.53 million hectares of land, and added or restored more than 800,000 hectares of wetland, data from the paper showed.Renewable energy has played a more significant role in the country's energy mix. The proportion of clean energy sources in China's total energy consumption increased from 14.5 percent in 2012 to 25.5 percent by the end of 2021, while the proportion of coal decreased from 68.5 percent to 56 percent over the same period. China's green industries continue to grow. The renewable energy industry is growing rapidly, and China leads the world in the manufacture of clean energy generation facilities for wind and photovoltaic power. In 2021, the output value of China's energy conservation and environmental protection industries exceeded 8 trillion yuan (about 1.18 trillion U.S. dollars). The paper also presents the joint efforts between China and the rest of the world on building the earth into a beautiful home, Zhao added. China actively participated in global climate negotiations in a constructive manner and made historic contributions to the conclusion and implementation of the Paris Agreement, the white paper said. China is also an active participant in South-South cooperation on climate change and is committed to working with other countries on promoting green development under the Belt and Road Initiative.         https://english.news.cn/20230119/e7a13b2dd07d4b8f9ccf014473b4a20c/c.html?utm_source=cbnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2023-01-22&utm_campaign=Daily+Briefing+20+01+2023