Intempéries

The “degrowth” movement to fight the climate crisis offers a romantic, utopian vision. But it’s not a policy agenda.

The European Commission just released on Friday 16 July its new EU Forest Strategy. This Strategy supplements the Fit for 55 Package (published on 14 of July) and will contribute to achieve the EU’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 55% by 2030, as set out in the European legislation on Climate. This new ambitious strategy “recognises the central and multi-functional role of forests, and the contribution of foresters and the entire forest-based value chain for achieving by 2050 a sustainable and climate-neutral economy

Herrington, a Dutch sustainability researcher and adviser to the Club of Rome, has made headlines in recent days after she authored a report that appeared to show a controversial 1970s study predicting the collapse of civilization was – apparently – right on time. Coming amid a cascade of alarming environmental events, Herrington’s work predicted the collapse could come around 2040 if current trends held.

The politics of this new, extreme individualism will make collective responses to social crises impossible

In 2018, a climate paper by Jem Bendell went viral, being downloaded over a million times. It helped to launch a worldwide movement of people seeking to reduce harm in the face of societal disruption and collapse. In this interview for Facing Future TV, Jem explains the concept of Deep Adaptation, how he developed the idea, what it means in practice, what he says to critics, and what his new book on the topic is about.

Fossil fuel companies lied for decades about climate change, and humanity is paying the price. Shouldn’t those lies be central to the public narrative?

There's likely to be a significant increase in the number of lawsuits brought against fossil fuel companies in the coming years, say researchers. Their new study finds that to date, lawyers have failed to use the most up-to-date scientific evidence on the cause of rising temperatures. As a result, there have been few successful claims for compensation. That could change, as evidence linking specific weather events to carbon emissions increases.

Every new climate pledge is an attempt to distract people from the failed ones it replaces. Apparently, all seven governments have committed “to conserve or protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and at least 30 per cent of the world’s ocean by 2030”. But what does it mean?

InfluenceMap, a think tank that monitors corporate lobbying around climate change, reveals: while the 10 European airlines looked at for this report have received around €30 billion in bailouts during the pandemic – some of which came with conditions attached to encourage climate-friendly actions – most have simultaneously lobbied to delay new proposals to cut aviation emissions.

Meurtri par la pandémie de coronavirus, le Brésil vit un drame sans fin, avec la menace d'une troisième vague dévastatrice en raison de la lenteur de la vaccination, du relâchement précoce des restrictions et de la circulation effrénée des variants.