LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Saturday, May 11, 2019

The mouflon may be a national symbol of Cyprus, where it has roamed for thousands of years and is protected by law, but as they creep into agricultural villages they have begun to lock horns with farmers.

Full story: http://u.afp.com/JYC9

Cyprus Mouflon | CITES
https://www.cites.org/eng/gallery/species/mammal/cyprus_mouflon.html
Common name: Cyprus Mouflon, Cyprian Wild Sheep Scientific name: Ovis orientalis ophion. Synonym:O. aries ophion, O. ammon musimon pro parte

The octogenarian entrepreneur, who prefers gardening to meetings, says capitalism is destroying earth

THEGUARDIAN.COM

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard: ‘Denying climate change is evil’

The octogenarian entrepreneur, who prefers gardening to meetings, says capitalism is destroying earth

BREAKING

CBC Indigenous

3 hrs

1,100 demonstrators, including more than 800 students, walked from city hall to the Manitoba Legislative building hoping to get the attention of politicians.

CBC.CA

Hundreds of Winnipeg walkers call for clean drinking water on First Nations

Organizers estimate more than 1,000 people poured into the streets of downtown Winnipeg Friday to bring attention to the dozens of First Nations in Manitoba and across Canada currently under boil water advisories.

Fair Vote Canada/Représentation équitable au Canada

When Justin Trudeau turned his back on his campaign promise, turned his back on the evidence, and announced they were dumping electoral reform, he stated:

"It was my choice to make."

We are seeing this same kind of governance from Doug Ford in Ontario.

Policies opposed by parties representing the majority of voters, that have serious consequences in people's lives.

Proportional representation means parties must work together to create policies that have broader support.

First-past-the-post - an archaic system - is failing us.

ENVIRONMENT
A 'Climate Spring': UK protests embolden global climate movement

Matthew Green

LONDON (Reuters) - A civil disobedience campaign that prompted the British parliament to declare a climate emergency has galvanized environmental activists around the globe by showing how rapidly disruptive tactics can force politicians to listen.

In what some activists have dubbed a ‘climate spring’, grass-roots networks spurred by the grim findings of the latest climate science are building a momentum that is taking governments, corporate executives, and even members of the groups themselves by surprise.

“This is saying: be bold, act, don’t wait and think you need to mobilize a million people — 5,000 is enough,” said Farhana Yamin, a leading figure in Extinction Rebellion, a new movement that sparked a national debate on climate change after occupying four sites in central London last month.

Yamin was speaking to Reuters outside parliament late on Wednesday, where lawmakers had just acknowledged the urgency of the climate crisis with a symbolic declaration, made in response to the protests.

While nobody can say whether the activists will catalyze the kind of transformational changes in energy, transport and farming that scientists say are needed to avert the worst loss of life from climate change, campaigners believe the moment is ripe to redefine the politically possible.

Last year’s northern hemisphere heatwaves and wildfires, and a stark warning from a UN-sponsored panel of climate scientists issued in October, have spurred thousands of first-time activists to join protests and risk arrest to try to persuade governments to curb the use of fossil fuels.

In the United States, the youth-led Sunrise Movement is backing a proposed Green New Deal tabled by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which has rallied a diverse coalition of supporters by twinning plans to tackle climate change with social justice.

Most of the Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, have embraced the Green New Deal.

On March 15, an estimated 1.5 million school children and students heeded calls by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg to walk out of their classrooms. The growing school strike movement is particularly active in Germany, where protesters have also waged a civil disobedience campaign to blockade coal mines.

Meanwhile, indigenous communities in North America, Australia and South America have entrenched their resistance to new oil pipelines and mines, and Extinction Rebellion, launched in Britain in late October, has inspired more than a dozen international offshoots.

“All these things have made this feel like a ‘climate spring’ and have certainly driven more people to want to get involved,” said Nic Eliades, an activist who volunteers with Extinction Rebellion in Spain, where the group blocked traffic outside the Madrid headquarters of energy company Repsol on April 15 to coincide with the start of 11 days of protests in London.

“The UK’s success has certainly inspired us and given us an impetus to move forward,” Eliades said.

A SHIFT IN THE ZEITGEIST

From a semi-naked protest in Britain’s parliament to members gluing themselves to a pink boat at Oxford Circus, Extinction Rebellion has provided a model of how a well-organized civil disobedience campaign can hijack the attention of the media and political establishment — even if public opinion is divided over the disruption caused.

Only one in five people surveyed by polling company ComRes supported the group’s aims and tactics despite more than half believing that climate change could end the human race.

Extinction Rebellion wants to force governments to rapidly cut carbon emissions and repair damage to the natural world. Members have cautioned that Wednesday’s opposition-sponsored declaration in the UK parliament, adopted without a vote, should be seen only as a first step.

Bill McKibben, a leading US environmentalist and co-founder of 350.org, a global climate campaign, said the worldwide upsurge in citizen engagement aimed to embolden politicians to take the kind of rapid action that might yet avert a breakdown in the climate system.

“What all these activists are working toward is less particular pieces of legislation, and more a shift in the Zeitgest — a shift in our sense of what’s normal, and natural and obvious,” McKibben told a conference on climate change hosted by the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland last month.

Buoyed by the spectacle of Extinction Rebellion bringing parts of London to a standstill, climate campaigners in the United States are finalizing plans for a general strike this autumn — effectively encouraging adults to follow the example of children in the school strike movement.

Editing by Carmel Crimmins

Typo on Aussie $50 note leaves central bank red faced.

Microprint of speech by Australia's first female parliamentarian misspells responsibility - dropping an 'i' to leave 'responsibilty'.

Full story: http://u.afp.com/JYCJ

AFP Graphics maps the route taken by Frenchman Jean-Jacques Savin, aged 72, who crossed the Atlantic ocean in a barrel.

Full story: http://u.afp.com/Jg3P

You may recall the story of Frenchman Jean-Jacques Savin. AFP first featured him in November as he prepared to cross the Atlantic in a custom-made barrel carried only by the currents.

Savin arrived early May 9 on the Caribbean island of Martinique declaring: "It was an exhilarating voyage but also quite risky."

He departed on December 26, 2018 and survived 127 days mainly on his stores of freeze-dried food and the occasional freshly caught fish, as well as supplies provided by the crews of ships he came across during the voyage.