Solar eclipse to darken sky over NYC, Montreal Thursday morning
By
Brian Lada, Accuweather.com
JUNE 5, 2021 

Jo Anne Lin holds solar eclipse glasses on her friend Dorthy Tan while she photographs the sun through glasses during a solar eclipse watch party in Sunset Hills, Mo., on August 21, 2017. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

The Earth, moon and sun will align again for the second time in as many weeks to create a solar eclipse that will be visible for part of Canada and the United States -- but only if Mother Nature cooperates and provides clear skies.

On May 26, the moon passed through Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, and on June 10, the roles will be reversed as the moon casts a shadow on the Earth during the first of two solar eclipses in 2021.

This event will be a far cry from the Great American Eclipse of 2017 when day turned to night from Oregon to South Carolina, but it will still be an impressive show for those in its path.

The upcoming celestial alignment will create an annular solar eclipse, otherwise known as a "ring of fire" eclipse as the moon will be slightly farther away from the Earth than normal, meaning it will not quite be large enough to block out the sun entirely.

The result will be a halo of sunlight around the moon during the height of the eclipse, but this spectacle will only be visible to the remote areas of northern Ontario, far northwestern Greenland, around the North Pole and eastern Russia.

However, millions of people will still be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

A global map of the shadow path for the June 10, 2021, annular solar eclipse. Times are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). (Image/NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio )

Right at sunrise on Thursday morning, people across the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada will be able to see, if skies are clear enough, more than half of the sun blocked out by the moon.

This includes metropolitan areas like New York City, Boston, Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

The shaded area of the map is where the solar eclipse will be visible after sunrise on June 10, 2021. (Image/NASA)

People across northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland and northern Russia will also see the moon take a bite out of the sun on Thursday.

Since the moon will never completely block out the sun, proper eye protection is needed throughout the entire eclipse

"It is never safe to look directly at the sun's rays -- even if the sun is partly obscured," NASA warns. "When watching a partial eclipse you must wear eclipse glasses at all times if you want to face the sun, or use an alternate indirect method."

Looking at the sun without a solar filter or eclipse glasses can lead to permanent eye damage, so safety is the top priority for viewing the eclipse first-hand.

Millions of people purchased specially made eclipse glasses for the total solar eclipse in 2017, and they may still be good to use for the upcoming eclipse as long as they have been stored properly.

First, make sure that the glasses have a label that reads "ISO 12312-2" as this is the approved safety standard for eclipse glasses.

"If the filters aren't scratched, punctured, or torn, you may reuse them indefinitely," according to NASA.

People who do not have these eclipse glasses can still enjoy the event by viewing the sun indirectly.

This includes making a simple pinhole projector out of common household items or even just looking at the crescent-shaped shadows that appear when holding out an object like a pasta strainer or crossed fingers.

A pinhole projector is essentially a small hole in a piece of paper. The light that makes it through appears as a crescent when the moon is blocking out part of the sun. (Image/NASA)

Clouds will be concerning for some folks hoping to witness the celestial alignment, including those in some big cities in the mid-Atlantic such as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

The forecast looks better farther north for Boston, as well as Canadian cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, although a few clouds could still cause some disruptions for onlookers. Even better weather is in the offing for much of Atlantic Canada with a mainly clear sky expected on Thursday morning.

Areas farther west, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, will be able to see a small sliver of the sun covered by the moon right at sunrise, but it will not be nearly impressive as areas farther east.

Another solar eclipse is set to unfold later this year in early December, but this will only be visible across Antarctica so only a handful of people and penguins will have a chance to experience the event

This week's eclipse will also be the last solar eclipse visible from North America until Oct. 14, 2023, when another ring of fire eclipse unfolds, but this time over more populated areas of the U.S. and across Central America and northern South America.

This will be an appetizer for the main event on April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse is once again visible from the contiguous U.S.

"The 2024 total solar eclipse will be a spectacular eclipse to witness," expert eclipse photographer and eclipse educator Dr. Gordon Telepun said. "The path encompasses many big cities and therefore a large number of people."

It will also last for nearly twice as long as the eclipse in 2017, so folks that get to enjoy this week's event may want to start planning for the main event taking place in less than three years.

Colombia Church says govt-strike committee dialogue will continue, despite pause

Inés San Martín

Jun 9, 2021

THE CRUX

ROME BUREAU CHIEF

A woman holds a Colombian flag as she listens to Pope Francis Angelus noon prayer in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, May 9, 2021. (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia.)

ROME – The Catholic Church in Colombia says dialogue efforts between the government and the National Strike Committee (CNP) will resume, despite an announcement on Sunday by the government that the CNP had decided to “unilaterally suspend the dialogue.”

The dialogue efforts between the government and the CNP, composed mostly of unions, began a month ago and was mediated by the Catholic Church and United Nations.

Representatives met several times without any progress, because neither part is willing to budge: The government is asking strikers to lift the blockades that have created havoc on many of the nation’s main highways since the protests began on April 28, and the strikers want the government of President Iván Duque to sign a protocol that guarantees peaceful protests and limits the use of force by the Colombian police.

A delegation from the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) arrived in Colombia on Sunday ahead of a June 8-10 visit to the country to assess the human rights situation.

At the end of the day of talks on Sunday, Father Fabio Henao Gaviria, the Caritas director who is the facilitator of the process on behalf of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, said on Sunday he believes that the dialogue had been positive, and despite the pause in the negotiations, progress is being made on setting “a national agenda based on the needs of different regions of the country.”

Therefore “the Church is willing to continue accompanying the process, both at the national level and in the territories” and also “reiterates its closeness to the most vulnerable sectors, particularly the youth.”

Several regions in Colombia are holding their own dialogues, particularly in the largest cities, such as Cali and Bogota, most impacted by the violence during the protests. These efforts are still ongoing, despite the temporary suspension of the national dialogue.

Protestors have argued that they had been peaceful in their rallies and that violence only broke out when the police suppressed the demonstrations using violence. Several allegations of human rights violations have been made, including by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

More than 40 people died in the protests and hundreds were wounded. There are also 25 allegations of sexual violence by members of the police during the protests.

According to Archbishop Dario Monsalve Mejia, “the global pandemic has made us all children of the same need, and the national strike, by affecting mobility and distribution, has made everyone feel scarcity, hunger and absolute need, which means vital sustenance for everyone.”

In a statement released on Sunday for the feast of Corpus Christi, the prelate linked the celebration with the lives of Colombians: “The evil and perverse violence, with which some have infiltrated the peaceful protest, and have made armed citizens clash with unarmed citizens, makes us see human blood flow not in the veins, but in the streets and in the territories.”

He called on all citizens to “drink from the cup of Christ’s blood, which means purifying the soul, receiving forgiveness from God and swearing not to kill.”

Bishop Elkin Alvarez of Santa Rosa de Osos and secretary general of the Colombian bishops conference, asked Colombians to continue praying for the country, independently of the dialogue efforts: In these “difficult times that the country continues to go through today, it demands the commitment of all of us Catholics to continue in constant prayer.”

“It is very important to dedicate long moments to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in community, praying for peace, the reconciliation of the country and the overcoming of this critical moment we are living,” he added.

The voice of the bishops has morphed since the protests began back in April. The day before the beginning of the general strike, the conference invited people to avoid marching because of the risks involved with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the apprehension, they recognized the legitimacy of peaceful protests and acknowledged the “complexity of the current situation.”

As the strike gained momentum, however, the bishops were less tepid in their support of the grievances of the protestors, in a country where 23.9 million people lived on less than $91 a month in 2020. The country’s total population is 51 million people, with 37.5 percent living below the poverty line.

“We recognize the legitimate motivations that have led millions of Colombians to express in the streets and in other scenarios their dissatisfaction with the situations of injustice in the country,” one bishop wrote in a May 12 statement. “Being one of the most unequal countries in the world, with nearly half of the population living in poverty, are sufficient reasons for the cup to run over.”

Duque, a Catholic, became president with the support of conservative sectors of the Catholic Church and members of evangelical Christian churches. Now, when the country is going through its deepest crisis in decades, these churches have aligned themselves with the protestors.

“We have realized that the main actor of the strike has been the youth,” said Henao in his post-dialogue reflections. “They have been among the most affected by unemployment and the pandemic. This led us to ask not to stigmatize the protest and to understand that many do not have opportunities, that there is a great lack of hope.”

Follow Inés San Martín on Twitter: @inesanma

Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRW




Systemic failures behind Colombia police rights abuses: HRWFILE PHOTO: Anti-government demonstrations continue in Bogota

Oliver Griffin
Wed, 9 June 2021

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Brutal abuses by Colombia's police during recent anti-government protests are not isolated incidents but part of extensive failings by state security forces, advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report on Wednesday.

Nationwide demonstrations against the social and economic policies of President Ivan Duque, which began in late April, have been directly connected with at least 21 deaths, according to government figures.

Local rights groups say dozens more have been killed by security forces and HRW says it has confirmed 34 deaths are connected to demonstrations, including 20 people likely killed by police.

HRW said it has also documented beatings, sexual abuse and arbitrary detention of protesters and bystanders by security forces.

"These brutal abuses are not isolated incidents by rogue officers, but rather the result of systemic shortcomings of the Colombian police," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

Credible evidence suggests police killed 16 protesters or bystanders with live ammunition, the report found. In 15 of these cases, the killings may have been intentional.

At least one other victim died after being beaten by police, while three others were killed following "inappropriate or excessive" use of teargas or flash-bang cartridges, it added.

Duque has repeatedly insisted that most Colombian police respect the human rights of civilians, and he has said that any cops who act illegally will be punished. On Sunday, he announced his government will ask Congress to approve more training and increased oversight of police.

Representatives from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) arrived in the country over the weekend for a three-day visit to gather information about possible rights abuses during the protests. They are expected to release a report next week.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Visits Colombia

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  Military officers arrest a protester in Cali, Colombia, Apr. 29, 2021. | Photo: EFE

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Published 7 June 2Comments

A human rights observation mission will analyze cases of police violence amid nationwide protests destabilizing the country since Apr. 28.

On Tuesday, a mission from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will start an official visit to Colombia to analyze human rights violations committed by the Military Police (ESMAD) amid nationwide protests whipping the country since April. 

RELATED: 

Colombia: At Least 3,789 Police Brutality Cases Since April 28

The mission will analyze denunciations of excessive use of force, forced disappearances, eye injuries, sexual and gender-based violence committed by ESMAD officials.

After meeting with representatives of the Colombian government on Monday, the IACHR mission will interview victims in Bogota and Cali until June 10 to later present a report.

More than 650 civil society organizations have denounced the lack of independence in the country's judicial and control bodies while urging IACHR to condemn strongly the indiscriminate repression against protesters. 

Even if the observation mission can only issue recommendations to President Ivan Duque's government, some of the human rights violations cases could escalate to the IACHR floor, if the victims decide to pursue this process.

Since April 28, when the national strike began, thousands of people have taken to the street in Colombia and other countries to condemn police brutality and Duque's attempts to install neoliberal policies on tax collection and the health sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Strike Committee (CNP) has recorded 3,800 cases of violence against peaceful demonstrators, over 60 homicides, 1,600 arbitrary detentions, 65 cases of eye injuries, and more than 20 sexual assaults against women.

El Espectador - As - Dejusticia

by teleSUR/ eh- JF

 

Human Rights Mission Confirms Police Abuses In Colombia

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  Hundreds of citizens protest in Bogota, Colombia, June 2021. | Photo: Twitter/ @ajplus

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Published 6 June 2021

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An international mission called on President Duque to safeguard the people's life and dignity, guarantee justice and truth, and comply with human rights laws.

After two weeks of investigations, the International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights Observation confirmed the Colombian people are victims of State terrorism and urged President Ivan Duque to be investigated for murdering and disappearing protesters.

RELATED:

Roadblocks Begin To Be Lifted in Colombia

In a preliminary report, the Mission called on Duque to safeguard the people's life and dignity, guarantee justice and truth and comply with human rights laws.

"During the national strike, the National Police disappeared, murdered, tortured, abused, persecuted, threatened, and intimidated protesters. Police brutality prevented and limited the people's political participation and right to protest," the report states.

The Mission also found that the government deployed sophisticated and lethal weaponry, which turned the country into a warlike zone.

"Duque targeted the people as an enemy, even when protesters were mostly youth, students, women, LGBTQ community members, farmers, Indigenous people, Afro-descendants, social leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists," it said.

The Colombian people "must obtain integral reparation from the government through truth and justice," human rights advocates assured.

The Mission that arrived in Colombia on May 25 is formed by representatives of organizations such as Peace and Justice Service (SERPAJ), Coordinating Committee against Police and Institutional Repression (CORREPI), and the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights (APDH).

International Mission of Solidarity and Human Rights Observation - La Izquierda Diario

Why Israel Blows Up Media Offices and Targets Journalists


Smoke billows as an Israeli air bomb is dropped on the Jala Tower during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, on Saturday, May 15, 2021. Israel's air force targeted the 11-floor Jala Tower housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and the Associated Press news agency among many other media outlets. (Photo: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images)

The Israeli government is now exerting deadly force on a large scale to underscore an assertion of impunity—in effect, wielding power to subjugate Palestinian people with methodical disregard for their basic human rights.

NORMAN SOLOMON

Israel’s missile attack on media offices in Gaza City last weekend was successful. A gratifying response came quickly from the head of The Associated Press, which had a bureau in the building for 15 years: “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today.”

For people who care about truth, that’s outrageous. For the Israeli government, that’s terrific.

The AP president, Gary Pruitt, said “we are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza.”

There’s ample reason to be horrified. But not shocked.

Israel’s military began threatening and targeting journalists several decades ago, in tandem with its longstanding cruel treatment of Palestinians. Rather than reduce the cruelty, the Israeli government keeps trying to reduce accurate news coverage.

The approach is a mix of deception and brutality. Blow up the cameras so the world won’t see as many pictures of the atrocities.

Of course, there’s no need to interfere with journalists documenting the also awful—while relatively few—deaths of Israelis due to rockets fired by Hamas. In recent days the Israeli government has spotlighted such visuals, some of them grimly authentic, others fake.

The suffering in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is tragically real on both sides, while vastly asymmetrical. During the last 10 days, as reported by the BBC, 219 people have been killed in Gaza. In Israel, the number was 10. In Gaza, at least 63 of the dead were children. In Israel, two.

In the midst of all this, shamefully, President Biden is pushing ahead to sell $735 million worth of weapons to Israel, a move akin to selling more whips and thumbscrews to torturers while they’re hard at work tormenting their victims.

On Wednesday, a few members of Congress introduced a bill that seeks to do what the Israeli targeting of media seeks to prevent -- the galvanizing of well-informed outrage. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Mark Pocan introduced a resolution opposing the sale of those weapons.

“For decades, the U.S. has sold billions of dollars in weaponry to Israel without ever requiring them to respect basic Palestinian rights. In so doing, we have directly contributed to the death, displacement and disenfranchisement of millions,” Ocasio-Cortez pointed out.

Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, said: “The harsh truth is that these weapons are being sold by the United States to Israel with the clear understanding that the vast majority of them will be used to bomb Gaza. Approving this sale now, while failing to even try to use it as leverage for a ceasefire, sends a clear message to the world -- the U.S. is not interested in peace, and does not care about the human rights and lives of Palestinians.”

As usual, Israel’s latest killing spree can avail itself of deep pockets provided by U.S. taxpayers, currently $3.8 billion a year in military assistance. An article published last week by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace makes a strong case that the massive subsidy is legally dubious and morally indefensible.

Not many members of Congress can be heard calling for an end to doling out huge sums to the Israeli government. But some progress is evident.

A bill introduced last month by Congresswoman Betty McCollum, H.R.2590, now has 21 co-sponsors and some activist momentum. Its official purpose flies in the face of routine congressional evasion: “To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation and to ensure that United States taxpayer funds are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law.”

Right now, the government of Israel is exerting deadly force on a large scale to underscore an assertion of impunity—in effect, wielding power to subjugate Palestinian people with methodical disregard for their basic human rights. The process involves reducing as much as possible the eyewitness news coverage of that subjugation.

Israeli leaders know that truth about human consequences of their policies is horrific when illuminated. That’s why they’re so eager to keep us in the dark.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Norman Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" (2006) and "Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State" (2007).

Schumer's Anti-China Bill Sacrifices Climate for Empire

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) leads a press conference to introduce new senators like Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. January 21, 2021. (Photo: Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

This bill would sabotage an opportunity for the U.S. and China—countries responsible for releasing half of the world's fossil fuel emissions—to partner on curbing emissions and sharing strategies for greening the Earth.

MARCY WINOGRAD, MEDEA BENJAMIN

Despite an existential climate crisis, Senator Chuck Schumer's $250-billion "United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021" takes aim at China as the most pressing national security threat. In a Cold War declaration, the New York Democrat's proposed legislation reads like the last gasp of a dying empire, a plea from a panicked superpower losing its grip on global dominance.

Schumer's laborious 1,445-page bill, the product of six Senate committees, would have the U.S. compete with China by creating tech hubs of robotics and artificial intelligence in U.S. cities, promoting school programs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), accelerating production of semiconductor chips and spending $600 million to ramp up U.S. military presence in the South China Sea to show China the U.S. still rules the world.

Collaborate with China to thwart climate catastrophe?

Heresy.

In a less xenophobic United States, a more visionary blueprint would emerge for collective technological development to save our warming planet.

In a more visionary blueprint, the U.S. Congress might support or even expand on the U.S.-China climate agreement negotiated by Climate Envoy John Kerry prior to the Biden administration's world Earth Day summit last April. An added section to Schumer's marathon read might underscore the diplomatic agreement's goals of strengthening implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement and developing long-term strategies to achieve carbon neutrality.

A person reading this manifesto of China hate would never know that China, home to 1.4 billion people and the world's largest exporter, owns over $1 trillion of U.S. debt that could be called in at any moment, sending demand for the U.S. dollar plummeting and slowing our economy to a crawl.

Instead, the bill undermines Kerry's negotiated agreement with China, sabotaging an opportunity for the U.S. and China--countries responsible for releasing half of the world's fossil fuel emissions--to partner on curbing emissions and sharing strategies for greening the Earth.

A person reading this manifesto of China hate would never know that China, home to 1.4 billion people and the world's largest exporter, owns over $1 trillion of U.S. debt that could be called in at any moment, sending demand for the U.S. dollar plummeting and slowing our economy to a crawl.

Ignoring the U.S.-China economic enmeshment, the bill opposes international bank loans to China for its 70-country Belt and Road Initiative to build highways, ports, railroad tunnels and other infrastructure connecting Asia with Europe and Africa; vows to weaken the influence of China and Russia at the UN; and withholds grant money to U.S. colleges and universities that partner with Chinese government-funded "Confucius Institutes" to teach Chinese language and culture.

In a throwback to McCarthyism, the bill also mandates a Comptroller report on the activities of U.S. Sister City participants who partner with countries like China that fell below a 2019 score of 45 out of a possible 100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index. This is a data tool funded by Western nations and ExxonMobil to measure transparency, accountability and integrity in government. China scored a 41, Saudi Arabia a 53.

Ironically, New York, the state Schumer represents, is listed on Wikipedia as partnering with several sister cities in China: New York City with Beijing; Mount Vernon with Yangquan; Brooklyn with Yiwu; Port Chester with Jingzhou; and Rochester with Xianyang.

Schumer's proposed legislation, a potential bipartisan win according to the gleeful Senate Majority Leader, only references the climate crisis in the context of advancing U.S. strategic interests in Asia and the South Pacific to beat back the "Leninist model of governance--socialism with Chinese characteristics." For example, the bill pushes for increasing Peace Corp volunteers to develop climate resiliency in Oceania, a region that includes Australia, Micronesia and Polynesia, to avoid islands throughout the South Pacific turning to China for assistance.

The U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 threatens to exacerbate the climate crisis by expanding the reach of the Pentagon, the world's largest consumer of oil and emitter of greenhouse gases. It calls for increased forward-basing U.S. troop deployments in the South China Sea, development of more "combat credible forces," additional shipments of missiles and other weapons to allies in the Indo-Pacific and stepped up joint U.S.-allies military exercises, a euphemism for mock nuclear strikes--all in the name of deterrence.

In addition, the bill challenges China's long-held desire for reunification with Taiwan by prioritizing the defense of Taiwan sovereignty, an issue that once brought the U.S. to the brink of nuclear war. According to classified documents recently released by former CIA analyst Daniel Ellsberg, 1950s Pentagon planners were willing to sacrifice a million U.S. lives in a first nuclear strike on China that would predictably trigger Soviet retaliation. In keeping with President Biden's record high $753 billion military budget that reflects a pivot from the Middle East to Asia, Schumer's legislation asserts China's presence in the Indo-Pacific "presents a substantial and imminent risk to the security of the United States ..."

While undermining the potential for U.S.-China collaboration on climate, the bill depicts China as the number one global military threat even though it is the U.S. that has over 800 overseas bases, 400 encircling China, compared to China's one overseas base in Djibouti, located on the Horn of Africa.

As the article "More of the same: Biden's hybrid war against China" makes clear, it is the U.S., not China, that has engaged in combat in more than 60 countries since the late 1970s; China has not engaged in a war since Vietnam. Additionally, it is the U.S. that has 3,800 nuclear warheads in contrast to China's estimated 350 nuclear warheads. On the subject of nuclear weapons, the bill accuses China of violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in its arsenal expansion while falsely asserting that the U.S. honors its treaty obligations to pursue disarmament.

In reality, the United States is moving ahead, with Biden's blessing, on a near $2-trillion decades-long nuclear rearmament plan. This includes replacing 400 Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) on high alert in underground silos in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado with 600 new nuclear missiles also on hair-trigger alert, and developing new nuclear warheads.

In condemnation of China's alleged human rights abuses, including reports of forced labor and internment camps for the Muslim minority Uighurs, the bill mandates a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and bars the use of federal funds to pay for federal government employees to attend the games.

It's one thing to legislate a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics or, as the bill outlines, ban ByteDance's TikTok on federal devices, but quite another to provoke a military confrontation in the South China Sea, where a U.S. warship recently sailed through the Taiwan Strait over China's objections, putting "peace and security at risk" in the words of the Chinese.

Before Senator Schumer uncorks the champagne to celebrate bipartisan militarism, he and his congressional cohorts should remove from the bill the "International Security Matters" section which sets the United States on a war footing with China.

Moreover, a new section should be added to cement the U.S.-China bilateral climate agreement Kerry negotiated to strengthen implementation of the Paris Accords.

Members of Congress must demand that U.S. innovation in semiconductors, as well as Moon and Mars exploration, not ride on economic and military superiority to China. In addition, they should take a scalpel to those sections that sabotage academic, financial and Sister City partnerships that could, with people to people diplomacy, help save the planet from warming temperatures, rising tides, extreme weather, famine and desperate refugee migration.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Marcy Winograd of Progressive Democrats of America served as a 2020 DNC Delegate for Bernie Sanders and co-founded the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party. Coordinator of CODEPINKCONGRESS, Marcy spearheads Capitol Hill calling parties to mobilize co-sponsors and votes for peace and foreign policy legislation. Follow her on Twitter: @marcywinogrand


Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, is the author of the 2018 book, "Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran." Her previous books include: "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" (2016); "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (2013); "Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) "Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean Action Guide)" (2005). Follow her on Twitter: @medeabenjamin

Amnesty Says Paltry G7 Climate Plans 'A Devastating, Mass-Scale Assault on Human Rights'

"These are not administrative failures, they are a devastating, mass-scale assault on human rights."

Children wade through a mangrove swamp covered with crude oil on their way home from fishing October 14, 2004 in Goi, Nigeria. (Photo: Jacob Silberberg/Getty Images)

Amnesty Says Paltry G7 Climate Plans 'A Devastating, Mass-Scale Assault on Human Rights'

ANDREA GERMANOS, 

STAFF WRITER

June 7, 2021

Ahead of this week's G7 summit, Amnesty International decried the inadequacy of wealthy nations' climate action plans as a colossal human rights failure and delivered a blueprint for policymakers to urgently change course to avert "impending catastrophe" and uphold their international obligations.

"The unambitious climate plans submitted by G7 members represent a violation of the human rights of billions of people. These are not administrative failures, they are a devastating, mass-scale assault on human rights," said Chiara Liguori, Amnesty International's Human Rights and Environment policy advisor, in a statement Sunday.

"[G7] governments must commit to unconditionally phasing out all fossil fuels, as close to 2030 as is technically feasible." —Chiara Liguori, Amnesty International

Liguori's stern assessment came alongside the release of Stop Burning Our Rights (pdf), a new policy brief from the organization that calls the climate emergency "a human rights crisis of unprecedented proportions" and "manifestation of deep-rooted injustices."

Looking through lens of government's human rights obligations, the paper says that wealthier nations—who disproportionately fueled the climate crisis—must be at the forefront of climate action to reach net zero emission. Criticizing targets of net zero by 2050 as "too little, too late," the policy brief further calls on wealthy nations to take greater action to finance developing countries' climate target, through grants, not loans, and fund remedies for climate harms that have already happened.

The devastating impacts from climate crisis-fueled extreme weather events are already clear, and global governments committed to a goal of keeping global warming within 1.5° compared to pre-industrial levels, Amnesty says. Carbon emissions from fossil fuels rose 1% annually between 2010 and 2018, the report adds, and, while the coronavirus pandemic triggered a downward blip in emissions, the IEA projected a rise of 4.8% in 2021. What's more, some governments gave pandemic money given with no strings attached to fossil fuel companies.

And yet many governments, though their climate plans, are putting human rights including the rights to life, water, food, housing, health, a healthy environment, and self-determination at huge risk, the publication says.

"While a slew of new 2030 and carbon-neutrality targets have recently been announced, most countries—especially wealthier states that are members of the G20—are currently failing to adopt sufficiently ambitious and human rights-consistent climate plans that would contribute to avoiding the worst human rights impacts of climate change," the paper states.

Failure to take necessary steps to rein in the global crisis and mitigate its harms amounts to "a human rights violation" and should be condemned as with other human rights violations, according to the group.

Such violations, the report argues, "condemn millions of people to premature death, hunger, diseases, displacement, not just in the future but also at present. They contribute to conflicts and to the unfolding cycle of human rights violations. They perpetuate and accelerate current inequalities and discrimination against those who are already being oppressed by systemic injustices. Failure to adequately tackle the climate crisis is a form of discrimination."

The paper lays out a number of recommendations to keep warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and support human rights obligations. They include that governments revise their national climate plans; immediately stop to fossil fuel expansion; overhaul food systems such that "unsustainable and exploitative" systems are left behind in favor of ones that promote human rights and sustainable systems; enact policies to end deforestation by 2030; end subsidies of fossil fuels as well as those for forest biomass and crop-based biofuels; and implement climate action-centered Covid-19 recovery plans.

Wealthy nations must also commit to stopping fossil fuel expansion in other countries, lest they simply shift where the polluting extraction and refining operations occur.

Simply put, "States that are failing to phase out fossil fuels in a timeline aligned with the 1.5°C imperative and with their respective capabilities are violating human rights." The paper adds that corporations and their financial backers that fail to shift from fossil fuel operations must be held accountable for their human rights abuses.

The demands were delivered a day before NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced that the monthly average of CO2 levels in May hit 419 parts per million, the highest level since measurements began over six decades ago. The paper also came just ahead of the G7 Leaders' Summit, which begins Friday in the U.K. and where, according to Amnesty's Liguori, leaders must commit to urgent climate action.

"The G7 and other wealthy industrialized countries have historically emitted the most carbon and bear the greatest responsibility for the current climate crisis. They also have the most resources to tackle it," she said, "but their strategies to date have been woefully inadequate, and their support for other countries has been stingy."

"At the G7 Leaders' Summit, governments must commit to unconditionally phasing out all fossil fuels, as close to 2030 as is technically feasible. They must put in place tough regulations requiring businesses to shift to renewable energy, and stop using our taxes to subsidize the deadly fossil fuel industry," she said.