Richard Stallman's Political Notes' Journal
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Friday, August 2nd, 2024
| Time |
Event |
| 2:51p |
Global coral reef conditions disturbing
*As record heat risks bleaching 73% of the world’s coral reefs, scientists ask
"what
do we do now?".*
We should have curbed global heating
starting 20 years ago.
Or we should have curbed global heating starting 10 years
ago.
However, the planet roasters used their political influence to prevent this, so we now see our
planet slowly starting to roast. The death of much of the world's coral is part of it.
What do we do now? We must curb global heating now, with treaties and laws strong enough
that they will start reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A heavy tax on the electricity used by data centers would help.
If we continue increasing the level of
carbon
dioxide in the air, eventually
ocean acidification will
kill
all corals and many other animals with shells, by dissolving their shells.
It's not just corals that are in danger from global heating.
Butterflies
are one example among many.
| | 2:51p |
Methane accelerating global heating
*Global methane emissions rising at
fastest
rate in decades, scientists warn. Researchers call for immediate action to reduce methane
emissions and avert dangerous escalation in climate crisis.*
| | 2:51p |
| | 2:51p |
| | 2:51p |
Climate conductors liability
When global heating helps to cause an unusual event and that event is
clearly the cause of a specific person's death, that can make it
possible to
charge oil companies with homicide.
Global heating effects
contribute
to many deaths, but (in my limited understanding) that is not enough basis legally to charge big
contributors to global heating with homicide. Occasionally, as here, there is a specific
heating-provoked event one can point to as the direct cause of a person's death. IANAFL ????, but it
seems that that can provide a basis for charges, at least in France.
???? I am not a French lawyer.
| | 2:51p |
An 18-year term limit, US Supreme Court
Biden called for an 18-year
term
limit on justices of the Supreme Court. This would immediately exclude Chief Justice Roberts as
well as Their Most Corrupt Thomas and Alito. If Democrats can appoint the replacements, it could
provide an opportunity to undo the damage done by the current Extreme Court.
Alas, that would not do anything about the three young right-wing extremists, who are likely to
plague the United States for decades to come.
Biden's proposal adopts the ideas of imposing a code of
ethics
on the justices of the Supreme Court, and eliminating the extreme
immunity
for ex-presidents recently imposed by the Supreme Court.
| | 2:51p |
Emissions regulations weakened by Vance
Last year,
Vance
opposed federal rules to limit toxic pollution from factories that produce coke.
This refers to the coke that is made from
coal and used in smelting iron, not to the beverage or the drug. Though I suppose even more
Americans need protection from those ;-}.
| | 2:51p |
Haniyeh assassinated at inauguration, IRN
Israel assassinated the HAMAS political leader, Ismael Haniyeh, who was visiting Iran. So Iran's
government is under
pressure
to retaliate.
Haniyeh was negotiating peace in Gaza with Israel. By killing him, Netanyahu expressed refusal to
negotiate. The US should say that that refusal is unacceptable, as is the assassination of enemy
negotiators.
I suspect that Netanyahu intended to provoke war between Iran and Israel, figuring that the US would be
dragged along into supporting Israel and then into fighting Iran. This would make it even harder
for the US to do what it must do, which is pressure Netanyahu into ending Israel's atrocities in
Gaza.
At a deeper level, it conveys to the US government Netanyahu's message
that "I can force you into war whenever I wish, so be obedient."
But that aspect may not work.
Israel tried something similar in April, attacking Iran.
Iran
retaliated with a wave of drones, and the US helped shoot down those drones — but outside
Iran. And it did not join in any attack against Iran. At that point, Iran stated that honor was
satisfied. I guess that the US and Iran understand what Netanyahu is doing and that they do not
intend to let Netanyahu make them fight.
Israel is not the only nation-state to have recently committed or attempted assassination of enemies
living in exile.
India
has done this,
Rwanda,
and
Russia
too.
We condemn those assassinations — which does not imply support for the causes they stand for
— and we should also condemn it when Israel does it.
| | 2:51p |
| | 2:51p |
Wildfire smoke, and wildfire
A glossary for US wildfire terminology, embedded in another interesting article about why
wildfire
smoke is more toxic than the pollution from internal combustion engines and how much.
*Wildfire days are going to happen again and again. And so we need to change our frame, from
thinking that this is going to be a one-off, to understanding that for our kids, it’s more or less
going to be the equivalent of a chronic exposure.* Unless we curb global heating, we may eventually
find wildfire smoke impossible to avoid. But by that time food may be impossible to grow.
| | 2:51p |
Urgent: Vance's anti-abortion extremism
In the US:
call on major media
to expose J.D. Vance's anti-abortion extremism.
| | 2:51p |
Urgent: Get DeJoy fired
US citizens: phone your senators and call on them to urge the USPS
Board of Governors to fire DeJoy.
If you phone, please spread the word!
Main Switchboard: +1-202-224-3121
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