CLIMATE CHANGE

Shenzhen Power-Solution founder Xia Li in Ethiopia has developed small and inexpensive solar modules (solar lamps). She wants to connect with Bill Gates and the head of a large battery manufacturer at Davos.

What is coming out at WEFs on day 16? In France24, the theme of WEF, Rebuilding Trust , is taking on a dire meaning. Is globalization, at a time when international cooperation is critical to addressing climate change, which knows no boundaries, a potential crisis? Beata Javorcik, the Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, says yes, geopolitical fragmentation is affecting global trade as nations look to their own. It is becoming a self-fulfilling prophesy.

On a more positive note, in DW, in response to those who see Davos as a gathering of elite interests who gain more than they give, attendees include young entrepreneurs, who are dreamers acting on their dreams. They seek connections. With the help of the "elite" they could scale up and with the right connections bring a new meaning to "globalization."

Gerald Abila would like to offer free legal advice for everyone in his home country of Uganda. He created a company called BarefootLaw. He hopes to learn more about artificial intelligence to further his goal. Danya Pastuszek, co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, an organization with the goal to combat poverty.  She has projects to present. She wants to know what business leaders and heads of state think about locally designed solutions. 

The 54th Annual World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting will take place on January 15-19 at Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The theme is "Rebuilding Trust." It is expected that over 100 governments will be represented. Major international organizations, 1000 Forum Partners, as well as civil society leaders, experts, youth representatives, social entrepreneurs, and news outlets will also be represented.

WEF has a mixed history. It has served as a unique forum for discussion and debate on a global scale and has made some significant contributions in terms of health and global conflicts. At the same time, in euronews.next, New York Times economics correspondent Peter Goodman, points out that there is a contradiction in asking billionaire and elites [who] critics accuse of causing the world's biggest problems to find ways to solve them even as they travel to Davos in their private jets despite climate change.

In the New York Times , a personal reflection by Wanjira Mathai on women and climate change in Africa. African women past and present are leaders in climate change in one of the world's most vulnerable and plundered continents.

In Inside Climate News, a recently formed coalition, called the Virginia Data Center Reform Coalition, wants to tackle Virginia's high concentration of data centers which host an estimated 70% of global internet traffic. "As more companies build more data centers that handle increasingly large volumes of complex internet traffic, energy and water and land-use demands from those facilities have skyrocketed. Virginia utility providers, most notably Dominion Energy (wikipedia), the state’s largest, have proposed to meet energy demand forecasts for data centers with new fossil fuel infrastructure, drawing outrage from residents and environmental groups." 

On fracking, Appalachia’s fracking boom is fueling the expansion of American plastics manufacturing, including production of vinyl chloride, the carcinogen used to make PVC that burned in East Palestine, Ohio.

In Press Connect  environmental groups across New York's Southern Tier are calling for an expansion of New York's fracking ban in light of the latest proposal by Southern Tier CO2 to Clean Energy Solutions (Southern Tier Solutions) to extract gas from the state's Marcellus and Utica shales using carbon dioxide for fracking, a process the company claims would neutralize carbon emissions. Via a process called “closed loop drilling," Southern Tier Solutions would pump carbon dioxide underground into shale, forcing out methane, which the company would then harness to power 10 new gas-fired power plants.

Walter Hang president of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm which gathers data on potentially toxic sites in New York, called for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to prohibit all forms of high-volume hydraulic fracturing and drilling in the state. Though New York has done more than most states to ban fracking, there are too many loopholes. Hang says, the law banning fracking in New York" only prohibits high volume hydraulic fracturing involving the use of 300,000 gallons of water or more. ...because of this wording, a loophole could simply be to use one gallon of water less than 300,000."

In France24 , oil and gas producer Azerbaijan will host the 2024 COP 29 climate summit. The UN conference will take place in the capital city of Baku from November 11 to 24.  The main issue on the agenda is likely to be financing "the transition away from fossil fuels. "The country won the bid after garnering support from other Eastern European nations in early December 2023 and came after months of geopolitical deadlock over where the summit would be held. Russia had vowed to veto any bid by an EU country."

The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in Paris from July 26 to August 11, 2024. The Paralympic Games will take place between August 28 and September 8. The Games will be biggest sporting event ever held in France. The Paris 2024 Olympic goal is to set a precedent to halve the carbon footprint of the Olympic Games compared to past Games.

From Oxfam, At COP28, Oxfam announced its intention to expand the Building Resilient, Adaptive, and Disaster-Ready Communities (B-READY) initiative in partnership with Visa. B-READY aims to distribute cash transfers for communities facing the deadly impacts of climate change before a disaster hits.

In Mongabay, A group of scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Richmond, U.K., built a model that uses AI, to guess whether a plant species is threatened. Their goal was to promote more plants to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which tracks the extinction risks for plants and animals and is an important channel for conservation funding. Nearly half of the world’s flowering plants face the threat of extinction, the study says.

In Vox, most countries have failed to communicate the relative risks individuals need to consider in terms of dramatically changing their habits in dealing with climate change. Denmark is a more advanced country compared tomany other countries in terms of working on communications regarding clean energy transition. The country, has some lessons for governments. Dig Deeper.

The Appalachian region's natural resiliency puts it along side of the Amazon Rainforest and the Kenyan Grasslands as one of the most important landscapes for tackling climate change...but the region needs some help.

The region's coal mining history means that Kentucky's extensive waterways and acres of soil are contaminated by acid mine drainage that is eroding the region's resiliency. Acid mine drainage worsens flooding, as build-up narrows streams and creeks and reduces their capacity for floodwater. Inside mines, sulfuric acid lowers the water’s pH to the extent that it is difficult for anything beyond some algae to thrive.

A major project is underway to clean up the discharge, restore the health of Sunday Creek and the watershed around it, and build a whole new industry by creating a product from a pollutant. Rural Action, a local community development nonprofit, collaborated with Ohio University, the state’s Department of Natural Resources, and the US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to build a water treatment plant that can neutralize the sulfuric acid and extract the iron oxide, which — unexpectedly — can be made into something beautiful.

In UN News, an updated December 2023 report covering October to December revealed that Hundreds of Afghan women were forced to quit their jobs or have been arrested and denied access to essential services in the last quarter of 2023. "De facto authorities punished women for crimes that ranged from purchasing contraceptives to not adhering to the hijab decree. Continued repression included pressures against unmarried women such as job loss dictated by the Department for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and the removal of all books from universities and private education institutions that were considered to be against the laws of Hanafi jurisprudence as defined by Sharia (happenings).

From the United Nations, In 1948, the nations of the world united in a common mission – to make sure another global catastrophe like World War II could never happen again. The newly formed United Nations pursued an ambitious vision to recognize the inherent dignity of every person on the planet. That vision became the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides guiding principles for governments to honor and protect citizens. In the World Justice Project, which provides a modern scorecard for human rights “As the world marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, most countries are falling short on upholding its promise,” said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the World Justice Project (WJP). At the recent launch event for the 2023 WJP Rule of Law Index, Andersen explained that new Index data shows that both fundamental rights and overall rule of law have declined in more than three-quarters of countries since 2016.

In DW, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 75 years ago. Germany has made this a central part of many of its policies and accomplished a number of human rights measures. However, like other nations, the country has been downgraded. This is partly due to its treatment of climate activists as is true with other countries.

Annalena Baerbock the German Foreign MInister said given the number of crises confronting the international community getting it right will remain a significant challenge for policy makers. He said, "it's no longer just about human rights violations here and there, or breaches of international humanitarian law, but about the fact that an entire set of international rules, developed over decades, is in danger of being destroyed."

Physician Mark Handy (left) uses music to heal others. Seen here as a member of the Left Over Biscuits Old Time Band.

In National Geographic, "[The] mountains of southwest Virginia and eastern Tennessee are home to a rich musical tradition shaped by the ballads and fiddle music of the British Isles, the banjo (an African instrument), hymns, the blues, and a smattering of other influences. It’s expressed in old time, bluegrass, country, gospel—the borders of genre are often indistinct."

Phyisicans expand the horizons of medical care in the Appalachian mountains. Joe Smiddy, a retired pulmonologist and medical director of Health Wagon, might take a break from pulmonary screenings and strap on his banjo in a parking lot or a gymnasium and play for the queue of people needing healthcare, or he might recruit Rodney Harmon to flatfoot in a clinic. The growing evidence is music helps heal, perhaps this is especially true of Appalachia's cultural roots.

Porch Sitting, artwork by sg crowell

Physicians demonstrate how the rich culture of Appalachian music formed by different traditions helps healing.

/climate change - In The Guardian, Dengue fever, caused by mosquito bites, is ravaging Bangladesh and hospitals are overwhelmed. Climate change is causing higher rainfalls and heat which has led to a five-fold increase in cases in a year, with children the hardest hit partially due to lower immune systems. This is the worst outbreak of dengue in the country on record. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries.

In ProPublica, states have passed hundreds of laws to protect people from wrongful insurance denials. Yet from emergency services to fertility preservation, insurers still say no.

In the economist, in a single night every January, volunteers all over America search parks, woodlands, subway tunnels and pavements to count those without shelter.

It is part of the annual count mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Point-in-time count results released on December 15th reported that roughly 650,000 people were homeless. The count represents a 12% increase over the year before.

Point-in-time counts are generally considered to be undercounts and often out of date.

New Jersey took action based on the state’s ranking as shown by the annual point-in-time counts and developed multiple intervention points. Some of these points included improving existing programs, and increasing funding for rental assistance and services as two examples.

The state also relied on real time data from those working directly with the Newark’s homeless population and developed a plan to bring together state, local and private-sector financial support to reduce street homelessness.

Michael Callahan, head of the state’s Office of Homelessness Prevention said, “What we’re doing is essentially moneyballing homelessness”. 

In November New Jersey’s Office of Homelessness Prevention released its own figures. They showed unsheltered homeless falling across the state by 23% year on year.

In the Washington Post,  Section 702 of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is viewed as critical to national intelligence.

Unless Congress finalizes a temporary extension within the National Defense Authorization Act, Section 702 is set to expire on December 31.

Two different bills were submitted.

The renewal of this powerful and far-reaching surveillance program is controversial.

Those concerned with privacy issues say that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s (HPSCI) FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023 does not represent reform and would expand the government’s ability to spy on Americans without a warrant. Alternatively the ACLU urged the adoption of a second bill called the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act.

A floor vote on amendments to Section 702 is expected to take place by the end of December.

In ProPublica, Students in Idaho, particularly in rural districts, deal with leaking ceilings, freezing classrooms, discolored drinking water, and much more. The extreme neglect and refusal to upgrade schools is due to the fact that Idaho is one of two states that require two-thirds of voters to approve a bond. Some districts have held bond elections several times only to see them fail. Despite support from a majority of voters, the Legislature has been reluctant to make significant investments in facilities. ProPublica conducted extensive research and offered case studies which demonstrate what happens to education when schools fail due to outdated and substandard facilities.

/administrative law/ US Supreme Court/ overreach - Administrative law encompasses laws and legal principles governing the administration and regulation of government agencies (both federal and state). Tensions surrounding the enactment of administrative law versus the courts, Congress, and the states has grown. Does overreach on the part of the US Supreme Court threaten the balance of power between the three branches of government?

In Jurist, recently concluded oral arguments before the US Supreme Court involving Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Raimondo (No. 22-451) and Relentless, Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce (No. 22-1219) exemplify concerns about federal regulatory authority and the fundamental distribution of power between executive agencies and federal courts. 

A final rule in 2020 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) provided that some commercial fishing boats could be required to pay the salaries of federally mandated onboard observers. Two federal circuit panels upheld the NMFS regulation These courts applied the 40-year old Chevron doctrine.

In Chevron v. NRDC (1984), the Supreme Court had decided on a two-step process to resolve such cases. First does the agency action exceed enabling legislation by Congress. That is the most typical approach.

However, under a second step, when there is statutory ambiguity then the court has to rely on an implied delegation of authority by Congress which calls for the agency’s best judgment as to statutory reach if the agency’s interpretation is reasonable.

The problem is a Chevron doctrine dispute potentially leads to a conflict between the political dynamics in the executive branch versus less informed judges who may reflect contrary ideologies or jaundice views about regulatory values. As it stands the current deeply divided Congress is unlikely to be much help, e.g., through corrective legislation.

Professor Glenn C Smith wrote, “The Court already has a reputation for needless activism by reversing abortion rights and affirmative action and applying an unnecessarily high-handed “major questions” doctrine to invalidate bold regulatory initiatives. An overreach in this term’s Chevron cases would cement growing cynicism that such results are not legally justified but merely reflect that an activist conservative majority now 'has the votes.'

"Let us hope that the Court’s ultimate resolution of Loper Bright and Relentless doesn’t turn an old adage on its head—by proving that easy cases (i.e., regulatory challenges easily decidable on narrow grounds) make especially bad law.”

/US Supreme Court/14th Amendment/Colorado/Trump - Oral arguments were held in two-hour hearing in front of the US Supreme Court on February 8, 2024. Media sources observed that the justices were “poised” to leave Trump on the Colorado ballot. The standalone power of the state to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment was a key issue.

The case has been made by legal experts and common sense over time that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment can be applied more broadly to include state actions. That is also true regarding the question of whether or not the US President is an officer of the United States for the purposes of that amendment.

Given the actions of the former President, which include not only insurrection but as a more recent example shows, treason (and not for the first time when it comes to Putin), it is difficult to understand why a whole-cloth limiting of the power of the state to enforce Section 3 and Article 2 (representing broader power for the states) outweighs the in-your-face culpability of the former President against the historically debated purpose of the 14th Amendment.

So, Chief Justice responds “it’s just going to be - become very political.” Become…?

/basic needs - In Jurist, The US Supreme Court announced Friday that it has granted certiorari in the case City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which challenges cities banning or heavily regulating encampments of unhoused people on public land under the 8th Amendment of the US Constitution’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The case surrounds several parts of the Grants Pass Municipal Code, which include anti-sleeping, camping and park exclusion ordinances that plaintiffs claim criminalize their day-to-day survival as unhoused residents of a town with no US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved shelter for unhoused people. Several unhoused individuals brought the case in 2018 on behalf of “involuntarily homeless” people in Grants Pass.

/migrants/border/US Supreme Court/Texas - Among the many chronic wars taking place the battle between federalism and the states is growing. In The Atlantic, for more than a century, the Supreme Court has held that the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration law in most cases and that the states cannot usurp that jurisdiction just because they disapprove of federal policy. Writing for The Atlantic, Adam Serwer says that Texas Governor Greg Abbott's defiant engagement in legal battles with the federal government over immigration is exacerbated by the US Supreme Court's loss of authority thanks to its right wing bent.

/law/ -In Jurist, The US Supreme Court voted 5-4 on January 22 to permit federal border patrol agents to cut the razor wire that Texas installed on the US-Mexico border. The Biden administration requested the decision to allow federal agents to access the border without facing tort claims from Texas. The urgency follows recent deaths at the border crossing and the reported inherent danger of the razor wire structures. The Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution stipulates that states cannot interfere with federal law and that federal law supersedes conflicting state laws.

/law/- On December 18 Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a measure that allows Texas law enforcement officials to arrest migrants who enter the state from Mexico without legal authorization even as US President Joe Biden wrangles with Congress over migration policies. The law takes effect in March and is likely to end up in the courts.

In a letter sent to Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese and opposition leader, Peter Dutton more than 40 housing and welfare groups voiced a concern that migrants were being scapegoated as the main reason for Australia’s housing crisis. The organisations included the Australian Council of Social Services, the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia and National Shelter. The organizations pointed out that decades of poor policy choices by successive governments, including investor tax incentives and the chronic undersupply of social housing, were responsible for the crisis.

From the Council of Europe, the Congress of Local and Regional Authories awarded the North-South Prize to Ukraine. The Award Ceremony was held on December 14, 2023 in the Portuguese Parliament in Lisbon.

“Ukraine’s resilience relies on the engagement of all stakeholders in decision-making processes” stressed the State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Oleksandr Yarema. Together with the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports of Ukraine, Maryna Popatenko, the ministers restated their strong commitment to ensure open dialogue with residents of local communities, to build local alliances involving young people and vulnerable groups in decision-making processes, seeking to restore social cohesion.

The Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) was selected to recognize its commitment to ensure better integration of Internally Displaced Persons in host communities as well as to address socioeconomic challenges that arise in wartime. In addition, the Prize also intends to recognise the Association´s efforts to uphold democratic values by ensuring that the legislative framework regulating the functioning of local authorities is fully aligned with the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

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The Citizen Education Project registered people to vote and educated black voters on issues that affected them.The mission was to develop" political consciousness and responsible participation in democracy."READ MORE

Eleanor Roosevelt played a surprising and pivotal role at the first meeting of the U.N. General Assembly held in London in 1946. As a member of a five-person U.S. delegation she addressed the full assembly without notes and swayed the vote against forced repatriation of refugees, allowing them to choose where they wished to settle.
She worked for over three years to get the United Nations to adopt a statement on human rights. In 1948 she chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Under her leadership the General Assembly, meeting held in Paris passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10 at 3am. The landmark document still serves as a benchmark for activists around the world. Working closely with labor leaders, she made sure that workers’ rights were a key part of that document. Read her notes from Geneva.

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