EU parliament approves ban on single use plastics

Yahoo – AFP, March 27, 2019

In addition to the ban on a dozen kinds of disposable plastic products, such as straws,
cutlery and cotton buds, the EU will encourage member states to reduce the use of
plastic packaging and introduce stricter labelling rules (AFP Photo/Patrick Pleul)

Brussels (AFP) - European lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday for an EU-wide ban on single-use plastic products such as the straws, cutlery and cotton buds that are clogging the world's oceans.

The text had already been approved in negotiations with member states and EU officials and it will now be rapidly approved into law. The ban comes into effect from 2021.

EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said Europe was not the worst source of plastic pollution, but that the pioneering measure could serve as an example to the world.

"Asian countries are very much interested in what we're doing. Latin American countries too," he said.

"Even though our share of the pollution is relatively limited, our change of the economic model has a global impact."

Types of single-use plastics to be banned by the European Union (AFP Photo/

Simon MALFATTO)

The law passed by 560 votes to 35 in the Strasbourg assembly.

Aside from the ban on a dozen kinds of disposable products for which alternatives exist, the EU will encourage member states to reduce the use of plastic packaging and introduce stricter labelling rules.

The law sets a target that 90 percent of plastic bottles will be gathered for recycling by 2029 and that they should be produced with 25 percent recycled material by 2025, 30 percent by 2030.

Rules insisting that polluters pay the costs of a clean-up are strengthened, particularly for cigarette manufacturers, who will have to support the recycling of discarded filters.

According to the EU Commission, the products prohibited under the law represent 70 percent of the waste that pours into the world's oceans, posing a threat to wildlife and fisheries.

Hundreds of thousands join world youth climate demo

Yahoo – AFP, March 15, 2019

"If you don't act like adults, we will" -- banners, slogans and a global cry by young
people for politicians to take urgent action on climate change (AFP Photo/
EMMANUEL DUNAND)

Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change.

Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organisers of the student strike called demos in more than 100 countries.

Students flooded into the streets across Europe and Asia carrying placards reading: "There is no planet B", "You're destroying our future" and "If you don't act like adults, we will."

Despite three decades of warnings, carbon dioxide emissions hit record levels in 2017 and again last year.

Loading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases at current rates will eventually lead to an uninhabitable planet, scientists say.

From Turin to Nairobi, school children and teenagers skipped school to demand 

urgent action on climate (AFP Photo/Marco BERTORELLO)

In Stockholm, Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg who inspired the protests, warned that time was running out.

"We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades and if we do not act now it may be too late," the 16-year-old told Swedish public television station SVT.

Writing on Instagram, Thunberg -- who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism -- estimated more than 10,000 youngsters had joined the Stockholm protest.

In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted cities, 200 students took part in a colourful protest, waving ribbons, juggling and performing stunts with hoops.

"We have to make a choice whether we want to sit and be indifferent or do something for our planet," said 16-year-old student Srijani Datta.

"We are living through an existential crisis that has been ignored for decades," 

says 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, wearing yellow, who has been 

nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (AFP Photo/Henrik MONTGOMERY)

"Most of us are 16-17 and we're going to turn 18 soon... As voters we will show we care about climate change. If you can't give us that, you will not get our votes."

In Sydney, 18-year-old Charles Rickwood warned that Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef could be destroyed.

"If current trends in the environment continue, we'll see the one, two degrees increase in our ocean then it will simply become unsustainable and we could lose the entire Great Barrier Reef," he told AFP.

Skipping exams

European students were also out en masse. Several thousand youngsters thronged the streets of central London in a raucous demonstration with banners and placards.

In France, tens of thousands joined the youth strike, with up to 40,000 in Paris 

alone, police said (AFP Photo/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)

Packing into Parliament Square, they cheered and chanted "Change... now!" before marching past Downing Street and massing outside Buckingham Palace.

"They're not going to stop me trying to save the planet," said 15-year-old Joe Crabtree, from southwest London who had missed two exams to join the demo.

Hundreds of thousands marched overall, according to estimates by organising groups such as the Youth For Climate movement and AFP reporters.

The Friday for Future movement said more than 300,000 young people demonstrated in Germany alone.

As youngsters hit the streets, nations meeting at the UN environment assembly in Kenya announced they had agreed to "significantly reduce" single-use plastics over the next decade.

In London, thousands of youngsters skipped classes to march on Downing Street 

(AFP Photo/Tolga Akmen)

But experts said the pledge -- which only referred to man-made global warming and made no mention of the fossil fuels driving it -- fell far short of the steps needed to tackle Earth's burgeoning pollution crisis.

'Adults should learn a lesson'

The global action drew a mixed reaction from politicians.

Germany's Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the demonstrators should be in class.

And Australia's Education Minister Dan Tehan said striking was "not something that we should encourage."

World map showing the number of planned climate protests per country by

school students on Friday March 15. (AFP Photo/Sophie RAMIS)

But New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hailed the action, saying: "We hear you and we're getting on with setting a path for carbon neutrality."

"Please keep bringing as many people as you can with you because we simply won't achieve our goals alone."

Greenpeace praised the global protests, saying adults needed to learn a lesson.

"Imagine if their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles -- people with the power to vote for change -- were to make the same kind of effort," said John Sauven, head of Greenpeace UK.

"Grownups cheering on the school strikes are like footballers applauding the crowd. You're on the pitch. Score a goal, or at least assist."

The global demonstrations were started by a 16-year-old Swedish student who 

began skipping school to protest last year (AFP Photo/JOE KLAMAR)

In the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius, students circulated a petition to be submitted to the government demanding concrete measures.

"The planet is heating up, the youth are rising up," they chanted.

'My eyes hurt from pollution'

The Paris treaty calls for capping global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) but the planet is currently on track to heat up by double that figure.

The UN's climate science panel warned in October that only a wholesale transformation of the global economy and consumer habits could forestall a catastrophe.

"My eyes hurt from pollution. My shirt gets dirty from dust," 13-year-old protester Shagun Kumari told AFP in Delhi.

"I want fresh air that won't harm my lungs and clean water to drink so that I don't keep falling sick."

#UPDATE Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change https://t.co/WNTA37l8bf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 15 maart 2019

Nobel Peace Prize nomination for student climate campaigner Greta

Yahoo – AFP, March 14, 2019

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (centre) has been nominated for
this year's Nobel Peace Prize (AFP Photo/Axel Heimken)

Oslo (AFP) - Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl climate campaigner who has inspired worldwide protests, should be awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Norwegian lawmakers said Thursday.

"We have proposed Greta Thunberg because if we do nothing to halt climate change it will be the cause of wars, conflict and refugees," Norwegian Socialist Left MP Freddy Andre Ovstegard told AFP.

"Greta Thunberg has launched a mass movement which I see as a major contribution to peace," he added.

Six months ago no one knew who Thunberg was when, as a 15-year-old, she camped outside Sweden's parliament next to a hand-written sign: "SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE."

Since then she has gone global, striking a chord with younger people disillusioned by the slow progress of the adult world in halting climate change.

Three MPs for the opposition Socialist Left nominated Thunberg for the prize before the January 31 deadline, Ovstegard said, meaning her nomination is valid for the 2019 prize which will be announced on October 11.

"It's obviously a great honour and nice to be nominated for such a big prize," she told Swedish daily Aftonbladet. "It feels unreal, and a little strange."

On Friday, thousands of students are expected to demonstrate in more than 100 countries in what activists say could be a milestone moment in a grassroots campaign to push world leaders into doing more.

"We are only seeing the beginning," Thunberg, now 16, tweeted recently.

"I think that change is on the horizon and the people will stand up for their future."

According to the Nobel Institute, 304 individuals and organisations have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

The list of nominees is kept secret for at least 50 years, in line with the Nobel Foundation's statutes.

Thousands of people, including lawmakers and cabinet members from around the world, former laureates and some university professors, are entitled to nominate people for the prize.

Photo: Sabine Joosten/ Hollandse Hoogte

Related Article:

Thousands of school pupils take part in second march against climate change

Thousands of school pupils take part in second march against climate change

DutchNews, March 14, 2019

Photo: Sabine Joosten/ Hollandse Hoogte

Several thousand Dutch school pupils skipped school on Thursday to take part in a second march for the climate, this time in Amsterdam. 

The first demonstration in The Hague attracted a crowd of around 10,000 police said at the time. On Thursday 5,000 to 6,000 youngsters took part. 

On Wednesday two government agencies published figures showing that targets for cutting greenhouse gases are unlikely to be met by 2030, and the cabinet said it was now considering bringing in a carbon tax for heavy industry. 

‘It is important that the government does enough, and that is what we are demonstrating for,’ one pupil told broadcaster NOS. 

The march organisers plan to hold a third rally on May 24, during a European-wide day of action on climate change.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl climate campaigner who has inspired worldwide protests, should be awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize, Norwegian lawmakers saidhttps://t.co/f5NiHyRPRY

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 14 maart 2019

Plastic in crosshairs at UN environment forum

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, March 11, 2019

Plastic garbage at Lampung Bay, on the southern tip of the Indonesian island
of Sumatra (AFP Photo/PERDIANSYAH)

Nairobi (AFP) - Countries from around the world set their sights Monday on a pivotal deal to curb plastic waste, a source of long-term pollution and worsening contamination of the ocean's food chain.

Thousands of delegates, business leaders and campaigners are in Nairobi for the five-day UN Environment Assembly, the top annual forum on the planet's environmental crisis.

The UN wants individual countries to sign up to "significantly" reduce plastic production, including a phasing out of single-use plastics by 2030 -- a goal inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement on voluntary reductions of carbon emissions.

"In the field of (plastic) pollution we don't have such agreements," Siim Kiisler, UN Environment Assembly president and Estonia's environment minister, told journalists as the gathering got underway.

"This is the first time (we have) to convince member states to make international commitments."

A landmark report due out this week is expected to ram home the warning of the threat to ecosystems from rampant plastic and chemical waste.

In the Mosafejo area of Lagos, plastic waste is being used to fill a swamp so that

the land can be developed for housing (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

The world currently produces more than 300 million tonnes of plastics annually, and there are at least five trillion plastic pieces floating in our oceans, scientists have estimated.

Microplastics have been found in the deepest sea trenches and high up Earth's tallest peaks, and plastic consumption is growing year-on-year.

"Plastic is a very good material, it's durable, flexible and light," Kiisler said. "This means we should make the best out of it for as long as possible instead of disposing of it."

The conference started on a sombre note after an Ethiopian Airlines jet crashed on Sunday, killing all 157 on board, many of whom were heading to the event.

The Nairobi meeting comes against the backdrop of series of UN reports outlining in stark terms the damage mankind is doing to the planet, much of it due to reckless consumption.

"These things are all linked: climate, the environment, waste," one delegate told AFP.

One briefing on the eve of the summit said the cost of ecosystems loss through agriculture, deforestation and pollution was a much as $20 trillion (17.7 trillion euros) since 1995.

Map showing ocean trenches up to 10 km deep where scientists found tiny 

shrimps which had ingested microplastics. (AFP Photo/Jonathan WALTER)

Acting UN environment chief Joyce Msuya said the world needed to "transform the way our economies work... break the link between growth and increased resource use, and end our throwaway culture."

The One Planet Summit on Thursday will bring together heads of state including French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta to lend political clout to the process.

Kiisler said it was a "critical time for action to protect and reverse the degradation of our planet.

"We are not going fast enough," he told reporters.

"Today we are talking about declarations and commitments but I believe in the future we need some international legislation in place."

The UN on Monday also warned that the global scale of chemical production was likely to double between now and 2030.

A study it commissioned found that worldwide chemical production capacity stands at 2.3 billion tonnes and is growing despite repeat warnings from environmental groups of the dangers hazardous materials pose to ecosystems.

Related Articles:

“Afraid of Love” + “What’s Wrong Today”, Laguna Hills, California, US(2), Dec 9, 2018 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

• Stagnation of the current US Politics: Compassioned (US) leaders will arise in the future
• Shortage of fresh/drinking water: Invention to make salt from salt water magnetic and remove it with water desalination process in high volumes
• Pollution on Earth: 1 - Stop killing the environment! / 2 - The rise of temperature on Earth is “temporary” and is part of the "regular" Watercycle.
• Replacement of current fossil energy source: Use of magnetics based (small/big) engines to produces electricity / free energy
• Plastic pollution in the oceans: Invention to remove the plastics gradually from the oceans

Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

World's biggest sovereign fund to dump oil and gas stocks: Norway

Yahoo – AFP, March 8, 2019

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, fuelled by the state's oil revenues, is divesting
its oil and gas holdings (AFP Photo/HOMMEDAL MARIT)

Oslo (AFP) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's biggest and which is fuelled by petrodollars, will divest its oil and gas holdings to reduce its exposure to the oil sector, the Norwegian government announced on Friday.

While the decision is based solely on financial considerations and not on the environment or climate change, a divestment by an investor worth more than $1 trillion will undoubtedly be seen as a major blow to polluting fossil fuels.

The government of Norway, the biggest hydrocarbon producer in western Europe, said it would exclude companies classified as exploration and production companies from the fund.

"The objective is to reduce the vulnerability of our common wealth to a permanent oil price decline," Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a statement.

The decision follows a recommendation made the Scandinavian country's central bank in 2017.

Oil and gas represent almost half of exports of Norway's and 20 percent of the state's revenues.

The revenue from the state-owned oil and gas companies are placed in the sovereign wealth fund -- commonly referred to as the "oil fund" but formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global -- which Oslo then taps to balance its budget.

At the end of 2018, the fund had holdings worth around $37 billion in the oil sector, with significant stakes in Shell, BP, Total and ExxonMobil among others.

The decision "does not reflect any specific view on the oil price, future profitability or sustainability of the petroleum sector. This assessment is thus independent of the government's current petroleum policy, which remains unchanged," the government said.

Related Articles:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“… 4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

New Mini Ice Age

"The weather you have today, and all the alarming attributes of it, is a scenario of what was scheduled to happen on Earth anyway. I review again that the weather changes you are seeing prophesied by myself, 21 years ago, are not a surprise. The changes are not caused by the pollutants you put in the air. You call it global warming and that's a nice phrase, and perhaps that will get you to put less pollutants in the air – a very good thing. But what you are seeing in the weather shift today was not caused by Humans putting things into the air. It would have happened anyway in about 300 years."

"We've called this process the water cycle, since it's all about water, not about air. The water is the predominant attribute of Gaia and of the weather cycle you're seeing. More predominant is the temperature of it. The cycle is ice to water and water to ice, and has been repeated on this planet over and over and over. It is not new. It is not exceptional. It is not frightening. But it's a cycle that modern humanity has not seen before, and it's a long cycle that is beyond the life span of a Human Being. Therefore, it tends to be overlooked or not seen at all !"

"In the days of the Lemurians, the water level of the Pacific Ocean was almost 400 feet lower, and that's only 50,000 years ago. [Kryon invites science to check this out – the water level at that time.] That was a water cycle working, and the reason it was lower was due to so much of the water being stored as ice. Today you're going through another water cycle that will eventually lead to cooling. The last one was in the 1400s."

"Science sees that at about 1650. As mentioned, they are so slow there is no remembrance that a Human has of them except in past writings and in the rings of the trees. The time span of the changes is so great that environmental record keeping does not exist in the form that it does today. But you can still look at the rings of the trees and at the striations of the rocks and can generally figure out that a few hundred years ago, you had a mini-ice age. Now you're going to have another one." 

20TH KRYON SUMMER LIGHT CONFERENCE, US (7), June 2-4, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version "The State of the Earth")

"....  A mini ice age is coming. "Kryon, isn't that doom for the planet?"  Many have seen the artist's rendering of major earth cities under ice and all of the other things that go very well with science fiction movies. That's simply a painting of someone's doom scenario, not reality based in the history of the cycle. If you want to know what a mini ice age is like, just flash back in history and study what took place in about 1650. That was a mini ice age. Due to the change in the Gulf Stream (the ocean), the river Thames froze in London. Dear ones, it was cold, but it did not doom the planet. That's a mini ice age.

That's what you're facing, and I'll say it again. If you live in a cold climate, heed this advice: It's going to get colder. Get off the grid! Within the next 15 years, find a way of producing electricity independently or in smaller groups. This can be done neighborhood-wide or separately in homes. You're going to need this, dear ones, because the grid as it exists right now all over the world is not prepared for this coming cold, and the grid will fail. That's not doom and gloom, that's just practical, commonly known information. Your electricity infrastructure is delicate, too delicate. Prepare for a cold spell that may last for a couple of decades. That's all it is. Technology is racing forward to allow this. Don't let your politics get in the way of your survival. ..."

"...  This is controversial. The planet can't just "change the water". It does it instead with a "reboot of life in the ocean" using the water cycle. Watch for evidence of this as it occurs, and then remember this channel. This weather cycle is to refresh the life in the ocean so that everyone on the planet will have needed food from the ocean. Gaia does this by itself, has done it before, and it does it for a reason - so it will not stagnate.

Dear ones, indeed, you have put compromising things into the air and the water, but it has not caused this cycle. We have said for a very long time, stop killing the environment! The reason? It's going to kill you, not Gaia. Gaia is spectacularly resilient and will survive anything you do. However, it is you who may not survive if you continue polluting. All this is starting to change with your awareness, and you're starting to see this and move with it. But Humans are not causing the current weather shift. This will be known eventually.

What is happening has happened before, and it's almost like a reboot for the oceans and it carries a lot of dichotomous events. You're going to see reports of a dying ocean, but at the same time you're going to see unusual reports of too many fish and other sea life in places that were supposed to have a decline. You're going to see the life cycle of the ocean itself start to change and reboot.

The chief player in this renewal is a place you would not expect: Antarctica. I want you to watch for magic in Antarctica. It has always been the core of the refreshing of microbes and other kinds of life in your oceans and it's especially active during these mini ice ages. The process will cause currents under the sea to be filled with new life, delivering it to both hemispheres almost like an under-sea conveyor belt. ..."