Supreme court upholds Urgenda ruling, Dutch state must cut pollution

DutchNews, December 20, 2019

Photo: DutchNews.nl

The Dutch state is required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect the health of its people, the Dutch Supreme Court said on Friday, ending a seven year legal process. 

The court said that the Dutch courts do have the power to determine if the government is meeting its obligations, as set down in the European treaty of human rights, which commits the state to protecting its citizens. 

The ruling, greeted by cheers from supporters, means that the government must now reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 25% by the end of next year, when compared with 1990, the court said. 

Friday’s ruling finalises an appeal court ruling from October 2018, in which the state was ordered to step up its efforts to combat pollution. Economic affairs minister Erik Wiebes said at the time that the Netherlands would comply with the ruling, even though it had ‘set democracy to one side’. 

Today’s Supreme Court case focused on the legal processes, rather than the actual merits of the case, and was brought by the government to establish if courts have the power to make such judgements. 

In October 2018, the appeal court ordered the Dutch state to step up efforts to cut CO2 emissions, despite the government’s claim that the issue should be left up to parliament. The court said the state had a ‘duty of care’ to protect its citizens from the impact of climate change. 

At the initial court case in 2015, judges ruled that the government is required it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% of 1990 levels by 2020, in line with international treaties. It was the first time a court had ruled that a national government was legally bound to follow through on promises made in international climate agreements. 

Failing 

Various researchers suggest the Netherlands is on course to reduce CO2 emissions by only 19% to 23% of 1990 levels by next year. 

The government must now decide what measures it should take to speed up the process. Potential solutions include closing coal-fired power stations sooner than planned. The speed limit on motorways is already being reduced next year to reduce pollution following another court case. 

The Urgenda case was started in 2012 by a group of some 900 individuals who said they would take the government to court unless it started acting seriously to prevent climate change. 

Founder Marjan Minnesma said after the ruling that she is extremely happy. ‘We have put together a plan for the government with 50 measures that they could take to still make the 25% reduction,’ she said.

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“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

Dutch inventors roll out river plastic clean-up barge
Ocean Cleanup move to the Pacific, ‘a milestone’ says Dutch inventor

Photo: The Ocean Cleanup

EU leader urges MEPs to back green growth plan

Yahoo – AFP, Marine LAOUCHEZ, Dave CLARK, December 11, 2019

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the 'Green New Deal'  to
fight climate change was "Europe's man on the moon moment" (AFP Photo/
Aris Oikonomou)

Brussels (AFP) - The EU's top official Wednesday launched the bloc's new "Green Deal", hailing it as a strategy for jobs and economic growth, not just for cutting emissions.

Unveiling the plan to the European Parliament, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen also warned against the steep cost of inaction.

Earlier, she had compared the ambition of the plan to the 1960s US mission to the moon, but Green groups were quick to warn it does not go far enough.

The key element of the plan will be a law committing member states to build a carbon neutral economy by 2050 -- but first it will need the go-ahead from parliament and EU leaders.

"We do not have all the answers yet. Today is the start of a journey. But this is Europe's man on the moon moment," Ursula von der Leyen said.

She promised a "new growth strategy" that "gives back more than it takes away", aiming to mobilise around 100 billion euros to fund clean energy projects.

"We have to make sure no one is left behind," she told reporters. "This transition will either be working for all and be just, or it will not work at all."

In parliament, she said: "Some say the cost of this transition is too high, let us never forget what the cost of non-action would be. It is rising by the year."

The document is the first major political challenge for the former German defence minister since she took charge of the European Commission this month.

And it comes as a UN global climate summit is under way in Madrid -- focusing attention on the crisis -- and on the eve of von der Leyen's first EU summit.

Various leaked versions of the plan have been flying around Brussels for weeks, and lobby groups from all sides of the debate have been piling on pressure.

The European Parliament was the first to officially receive the plan.

"At this point, we can't yet say if it's a Green Deal or green washing," said French Green MEP Karima Delli as associations feared the proposals did not go far enough.

The leaders of EU member states will hear it on Thursday at their Brussels summit and von der Leyen's deputy Frans Timmermans will take it to this week's COP25 forum in Madrid.

"It's important that, in parallel to the announcement, there's a signal" of support from European leaders, European Council President Charles Michel said.

The "European Green Deal" lists legislative proposals, financial instruments and action plans in different sectors, with a timetable.

The key goals are to use a combination of cleaner tech and carbon capture methods to make Europe the first "carbon neutral" economy by 2050.

Global competitors

Three countries still highly dependent on fossil fuels, particularly coal, could still block the way: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

To convince them, the Commission plans to establish a 100-billion-euro "transition mechanism" to help them transition to renewable energy sources.

"It would help if at the Council we get some progress on carbon neutrality," said MEP Pascal Canfin, chair of the environment committee of the leaders' meeting.

The European Commission wants to set a target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50 or even 55 percent by 2030, up from its 40 percent goal.

But for some this does not go far enough.

"The promises are too small, too few, and too far off," said Jagoda Munic of Friends of the Earth Europe.

"We're on a runaway train to ecological and climate collapse and the EU Commission is gently switching gears instead of slamming on the brakes."

The action plan also includes plans to extend the EU Emissions Trading System into the highly polluting shipping sector.

And there are plans for a "border adjustment mechanism" aimed at importers to ensure that EU companies do not lose out to competitors who flout the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Commission will also lay out the timetable for its "from farm to fork" strategy to promote sustainable and quality agriculture, as well as that on biodiversity.

But however ambitious von der Leyen's environmental plan is, it will be very dependent on the money EU members are willing to spend on it.

For the moment, this is the unknown. Negotiations for the multi-year MFF budget for the period 2021-2027 are running late and entering a difficult stage.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is Time' 2019 person of the year

Yahoo – AFP, December 11, 2019
\

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has taken her disarmingly straightforward
message -- "listen to the scientists" -- around the world (AFP Photo/CRISTINA QUICLER)

New York (AFP) - Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who became the voice of conscience for a generation facing the climate change emergency, was named Wednesday as Time magazine's 2019 Person of the Year.

The 16-year-old first made headlines with her solo strike against global warming outside Sweden's parliament in August 2018.

"We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow. That is all we are saying," Thunberg told Time.

The magazine interviewed Thunberg aboard the sailboat that took her from the United States to Europe after a hectic 11-week North American trip to several US cities and Canada.

Thunberg has taken her disarmingly straightforward message -- "listen to the scientists" -- to global decision-makers, accusing them of inaction.

Thunberg's activism has inspired people around the world, including these 

demonstrators in Rome (AFP Photo/Andreas SOLARO)

The Swedish activist was in Madrid as the award was announced, at a UN climate forum tasked with saving the world from runaway global warming.

"The politics of climate action are as entrenched and complex as the phenomenon itself, and Thunberg has no magic solution," Time wrote in the interview.

"But she has succeeded in creating a global attitudinal shift, transforming millions of vague, middle-of-the-night anxieties into a worldwide movement calling for urgent change.

"She has offered a moral clarion call to those who are willing to act, and hurled shame on those who are not."

'I want you to panic'

Within months of launching her lonely "School Strike for the Climate" protest outside the Swedish parliament Thunberg was spearheading global demonstrations by young people and demanding environmental action from world leaders.

Then 15-years-old Greta Thunberg calls for a school strike as she protests in front 

of the Swedish Parliament in September 2018 (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

"I want you to panic," she told CEOs and world leaders at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland in January 2019. "I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act."

Her words spread like wildfire online.

The daughter of an opera singer mother and an actor-turned-producer father born, Thunberg has faced severe criticism -- the latest from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who dismissed her as a "brat" -- and been subjected to a swarm of online conspiracy theory.

Some mock her youth or try to discredit her because of her Asperger's syndrome, a diagnosis she has never hidden.

Her diagnosis means that Thunberg "doesn't operate on the same emotional register as many of the people she meets," Time magazine wrote.

"I want you to panic," Thunberg told CEOs and world leaders at the World Economic

Forum in Davos in January 2019 (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI)

"She dislikes crowds; ignores small talk; and speaks in direct, uncomplicated sentences. She cannot be flattered or distracted" -- and according to the magazine, "these very qualities have helped make her a global sensation."

Thunberg says she is mystified by the hostility of some of the reaction to her.

"I honestly don't understand why adults would choose to spend their time mocking and threatening teenagers and children for promoting science when they could do something good instead," she wrote on Twitter in September. "Being different is not an illness."

She also insists that she has "not received any money" for her activism.

And with 12 million followers on her Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts, she continues to rack up high-profile supporters, from Barack Obama to the Dalai Lama and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Swedish climate activist Greta #Thunberg on Wednesday accused wealthier nations of inventing ways to avoid slashing their greenhouse gas emissions, branding their climate action "misleading" at the UN #COP25 summit in Madrid https://t.co/4GiEOW9k5u pic.twitter.com/UembNA3xfR

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 11, 2019

Smoke haze settles over Australian capital as bushfires burn

Yahoo – AFP, December 8, 2019

The scale of this year's bushfire devastation has been widely described as
unprecedented (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

Sydney (AFP) - Smoke haze from bushfires raging in Australia spread to the capital Sunday, as firefighters raced to contain more than 140 blazes ahead of a heatwave forecast early this week.

Australia is experiencing a horrific start to its fire season, which scientists say began earlier and is more extreme this year due to a prolonged drought and the effects of climate change.

Residents of Canberra in the country's southeast woke up to see the capital shrouded in haze Sunday, joining those in Sydney who have endured weeks of toxic air pollution caused by bushfire smoke.

Officials said favourable weather conditions had given them a chance to bring several blazes under control before the forecast return of strong winds and high temperatures Tuesday.

Among those is a "mega fire" burning across 250,000 hectares within an hour's drive of Sydney, Australia's largest city, where ash from the fires has occasionally fallen.

Firefighters are now bracing for Tuesday, when temperatures are expected to reach above 40 Celsius in parts of New South Wales state -- worst-hit by the bushfires -- and gusting westerly winds are likely to fan the flames.

"Today (fire) crews will be doing what they can to consolidate and strengthen containment lines, which in some areas will include backburning," NSW Rural Fire Service spokesman Greg Allan told AFP.

Nearly 50 reinforcements from the United States and Canada have been flown 

in to support fatigued firefighters (AFP Photo/SAEED KHAN)

But the state's Bureau of Meteorology warned that the massive fires are "in some cases just too big to put out at the moment".

"They're pumping out vast amounts of smoke which is filling the air, turning the sky orange & even appearing like significant rain on our radars," the department tweeted.

Nearly 50 reinforcements from the United States and Canada have been flown in to support fatigued firefighters in recent days, with the international contingent tasked with providing logistical assistance.

In neighbouring Queensland, the focus was also on managing fatigue among frontline firefighters -- who in both states are almost all volunteers -- as weather there provided a brief reprieve from weeks of battling blazes.

"We're just looking to wind down and recover and prepare for the next round, whenever that may be," a Queensland Fire and Emergency Service spokesman told AFP.

Since the crisis began in September, six people have been killed, more than 700 homes destroyed and an estimated two million hectares (almost five million acres) scorched.

Though the human toll has been far lower than the deadliest fire season in 2009 -- when almost 200 people died -- the scale of this year's devastation has been widely described as unprecedented, as Australians grapple with the impacts of a changing climate.

Official data shows 2019 is on track to be one of the hottest and driest years on record in Australia.

Kerry launches US bipartisan group addressing climate 'like a war'

Yahoo – AFP, December 1, 2019

As US secretary of state in 2016, John Kerry attended the COP22 climate change
conference in Morocco; this year, as the US sends a low-level delegation to the
COP25 talks in Spain, Kerry has founded a private group to raise climate
awareness (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON)

Washington (AFP) - Former US secretary of state John Kerry said Sunday that he had formed a cross-party, celebrity-studded coalition to take on the cause of climate change and confront it "like a war."

The initiative's launch coincides with the opening Monday of the COP25 international climate talks in Madrid, where the US administration of Donald Trump will be represented only by a low-level delegation.

Trump has begun the process of withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement signed by nearly every other country, calling global warming a "hoax."

In contrast, Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" that climate change poses "an international security issue" requiring the equivalent of a wartime mobilization.

Kerry said his new group World War Zero included admirals and generals as well as celebrities including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and rock legend Sting.

Kerry, a Democrat, appeared Sunday with another member, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor and Republican former governor of California.

Without specifically referring to Trump or the COP25 talks, Kerry said that "no country is getting the job done."

"Things are getting worse, not better. So we have our unlikely allies coming together here... to treat this like a war."

The United Nations warned last week that barring an immediate, dramatic decline in fossil fuel emissions, the world will be unable to avert climate disaster.

The US is the world's second largest polluter, after China, and carbon emissions from the two countries are growing, not declining.

Some American conservatives, including Trump, question established climate science and say severe curbs on industrial emissions could inflict severe economic harm.

Schwarzenegger disputed that conclusion, saying California had provided "perfect proof you can protect the environment and economy at the same time" with the development of "green" jobs.

The Kerry group is planning to hold town meetings across the US -- including states seen as key to next year's presidential election -- with the goal of reaching millions of Americans and persuading climate skeptics.

It will not advocate any specific climate policies.

The group includes Henry Paulson, a former Treasury secretary under George W. Bush, and John Kasich, a former Republican governor of Ohio.

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

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. ..."

"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."