Climate Emergency

Can mobilization succeed in turning our society toward emergency mode?

Coordinated by Extinction Rebellion NYC, 70 people were reported arrested after the group staged a sit-in on Eight Avenue in midtown Manhattan in order to bring attention to the failure of the [New York Times]—and that of the journalism industry overall—to adequately report on the global urgency of skyrocketing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, rapidly warming oceans, and all the associated perils that result.

A resolution has been introduced in the New York City Council to declare a climate emergency. Also, 74 medical and health organizations are urging recognition of climate change as a health emergency. And, a United Nations report states that climate change will exacerbate poverty. Author Philip Alston:

We risk a 'climate apartheid' scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger, and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer.

Update (June 28):  New York City passed the climate emergency resolution.

Update (July 8):  Kollibri terre Sonnenblume considers whether the U.S. should take orders from the rest of the world in order to solve the climate crisis since we're not so good at governing ourselves.

Update (July 14):  Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Bernie Sanders have introduced a joint resolution to declare a climate emergency.

Update (August 22):  Dan Vergano summarizes the bad news from just this year.

Greenland's ice is melting, record-setting fires are blazing from the Arctic to the Amazon, and July was the world's hottest month ever.

Update (October 27):  A report from the United States Army War College is concerned that

the Department of Defense is precariously underprepared for the national security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges.

The military would be stretched from offering assistance in the U.S. and from facing increasing international conflicts.

The two most prominent scenarios in the report focus on the risk of a collapse of the power grid within "the next 20 years," and the danger of disease epidemics.

Water scarcity alone would be a major source of conflict and water accounts for 30 to 40 percent of the cost of maintaining military forces outside of the U.S.