Carbon Rangers /Ecozoic Times
Vol 16, No. 2
February 2023
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Dear Reader,
 Welcome to the February issue which highlights youth climate activists that have become known widely as the climate emergency comes into focus for larger numbers of the public. (Photo above: Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, Greta Thunberg from Sweden, Helena Gualinga from Ecuador, Luisa Neubaur from Germany ) The young women in this report have been very bold and brave about the challenge of public action. While we can be encouraged to see youth engaged in this manner, I think we need to be careful to continue to press our leadership from wherever we find ourselves on the advocacy spectrum. We must not relax and proclaim, “Ok, let these young ones take the reins now!” That sort of abdication would be a severe injustice. The generation that allowed the crisis to become a crisis cannot step away now. The Boomers and the rest of us need to stay at this task. Young people did not cause the climate crisis. They need not be held responsible for solving the crisis.
We learn almost every week of the disturbing lack of conscience that seems to have been part of the corporate culture in the oil industry since the first oil well pushed out the first barrel of crude. How else to explain the public acknowledgement recently that yes, Exxon knew for decades that their product was poisoning the planet yet kept the information to themselves . I have included a video link showing the US Congressperson, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez , questioning former Exxon scientists at a US House Committee hearing in 2019 that reveals the duplicity. At DAVOS, UN Secretary General Guteres had harsh words for the big oil companies.
A new effort has been launched to punish big banks for their ongoing support of the big oil companies. Efforts are mounting to hold them accountable—the demand, across civil society, is that they cease funding the expansion of the fossil fuel enterprise. You can see more on this below from Bill McKibben. Another great champion for climate is Amy Westervelt and she has a short piece to share about international arbitration that needs review.
The world’s leading ocean conservation professionals and high-level officials will meet in Vancouver, Canada, from 3-9 February 2023, to chart a course towards protecting 30% of the global ocean by 2030. Lastly, Katharine Hayhoe has some good news to share about 2023.
Pope Francis and Thomas Berry conclude this issue with encouraging wisdom.
Cordially,
Br. Kevin
Additional resources:
Most recent 10 years of Carbon Rangers: Link to Archives
Edmund Rice International Global Environment : Link to site
Iona University Care of Earth News: Link to site
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Davos Pushback From Youth
Davos (photo below) is a Swiss town that hosts the World Economic Forum (WEF), a prestigious gathering of global leaders, experts, and influencers. The WEF aims to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities of the world, such as climate change, health, geopolitics, and technology. The event is regularly targeted both by conspiracy theorists who say its members concoct nefarious schemes at the Alpine resort, and by critics who say its ultra-wealthy attendees are out of touch — or that it’s become little more than a junket for corporations, government officials, academics, and journalists.
 Four young climate activists took advantage of the widely covered event and sent this public message to the numerous CEOs of large fossil fuel corporations in attendance.
To Fossil Fuel CEOs:
This Cease and Desist Notice is to demand that you immediately stop opening any new oil, gas, or coal extraction sites, and stop blocking the clean energy transition we all so urgently need.
We know that Big Oil:
KNEW for decades that fossil fuels cause catastrophic climate change.
MISLED the public about climate science and risks.
DECEIVED politicians with disinformation sowing doubt and causing delay.
You must end these activities as they are in direct violation of our human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, your duties of care, as well as the rights of Indigenous people.
If you fail to act immediately, be advised that citizens around the world will consider taking any and all legal action to hold you accountable. And we will keep protesting in the streets in huge numbers.
The four activists met Thursday, Jan 19, with International Energy Agency (IEA) head Fatih Birol during a side event at the World Economic Forum, as Reuters reported. While Thunberg spoke at the forum as an official delegate in 2019 — urging attendees to “safeguard the future living conditions for humankind” — this year she opted not to attend in an official capacity and instead leave that role to other climate activists.
“I think it should be people on the frontlines and not privileged people like me,” she said, as Reuters reported. “I don’t think the changes we need are very likely to come from the inside. They are more likely to come from the bottom up.” Thunberg’s words came two days after she was briefly detained while protesting the sacrifice of the German village of Lützerath to an expanding coal mine. In their letter, Thunberg and the other three activists also emphasized the importance of grassroots action.
“If you fail to act immediately, be advised that citizens around the world will consider taking any and all legal action to hold you accountable. And we will keep protesting in the streets in huge numbers,” they warned fossil fuel executives. Thunberg also had harsh words for elites gathered at Davos. “We are right now in Davos where basically the people who are mostly fueling the destruction of the planet, the people who are at the very core of the climate crisis, the people who are investing in fossil fuels etcetera, etcetera and yet somehow these are the people that we seem to rely on solving our problems,” Thunberg said, as The Independent reported.
Nakate, meanwhile, detailed the experiences of some of those people on the frontlines, speaking of children suffering from malnutrition in the midst of an ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa, as The Guardian reported. People living in vulnerable regions are “clinging to their lives and just trying to make it for another day, to make it for another week, to make it for another hour, another minute,” she said, as AP News reported.
Gualinga warned that the world is “taking a really dangerous path.”
Birol, for his part, thanked the activists for meeting with him, but expressed more hope for the future, pointing to the passage in the U.S. of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as a boost for the development of renewable energy. “We can have slight legitimate optimism,” he said, as Reuters reported. “Last year the amount of renewables coming to the market was record high,” he added. Birol said that the energy transition would require the participation of a diverse group of stakeholders. However, the IEA calculated in 2021 that no new oil and gas projects should be developed past that year if world leaders wanted to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Birol also said that the current energy crisis does not justify investments in new oil fields. He also acknowledged the importance of speed in the energy transition, which is currently lagging behind necessity. “[T]he problem is not being fast enough to reach our climate targets,” he said, as AP News reported.
 The activists also reacted strongly to the appointment of Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to preside over COP28 in the UAE. “Lobbyists have been influencing these conferences since forever, and this just puts a very clear face to it… it’s completely ridiculous,” Thunberg said, as CNBC reported.
Neubauer agreed it was “ridiculous,” while Gualinga said it suggested world leaders were not serious about addressing the climate crisis, as The Guardian reported.
“I just think it sends a message of where we’re headed right now, if we’re putting the heads of fossil fuel companies to lead climate negotiations,” she said.
In response, a COP28 spokesperson defended the UAE’s choice, noting that al-Jaber founded a renewable energy firm called Masdar in 2006.
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Davos : Harsh Words For Oil Companies From UN Chief
by Larry Elliott Economics editor for The Guardian
The head of the United Nations has accused the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies of refusing to abandon a business model at odds with human survival despite knowingly putting the world on course for a climate meltdown decades ago.
Speaking at the Davos summit of business and political leaders, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, launched a strong attack on the world’s leading oil companies, many of which are represented at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at the Swiss resort.
Guterres said recent revelations that ExxonMobil knew back in the 1970s that its core product was “baking our planet”, made “big oil” similar to the tobacco companies that knew smoking led to cancer.
 “Just like the tobacco industry, they rode roughshod over their own science. Big Oil peddled the big lie … And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account,” he said.
“Today, fossil fuel producers and their enablers are still racing to expand production, knowing full well that their business model is inconsistent with human survival. This insanity belongs in science fiction, yet we know the ecosystem meltdown is cold, hard scientific fact.” (Photo: Guterres)
... “We must act together to close the emissions gap. To phase out coal and supercharge the renewable revolution. To end the addiction to fossil fuels. And to stop our self-defeating war on nature.”
Guterres said restoring trust meant “meaningful climate action”, as he urged rich countries to fulfil their $100bn climate finance commitment to help developing nations – facing the brunt of the climate emergency – to cope with the crisis.
“Adaptation finance must be doubled. And the biggest emitters – namely G20 countries – must unite around a climate solidarity pact in which they make extra efforts in the 2020s to keep the 1.5-degree limit alive.”
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Exxon Scientists Accurately Predicted Climate Damage While Company Pushed Misinformation
Climate Nexus Updated: January 13, 2023
ExxonMobil climate scientists predicted the climatic damage their product would cause with remarkable accuracy, all while the company spent huge sums of money denying and obfuscating the science of climate change, a study published Thursday in Science reveals.
That “Exxon knew” its product was dangerously increasing global temperatures has been known for years, but the precision and accuracy of its predictions were “actually astonishing,” Harvard science history and co-author of the study Naomi Oreskes told the AP.
“ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action,” the study’s authors wrote.
 Researchers “dug into not just to the language, the rhetoric in these documents, but also the data. And I’d say in that sense, our analysis really seals the deal on ‘Exxon knew,'” Geoffrey Supan, an environmental science professor at the University of Miami and lead author of the study, told the AP. It “gives us airtight evidence that Exxon Mobil accurately predicted global warming years before, then turned around and attacked the science underlying it.”
Multiple states and municipalities have filed lawsuits seeking to hold Exxon accountable, along with numerous other oil and gas firms and trade associations, for defrauding consumers about the damaging impacts of their products.
As reported by The Associated Press: University of Illinois atmospheric scientist professor emeritus Donald Wuebbles told The Associated Press that in the 1980s he worked with Exxon-funded scientists and wasn’t surprised by what the company knew or the models. It’s what science and people who examined the issue knew. “It was clear that Exxon Mobil knew what was going on,” Wuebbles said. “The problem is at the same time they were paying people to put out misinformation. That’s the big issue.”
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"AOC" Grills Former Exxon Scientists on Oil Giant's Climate Denial
Link to AOC Hearing
 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the eastern part of the Bronx, portions of north-central Queens.
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Challenging Big Banks on Their Fossil Fuel Investing
From Bill McKibben in Substack
...But the pandemic got in the way of mass protests and civil disobedience; and the banks tried to buy some time with the formation of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero at the climate talks in Scotland a little more than a year ago. That GFANZ effort has turned into a greenwashing debacle, however—as Bloomberg reported last week, two of its key members, Citibank and Bank of America, “have done more to support the expansion of fossil-fuel companies than any other lenders.” Those two, along with Chase and Wells-Fargo, are the four biggest lenders to the fossil fuel industry.
 And so efforts are mounting to hold them accountable—the demand, across civil society, is that they cease funding the expansion of the fossil fuel enterprise. This is hardly a radical demand; it concedes that we’ll be using oil and gas for some years to come (thanks to three-decade denial campaign by the fossil fuel industry) and asks only that it stop expanding: no new pipelines, no more searching for new oil and gas fields. Again, this is not a radical demand: it’s what climate scientists have said must happen.
 ...And a series of huge wins in Europe in recent days point out the possibilities
#In mid-December, HSBC, biggest bank in Europe by assets, announced it was ending lending for new oil and gas fields—that’s not everything we need, but they were the first of the really big boys to concede that they’d have to change.
#Yesterday the Danish banking giant Danske announced more sweeping policies (it’s worth reading the corporate pledge, which in some respects is quite impressive).
#And then later in the day the largest pension fund in Europe, ABP, announced that it was “putting banks on notice and may start exiting the sector unless it sees proof that claims of portfolio decarbonization are matched by action.”
That momentum came with an American twist too. New York City’s comptroller, Brad Lander, called on the big banks in this country to follow suit and produce serious policies to cut emissions fast. “We expect them to take the steps needed now to reduce emissions on the timeline to which they have committed,” Lander said. That’s no empty threat—New York City’s pensions are a quarter of a trillion dollars in size, and Lander controls the myriad banking arrangements for the city. Oh, and today United States Congress House Democrats launched a “Sustainable Investment Caucus” to push back against red-state treasurers trying to stop so-called “ESG” investing.
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Marine Protected Areas - UN Congress to Chart Path to Protecting 30% of Global Ocean by 2030
The world’s leading ocean conservation professionals and high-level officials will meet in Vancouver, Canada, from 3-9 February 2023, to chart a course towards protecting 30% of the global ocean by 2030.
The fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress will seek to develop a collaborative approach to ocean conservation and sustainability that includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, communities, leaders, and nations, “to reshape our understanding of, and relationships with, nature”.
 With the world’s biodiversity in steep decline and thousands of species threatened with extinction, the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) agreed last December a set of goals and targets to address the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restore natural ecosystems. Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) aims to effectively conserve 30% of terrestrial, inland water, coastal, and marine areas through protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures by 2030. (Photo: Leighton Lum) The ocean provides over 90% of the living space for species on the planet and is a critical source of food and livelihoods to billions of people around the world. It generates oxygen, contributes to climate resilience, and helps address hunger and poverty.
The world’s leading ocean conservation professionals and high-level officials will meet in Vancouver, Canada, from 3-9 February 2023, to chart a course towards protecting 30% of the global ocean by 2030. Today, an estimated 7.65% of the ocean is covered by marine protected areas (MPAs).
The fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5) will seek to develop a collaborative approach to ocean conservation and sustainability that includes Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, communities, leaders, and nations, “to reshape our understanding of, and relationships with, nature.” To contribute to a healthy blue planet for future generations, participants will aim to “re-think our policies, economies, priorities, and processes in ways that reflect the … role nature plays in our … health, equity, well-being and economic sustainability.”
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AMY WESTERVELT: This Company Is Suing the U.S. Over the Keystone Pipeline Cancellation (The New Republic)
I've been ranting about international arbitration for years and I'll probably never stop. It's one of the greatest threats to action on climate change, a system that is beyond any  government's control, that allows companies to sue countries for anything that threatens their profits like...I don't know...climate policy? In this piece Kate Aronoff looks at one recent claim in particular, in which Canadian company TC Energy (HQ photo) is claiming the U.S. owes it billions of dollars for canceling the Keystone XL pipeline. It's pretty unusual for a country like the US to be hauled before an arbitral tribunal, usually it's a small Global South country that dared to pass an environmental or human rights law, but no matter what country is involved it's an incredible erosion of sovereignty. (You can read more about this here, or listen to one of our podcast episodes on it here or here).
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Good News Coming in 2023
Reports Katharine Hayhoe
 Katharine Hayhoe: Today, I am the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and I am also a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University, where I am also an associate in the Public Health program of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
IN SOUTH AMERICA
Brazil re-elected President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who has pledged to reach net-zero deforestation in the Amazon by the end of the decade. This summer, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled that the Paris Agreement must take precedence over national laws: the first country in the world to do so. Other countries also elected climate hawks: in Colombia, President Gustavo Petro hopes to phase out oil and gas drilling in his country while in Chile, President Gabriel Boric appointed climate scientist Maisa Rojas as the country’s environment minister and proposed a new constitution to tackle climate change for a sustainable future.
IN NORTH AMERICA
U.S. renewables were projected to produce more than 20 percent of the country’s power in 2022, surpassing coal for the first time. In Canada, the province of Alberta, long known for its fossil fuel-based economy, is on track to meet its renewable energy goals; the federal government is imposing a new 10 percent “luxury tax” on the purchase of private jets, yachts, and cars; and Canadians are now receiving regular carbon tax rebates, known as Climate Action Incentive payments, every three months.
IN EUROPE
France banned short-haul flights between Paris and Nantes, Lyon, and Bordeaux in favor of train travel. France also plans to cover every parking lot in the country with solar panels. Short private jet flights are also subject to the ban. In the U.K., a Welsh hospital is now powered by its very own solar farm, saving close to a million pounds a year. And across the E.U., countries have agreed to cut their heat-trapping gas emissions by at least 55% in the next eight years.
IN AFRICA
New laws in Sierra Leone will allow local communities to nix proposed mining, industrial, and farming projects that might harm the local environment. In South Africa, a court upheld a ban preventing Shell from conducting oil and gas exploration off the country’s east coast. Looking to the future, Africa has the greatest solar energy potential of any continent and could generate a trillion euros (about 1.1 trillion USD) in investments in green hydrogen.
IN ASIA
Homes built after 2025 in Tokyo must have solar panels. China continues to lead the world in clean energy development and has developed a plan to curb its methane emissions, which rank among the highest in the world. And in India, the government is spending $2.6 billion to spur domestic solar production.
IN OCEANIA
Women in Papau New Guinea are leading mangrove conservation efforts that protect coastlines from climate-fueled storms and provide habitat for coastal species and firewood for local communities. Australians elected a new government that promises ambitious climate action, and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Emission Reduction Plan aims to cut the country’s net emissions in half over the next 8 years and reach net zero by 2050.
“[W]hen we look back a decade from now, we may find that 2022 was an inflection point. New policies [around the world] are creating momentum for the shift toward clean energy,” my colleague and fellow Canadian Leah Stokes wrote in the New York Times on Christmas Day. “If moving away from dirty energy is like rerouting a giant ship, then this could be the year when world leaders started to turn the tanker around.”
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Pope Francis
 Today too, amid so much darkness, we need to see the light of hope and to be men and women who bring hope to others. To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of hope!
Pope Francis' Homily for inaugural Mass of Petrine Ministry, March 19, 2013.
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Thomas Berry
 “The most difficult transition to make is from an anthropocentric to a biocentric norm of progress. If there is to be any true progress, then the entire life community must progress. Any progress of the human at the expense of the larger life community must ultimately lead to a diminishment of human life itself.” (Thomas Berry, “Bioregions: The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth,” in The Dream of the Earth, 165).
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