July, 11 2016, 11:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Irene Etkin Goldman, Board Chair, Coalition for Peace Action, Princeton NJ; 609-924-5022 (Office); 609-505-7554 (Cell); GoldmanI@aol.com Â
Princeton-based Peace Organization Responds to the Tragic Events in Dallas, Louisiana and Minnesota
The Coalition for Peace Action deeply deplores and mourns the tragic shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both African Americans, by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, as well as a lone gunman's tragic killing of five brave police officers - Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamaripha, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith - in Dallas, and wounding seven police officers and two civilians.
The Coalition for Peace Action deeply deplores and mourns the tragic shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, both African Americans, by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, as well as a lone gunman's tragic killing of five brave police officers - Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamaripha, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens and Michael Smith - in Dallas, and wounding seven police officers and two civilians.
When hate and fear and violence threaten to divide us and to breed such tragedies, the answer cannot be found in more hate and fear and violence. Partial remedies should include support for community outreach programs by police departments across the country and better training for police officers in non-violent conflict resolution to defuse tense situations. And neither the police nor the communities they serve should have to face the extraordinary lethality of the military-style weapons that short-sighted laws now permit.
But more than anything, we need to be inspired by the remarkable spirit of the church-goers in Charleston. And guided by the loving wisdom of their example, we all must approach each new day with the courage to come together with, listen to, and make a real effort to understand one another across racial, ethnic, religious, gender and economic boundaries.
Please join with us at the Coalition for Peace Action in working toward a future free from divisiveness, fear, and violence and toward a society in which we can all just get along.
The Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) is a grassroots citizens organization which brings together people of all ages, backgrounds, professions, and political persuasions in support of three goals: global abolition of nuclear weapons, a peace economy, and a halt to weapons trafficking at home and abroad.
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The climate crisis will shrink the average global income 19% in the next 26 years compared to what it would have been without global heating caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, a study published in Nature Wednesday has found.
The researchers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said that economic shrinkage was largely locked in by mid-century by existing climate change, but that actions taken to reduce emissions now could determine whether income losses hold steady at around 20% or triple through the second half of the century.
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"I am used to my work not having a nice societal outcome, but I was surprised by how big the damages were."
Put in dollar terms, the climate crisis will take a yearly $38 trillion chunk out of the global economy in damages by 2050, the study authors found.
"That seems like… a lot," writer and climate advocate Bill McKibben wrote in response to the findings. "The entire world economy at the moment is about $100 trillion a year; the federal budget is about $6 trillion a year."
This means that the costs of inaction have already exceeded the costs of limiting global heating to 2°C by six times, the study authors said. However, limiting warming to 2°C can still significantly reduce economic losses through 2100.
"This clearly shows that protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so, and that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity," Wenz said.
The damages predicted by the study were more than twice those of similar analyses because the researchers looked beyond national temperature data to also incorporate the impacts of extreme weather and rainfall on more than 1,600 subnational regions over a 40-year period, The Guardian explained.
"Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with South Asia and Africa being most strongly affected," PIK scientist and first author Maximilian Kotz said in a statement. "These are caused by the impact of climate change on various aspects that are relevant for economic growth such as agricultural yields, labor productivity, or infrastructure."
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Unlike previous studies, the research predicted economic losses for most wealthier countries in the Global North, with the U.S. and German economies shrinking by 11% by mid-century, France's by 13%, and the U.K.'s by 7%. However, the countries set to suffer the most are countries closer to the equator that have lower incomes already and have historically done much less to contribute to the climate crisis. Iraq, for example, could see incomes drop by 30%, Botswana 25%, and Brazil 21%.
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Wenz told The Guardian that the results were "devastating."
"I am used to my work not having a nice societal outcome, but I was surprised by how big the damages were. The inequality dimension was really shocking," Wenz said.
Levermann said the paper presented society with a clear choice:
It is on us to decide: Structural change towards a renewable energy system is needed for our security and will save us money. Staying on the path we are currently on, will lead to catastrophic consequences. The temperature of the planet can only be stabilized if we stop burning oil, gas, and coal.
McKibben, meanwhile, argued that the findings should persuade major companies to embrace climate action for self-interested reasons. He noted that most corporate emissions come from how company money is invested by banks, particularly in the continued exploitation of fossil fuel resources.
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The peace coalition No Tech for Apartheid accused Google of a "flagrant act of retaliation" late Wednesday night as the Silicon Valley giant announced it had fired 28 workers over protests against its cloud services contract with the Israeli government.
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Google accused the workers of "bullying," "harassment," defacing property, and physically impeding other employees—allegations No Tech for Apartheid rejected as it noted organizers "have yet to hear from a single executive about" their concerns over Google's collaboration with Israel.
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