The UN Climate Change Conference COP25 (2 – 13 December 2019) will take place under the Presidency of the Government of Chile and will be held with logistical support from the Government of Spain. SBSTA 51/ SBI 51 will take place on December 2-13, 2019.
Countries are expected to finalize their climate commitments. The global goal is to stay below the 1.5°C threshold. Global emissions need to be cut by more than 7% every year between 2020 and 2030.
Here’s a link to the webcast: .
Twitter hashtags for the events are #COP25 and #TimeForAction.
What is the controversy over the Factory Butte landmark in Utah that has environmental groups filing lawsuits? –M. Jensen, Taos, NM
The
kerfuffle over Factory Butte, a 6,300-foot peak in Wayne County, Utah about 25
miles east of Capitol Reef National Park, stems from the on-again, off-again
nature of federal rules about whether Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) should be
allowed to roam the 5,400 acres of wild desert surrounding it.
Environmentalists would like to see the 5,400 acres of desert wildlands surrounding iconic Factory Butte in central Utah permanently protected from off-road vehicles and mechanized transport of any kind. Credit: David Kingham, FlickrCC
Named
by white settlers in the mid-19th century who thought its almost-architectural
stature resembled a Provo, Utah woolen mill, Factory Butte is the latest
flashpoint in a long timeline of disputes over what constitutes fair and proper
use of federally managed desert wildlands in Utah and across the Southwest.
Grand
Staircase-Escalante and Bear’s Ears have been in the news lately given efforts
by the Trump administration to ease restrictions on development, but Factory
Butte has remained out of the spotlight since a George W. Bush-era ruling to
close it to ORVs given potential risks to fragile desert soils and endangered
species. But in May 2019, after some 12 years of protection, Trump’s Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) opened up the desert around Factory Butte to ORVs once
again despite protests.
“The
agency’s decision ensures that one of Utah’s most recognizable landscapes will
be defaced and damaged for years to come,” reports the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance (SUWA), a Salt Lake City-based conservation group leading the fight to
keep ORVs out of fragile desert wildlands. “Contrary to popular myth, these
tracks don’t simply disappear after the next rain!”
“Faced
with public pressure and well-documented damage to the natural resource
values of the areas around Factory Butte, the BLM disallowed ORV use in
the area in 2006,” reports the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a
leading environmental non-profit working with SUWA in suing the BLM over the
move in hopes of getting it overturned. “BLM indicated in its environmental
impact analysis that the area around Factory Butte should remain permanently
closed to unrestricted cross-country travel.”
Furthermore,
environmental advocates are incensed as to how BLM re-opened the
Factory Butte desert to ORVs—that is, without any new environmental reviews of
feasibility, and in secrecy without soliciting or considering public comments.
“By failing to update earlier environmental analyses, the BLM violated the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it failed to, at the very least, conduct a
supplemental environmental analysis to account for the significant changes that
have occurred in the Factory Butte area over the past decade, including the
significant changes being wrought by the climate crisis,” says NRDC.
This
violation of NEPA is a central tenet of the lawsuit the two non-profits are
jointly filing against the Trump administration for opening up the area to ORVs
once again. “Unrestricted ORV use in this area is simply incompatible with its fragility.
Those who hope to appreciate its awe-inspiring beauty would instead confront a
vast web of tire ruts carved into the desert,” adds NRDC. “And the area faces a
potential loss of its highly vulnerable desert species. We hope our lawsuit
once again demonstrates these facts and brings renewed protection of this
iconic western landscape.”
The Amazon Rainforest is a vital ecosystem to the world.
The Destruction Of The Amazon, Explained
The Amazon rainforest has faced encroachment and deforestation for a long time. But it wasn’t until Brazil’s military dictatorship came to power in the 1970s that deforestation spiked, becoming a big business in the Amazon. When that expansion reached the state of Acre, it met resistance. Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from the region, took the fight to protect the Amazon from the depths of the rainforest to the global stage. In the process, he gave his life. But the fight he started lives on.
The War For The Amazon’s Most Valuable Trees
The Amazon is a three-part series about the world’s largest rainforest, why it’s in jeopardy, and the people trying to save it.
The Amazon rainforest has faced encroachment and deforestation for a long time. But it wasn’t until Brazil’s military dictatorship came to power in the 1970s that deforestation spiked, becoming a big business in the Amazon. When that expansion reached the state of Acre, it met resistance. Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from the region, took the fight to protect the Amazon from the depths of the rainforest to the global stage. In the process, he gave his life. But the fight he started lives on.
Brazil’s Indigenous Land Is Being Invaded
Brazil has over 900,000 indigenous people, most of whom live in the Amazon. After centuries of persecution, they were given extensive rights under a new Constitution in the 1980s, including the right to claim and win back their traditional lands. Since then, hundreds of indigenous lands have been demarcated and protected by the Brazilian government.
But in the last few years, those lands have come under attack by landowners, ranchers, loggers, and farmers who want access to the resources inside these indigenous lands. And since Jair Bolsonaro became president, the number of invasions into indigenous lands has skyrocketed.
