#JohnKerry is an #AmericanTreasure & Hero, but has never been successful in translating his ideas into outcomes. The #ClimateEnvoy role was a doomed one from the gitgo and we all know the everything that #JohnPodesta touches turns to shit so…. where do we go from here? Surmounting the #ClimateEmergency requires ruthlessness, not diplomacy. It is war.
Many folks (like me) have had mixed emotions about #JohnKerry and his role as US #ClimateEnvoy over the past few years. He has proudly served his Country for decades and has been an #honestbroker always. I wish him all the best in his next endeavors.
In Marshallese culture, there is a prominent attitude of "Enaaj Emman," which translates loosely to "It will be okay." It is strongly embedded in the culture and people's everyday thinking. If you are ever despondent, somebody is always there to remind you that "enaaj emman." It is a focus on hope and happiness that pervades daily life despite the struggles, setbacks, and disappointments that inevitably happen. People retain this optimism even after being irradiated by nuclear testing by the USGovt throughout the 1950s.
Having lived in the Marshall Islands for eight years, I am acutely aware of the threats and dangers posed by both nuclear waste and fossil fuels.
At this point, I expect to see this country of beautiful coral atolls and generous, gentle people be subsumed by rising sea levels. They are undergoing severe stress at 1.1C and will be completely uninhabitable at 1.5C. We will push past 1.5C by the end of this decade, and I don't think we have enough time, nor are we doing the right things, to reverse the momentum. These islands will be gone, and an entire country and culture will have been displaced or extinguished.
It fills me with profound sadness, especially when I think how it all could have been prevented but for the fraud perpetrated by fossil fuel energy companies and the greed of their executives. And let's not forget about the collusion of our politicians through bribery, nor forget about the perpetuation of the fraud through mass media owned by members of the same bourgeois class.
I understand the need to continue seeking solutions. I hope people create those solutions. Enaaj emman. I appreciate people like @pvonhellermannn who, despite feeling despondent, has provided to us long threads informing us about this crisis. Hope is still alive as Tina Stege, #ClimateEnvoy from the Marshall Islands, impresses upon us in these two posts:
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111482858888081587
https://mastodon.green/@pvonhellermannn/111381241869510068
Yet I am despondent. I am also very angry. My reaction is to want to dislodge and remove the parasitical elites of the 1%, punish them harshly, and completely dismantle their capitalist systems. I despair that billions will have to die before we make that happen. Certainly among the first great wave of casualties will the Marshall Islanders. And that fills me with rage.
It also brings back memories of living in the islands. It's as close to an anarchist way of life as I've ever seen in the world. And I'm now reminded of an elder woman who was asked by another Peace Corps Volunteer, "Who do you think is the best US president?" Her response: "I think President Kennedy was the smartest president. He sent all these young people here so they could learn 'mantin majel'" (Marshallese custom). There is so much wisdom in that statement, that it resonates even more strongly for me 35 years later. The world needs to learn Mantin Majel and enact its inherent values of peace, cooperation, solidarity, and optimism.
#NuclearWaste #FossilFuels #MarshallIslands #EnaajEmman #COP28 #Capitalism #Anarchism #MantinMajel #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis
34/n Yes, I know. #COP28 is greenwashing, theatre, corrupt - all of this. But it is the only global climate forum, the only forum where small island Nations have any sort of power and audience, as Tina Stege, the #climateenvoy for the #MarshallIslandsx recently reminded us (see 11/n ⬆️) and what happens there really matters! So we need to do whatever we can (v little i know) to steer things towards better outcomes, not disengage. Here another TS interview, v powerful too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN3qF-jg1ko
34/n Yes, I know. #COP28 is greenwashing, theatre, corrupt - all of this. But it is the only global climate forum, the only forum where small island Nations have any sort of power and audience, as Tina Stege, the #climateenvoy for the #MarshallIslandsx recently reminded us (see 11/n ⬆️) and what happens there really matters! So we need to do whatever we can (v little i know) to steer things towards better outcomes, not disengage. Here another TS interview, v powerful too
11/n I just watched the WRI webinar "Responding to the Climate Crisis in Times of Uncertainty: A Clarion for Climate Leadership", and I am so very glad I did. Informative and inspiring, it brought home to me again just how crucial #COP28 (and #COP29 and #COP30 - all three) really are.
Now is not the time to give up on #Multilateralism. As Tina Stege, the brilliant #ClimateEnvoy for the #MarhsallIslands said: "We don't have a choice".
Join the ACT2025 consortium for a high-level webinar, where policymakers and advocates will set clear expectations for a positive outcome at COP28 that meets the needs of climate-vulnerable countries.
#JohnKerry #ClimateEnvoy can't have it both ways: we either comprehensively and urgently phase-out fossil fuels or we don't. It applies as much to the #UnitedStates as it does to the #UAE, #SaudiArabia, #UK and everyone else. #COP28 #COP28UAE
And if we don't, we're likely going to use up the remaining global carbon budget sometime in the next 2 to 9 years. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/25/john-kerry-relying-technology-remove-carbon-dioxide-dangerous
Headline today: the name of a new German ambassador to Moscow goes thru the grapevine: Otto Graf Lambsdorff, a climate denier/ delayer with #FDP. FDP is a market radical party (and the yellow colour in the government coalition "Ampel".) Pro fracking.. and "Tech will solve it. Yay"
Green's Foreign Minister #Baerbock would be his boss. But she had announced to make her reign a climate reign in January and appointed #JenniferMorgan (former Greenpeace CEO or something) as #ClimateEnvoy.
Dafuq?
Richard R Lee
dr bwinbwin
Pauline von Hellermann
Andy Scollick
anlomedad