THE DON JONES INDEX…

 

 

 

GAINS POSTED in GREEN

LOSSES POSTED in RED

 

 

      6/4/21… 14,204.48

    5/28/21… 14,210.59

      6/27/13…  15,000.00

 

 

DOW JONES INDEX: 6/4/21…34,084.15; 5/28/21…34,464.64; 6/27/13…15,000.00)

 

 

LESSON for June 4, 2021 – “A LITTLE LITE READING!”

 

Americans by the milliards are driving over the highways and through the woods to grandmama’s house, to Disney World and, of course, flocking to the nearest beach (except the unlucky wet, freezing souls in the Northeast).  Meat and marshmallows on the grill, mellow-able drinks in the cooler and all that is lacking is a good beach book to read.

Have we got one for you, Mister Jones!

“It is worse, much worse, than you think,” states David Wallace-Wells in his late 2018/early 2019 tome “The Uninhabitable Planet”.

Bad enough.  And the book, like the climate, gets worse too.

“The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn’t happening at all, and comes to us bundled with several others in an anthology of comforting delusions: that global warming is an Arctic saga, unfolding remotely; that it is strictly a matter of sea level and coastlines, not an enveloping crisis sparing no place and leaving no life un-deformed; that it is a crisis of the “natural” world, not the human one; that those two are distinct, and that we live today somehow outside or beyond or at the very least defended against nature, not circumscribed and literally overwhelmed by it; that wealth can be a shield against the ravages of warming; that the burning of fossil fuels is the price of continued economic growth; that growth, and the technology it produces, will allow us to engineer our way out of environmental disaster; that there is any analogue to the scale or scope of this threat, in the long span of human history, that might give us confidence in staring it down.

“None of this is true.”

Mr. Wallace-Wells is, apparently, not a climatologist, but he has interviewed plenty of these in his aweful book about the awfulness of the human (and the planetary) future.  He is a Deputy… formerly for the Paris Review, presently for New York Magazine’s high sheriffs; he is also a fellow who is not only a Fellow but a National Fellow at the New America Foundation, billed as a “distinctive community of thinkers, writers, researchers, technologists, and community activists” (which, assuming said Fellow is only even partially correct, will be a short-lived enterprise… almost as short as Donald Trump’s blog). Well reviewed (See Attachment Three), lauded by a couple of Williams (Vollmann, author of No Immediate Danger, and Gibson, Neuromancer), compared to “The Sixth Extinction”, “Silent Spring” and ”a cross between Stephen King and Stephen Hawking”, “Uninhabitanle” evokes the sort of fearful respect that, owing to its relentless, unmitigated pessimism, is more easily praised than responded to.

The recently concluded Climate Summit initiated by President Joe was a necessary, if feeble, first step towards re-establishing an American presence on the global stage, rudely given the hook by Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the Paris Climate Accords which, as noted in Station Eleven, “Climate Conflict”, the meeting of which would not have been enough to save the world from “bloodshed”… the literal climactic damages as well as the toll from inevitable wars and criminal activities to come as the planet warms.  (After a series of computer crashes and possible hacks, we have finally managed to include both Biden’s introduction to the Summit and responses and notes on the contributors as Attachments One and Two.)

How bad is it?  (The situation, not the book – although with statements like “not a new normal, but the end of normal… never normal again,” it’s not exactly the fun beach read for summer.

 

Courtesy of the publisher, the first chapter of “Uninhabitable”… “Cascades” is available online and reprinted below as Attachment Three.

The author posits twelve discrete but interconnected “Elements of Chaos”, each of which shares the common denominator that the worsening of the carbon dioxide toxicity of the planet and a plethora of multiplying factors – all bad (except, perhaps, for the Russians… but only in the short term).   Like the twelve Stations of a Cross from which there is no relief and no resurrection, the uber-pessimistic Mr. W-W drags his burden of despair to our doorstep before disappearing into the night.

 

 

Humanity faces, it would seem, twelve Stations of dying… as individuals and as a species, and the race to the end is likely to conclude before the end of the twenty-first century (although individual and select geographical catastrophes will manifest long before the last hominid takes its last breath) and Earth becomes rather like Venus.  These special deaths dangle on a de-needled Anti-Christmas tree of fear and loathing like so many Satanic ornaments… each dedicated to a special, infernal and eternal concluding shriek.  Spin the wheel and place your bets.

 

These twelve forms of death (the author’s “Elements of Chaos” although there is a logical and intelligent progression, in each case, from the worrisome to the tragic), all prolonged and excruciating as any tortures devised by the Spanish Inquisition, are…

 

  1.    Heat Death

The most obvious of the Elements, and one which will soon (if not already) be upon us for another long, hot summer (temperatures in Fargo, North Dakota, reached one hundred degrees this week) – the author notes that an increase of seven degrees centigrade will kill directly, a four degree increase (widely circulated as the best worst-case scenario) will directly kill half the planet’s population by 2100.

  2.    Hunger

Every degree Centigrade cuts grain production by ten percent.  With the United Nations predicting population growth to soar to the point where fifty percent more food will be needed by 2050, the actual grain production… let along meat, which requires eight pounds of grain per pound, and other, more climate-sensitive plant foods… will be falling.  Moreover, the soil… especially in less affected, even less prone to heat in places like Canada and Russia… is of poor quality.  The result is what Mr. W-W refers to as “the Malthusian tragic”, potentiated by well-meaning liberals who oppose and even block potentially useful GMO technologies.

  3.    Drowning

If unchecked by 2100, sea levels raised by Arctic and Antarctic glacier melt will inundate the world’s large coastal cities from New York and Los Angeles to Miami (including both the White House and Mar-a-Lago).  A four degree hike will raise sea levels by 260 feet,  Such a possibility is comparable to the Biblical Great Flood which, archaeologists have determined, did actually occur about 5,500 BC in the region of the Black Sea,

 

  4.    Wildfires

Citing Joan Didion’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” (but, somewhat surprisingly, not Nathaniel West’s “Day of the Locust”, the author enumerates innumerable fires that have raged, particularly in the American West, over the past decade… not to mention the chaos in the Amazon, where Trumptastic dictator Jair Bolsonaro has been busily chopping down the Amazon rainforest, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle: fires kill trees, dead trees release their carbon into the atmosphere, heating it up and enabling more fires to repeat the process.

 

  5.    Disasters

“Uninhabitable” was published a few weeks before the emergence of the perversely pestiferous Covid plague but, a year earlier, the summer of 2017 produced three major hurricans (in sequence), not to mention smaller (but no less injurious to their victims) catastrophes like floods, fires, storms and landslides.  The author notes that researchers are considering adding a new Category Six class of super typhoons which, citing Australian folk-tales, are bundled together as “dreamtime weather”.  Atop this add the environmental damage of flooded chemical refineries and earthquake shaken nuclear plants.

 

  6.    Freshwater Drain

While the earth is 71% water, only one percent of it is drinkable.  Four billion human face chronic shortages – especially in Cape Town, Africa; Sao Paolo, Brazil and Barcelona, Spain.  (Not to mention Flint, MI!)

 

  7.    Dying Oceans

“Undersea” by Rachel Carson (written 20 years before Silent Spring) was no Disney homage; rather a tale of terror, death and horror as if a new version of the Little Mermaid was directed by Eli Roth of the “Saw” franchise.  Since its publication, coral reefs have been dying off and fish are migrating northwards – some schools as 250 miles.  See, also, a March New York Times expose entitled “CLIMATE CHANGE IS CAUSING THE GULF STREAM TO WEAKEN”.

 

  8.    Unbreathable Air

Are you feeling tired?  Do others think you’re stupid.  You are and they’re right because mental faculties are far more dependant than the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (or its lack).  The air quality index is measured on a scale – 50 is the old normal, it become dangerous over 300 (which point was reached in recent Western wildfires) and at the time of publication, had been measured at 993 in China, 991 in Delhi, India.

 

  9.    Plague

Mild winters and rainy springs bring a bountiful harvest of ticks, fleas and mosquitoes – all of which were the prime disease spreaders before Covid elbowed them aside.  Now they’re itching to get back in the race.  You’ll be itching too – or worse.  A note: Mister W-W entirely missed the present plague, the book was published just as lab researchers in Wuhan were starting to feel not so well.

 

10.    Economic Collapse

We saw a taste of it last year when the stocks slumped and unemployment soared.  We may be recovering but the next disaster… most likely climate related… will be even worse.  There is going to be a stark trade-off… reduce (or terminate) “fossil capitalism” and pay the economic price, or don’t.

 

11.    Climate Conflict

Those nations that do find their situations worsening may… well, will… attempt to survive at the expense of others, and this may… well, will… lead to war.  How much and how destructive are yet to be answered, but it is notable to note that Mr. W-W had no comment on the possibility of a nuclear war winter canceling out a climate induced global warming to felicitous circumstances.  Other are probably looking into this.

 

12.    “Systems” (i.e. refugees, migrants, mental health)

Finally, the catch-all for whatever didn’t fit in the first eleven.  This may include crime, race riots, political upheavals (for good or ill), a renunciation or embracing of strange religious beliefs – whatever.  A coda: the likelihood of UFOs landing and guiding us out of our cage through science and/or wise counsel is unlikely because it is assumed that any interplanetary culture probably experienced the same sort of energy-related mishaps as we are going through and then either learned to mind their own business and forego space travel or else they extincted themselves.

 

After the Chaos, comes, a somewhat inadequate unnamed, unnumbered swamp of…

13.     Remedies

 

President Biden’s April climate summit took place after the publication of “Uninhabitable” but, as Attachment Two details, most of the attendees at least admitted that there was a problem – duly acknowledged in post-climate media coverage.

As set out in the landmark Paris Agreement, (which, EDF Europe Executive Director chose to mention without mention of Donald Trump), “now is the time when we’re looking for countries to bridge the gap between their ambition to limit temperature increases to near 1.5 degrees Celsius and the commitments put forward in Paris, which amounted to temperature increases of around 3 degrees.”  Three degrees, stated Wallace-Wells is well down the road to extinction.

Perhaps a handful of immensely powerful men (or woman if Joe goes and Kamala replaces him) can do something about it.  Otherwise, all that Don Jones can do is become a hermit, wait for the end and hope there is a Heaven for the virtuous).  Failing that, drive down to the mall and shop, take home a beer and a burger and live life out to the end.  But feel guilty about it.

 

As for Don Jones, even a record rebound in employment couldn’t wipe away the stain of debt that threatens to sink America.

 

 

MAY 28 – JUNE 3

 

Friday, May 28, 2021

     

      Infected: 33,221,141

               Dead:  593,976

                Dow:  34,429.00

 

It’s National Hamburger Day (and climate be damned!)

   Memorial Day Weekend unshackling of traffic and airlines brings higher prices, which Don Jones gladly pays.  Costco food courts and AMC movie theaters coming back.  Many states, counties and cities, schools and businesses dropping or preparing to drop mask mandates – POT (Party of Trump) head Idaho Lt. Governor takes advantage of Governor’s absence to issue executive order banning local mask mandates.

   POThead Senators kill one-six commission by not showing up, then filibustering – turning 35-54 loss into a win because cowardly Democrats don’t make them stay up all night reading phone books and the latest installment of “50 Shades”.  Lonely RINOs hit the road… Lisa Murkowski claims taunting of murdered Capitol cop Brian Sicknick makes her “heartsick”; Paul Ryan mulls bolting party.

   Tales of heroism circulating during San Jose transit yard shootings.  One black man, Manuel Ellis, gunned down by Tacoma police who say he was looking into cars.  Witnesses disagree.  Another, one Eric Riddick, however, freed after nearly thirty years in jail for murder he didn’t commit, due to lobbying by ex-cellmate rapper Meek Mill.  Bill Cosby, though, denied parole again.

 

 

Saturday,  May 29, 2021

      Infected:  33,246,635                Dead:  594,087

                

 

 

New plague cases lowest in a year – over 40% of Americans now double-vaxxed.  Those vaxxed (and many pretending to be) indulge in “revenge travel” just to get out of their basements.  Things are worse in Nepal… climbers at Mt. Everest base camp get it… and Japan… a Tokyo doctor predicts disaster but the Olympics will go forward “because they just want the money.”

   MicroSoft says Russians prepped for summit in three weeks by hacking 300,000 American e-mail accounts looking for foreign policy data.  So everybody not on the list has to be ashamed that Putin didn’t consider them important.  Shouldn’t the lucky/important 300K get a medal or certificate or at least a donut for their recognition, sort of like making Nixon’s Enemies’ List?

   Police searching San Jose shooter Sam Cassidys house encounter all the guns and ammo he forgot to take with him on his rendezvous with death.  A pundit informs Don Jones that Sam’s guns were “lethal”.

  

 

  Sunday,   May 30, 2021

       Infected:  33,258,623                 Dead:  594,430

 

                

 

Just as things were starting to look better (Moderna vaxx approved for kids), along comes a Vietnamese Variant… said to be more lethal and more contagious (vaccine efficiency unknown).  Paris experiments with indoor rock concert… up north a ways, anti-maskers riot in Brussels.

   Memorial Weekend massacre in Florida… over 20 shot, 2 killed at rap concert.  Transgender lynching in… yup… Florida.  And another man there busted for stealing 200 ventilators from dying patients.  Texas counters with legislative massacre of voting rights and a carnival ride breaks down, stranding passengers.

   Competitive technology: Chinese shuttle links up with space station while American anti-missile missile test fails over the Pacific.

 

 

 Monday,   May 31, 2021

       Infected:  33,264,380                 Dead:  594,568                         Dow:  34,393.38  

               

 

It’s Memorial Day.  Helio Castroneves wins Indy 500.  Hollywood making a comeback with “A Quiet Place 2” and Cruella.  Jersey shore temperatures rise 20° so Americans can enjoy freedom from Atlantic City to the Santa Monica Pier.

   Texas and Florida… Florida and Texas.  Gov. Abbott’s racist voter-suppression law stumbles when minority Democratic legislators walk out and deny the Guv his quorum, leading him to threaten to withhold their salaries (as if that was why they ran for the job in the first place).  A constituent is arrested for assembling his arsenal to attack the local Wal-Mart.  In the Sunshine State, daily mass shootings continue as authorities now decide to call the Miami rap concert massacre “domestic terrorism” after the stolen car used in the gunplay is found sunken in a canal.

   Overseas, left and rightist parties team up to gang up on Israel’s Netanyahu.  The Sorting Yarmulke will sort out winners and losers once the deed is done.  And, as population and food prices swell, an aging China passes new legislation to allow families to have three children despite fear of being overtaken by India diminishes due to plague deaths.

 

 

  Tuesday,   June 1, 2021

 

         Infected: 33,374,078                  Dead:  595,184                    Dow:  34,575.31

 

It’s National Dairy Month.  Also, the first day of the 2021 hurricane season.

   And also, the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre.  President Joe meets and greets the 101, 103 and 107 year old survivors as the mass exhumation of unmarked mystery graves continues.  And Tulsa becomes one of those cities now paying people… the right kind of people, that is… to move in.  Like Topeka, Kansas and Morgantown, WV.

   Plague is retreating in America, advancing overseas.  US deaths down 7% for the week.  New York City marks its first day without a Covid death in over a year.  Americans with at least one shot top a 60% threshold – on the way to Joe’s 70% in a month as the Feds and many states pull out all the stops… door to door visits, speeches, prizes (West Virginia has a gun lottery).  And an expected economic boom may be the biggest since the end of World War II; so many California tourists driving to Vegas that the freeway is clogged and demand is causing OPEC to raise oil production quotas (bad news for climate).  Dr. Jah predicts a beautiful summer for the vaxxed, but not for the refuseniks.

   Also unhappy… Vietnamese, whose variant puts 9M denizens of Ho Chi Minh City on lockdown, and fearful Tokyo Olympics volunteers are quitting en masse.  There are so many new variants that scientists are going to start giving them Greek letters (like surplus hurricanes).

 

 

 Wednesday,  June 2, 2021

                          Infected:  33,397,088                  Dead:  595,825                     Dow:  33,600.38  

It’s a good week for Gotham.  The positivity rate drops below one percent and Broadway will be re-opening after 16 months dark (AMC theater stock up 800%, earning the coveted “meme stock” status once afforded Game Stop).  Fans pack Yankee Stadium for Lou Gehrig day.  The NFL drops disrespectful and disgraceful “race-norming” policy (meaning that, since blacks are deemed stupider than whites, their concussion settlements can be less).  And Amazon throws in the paper cups and ends marijuana testing for employees.

    Russian cybercriminals hack meat processors to spoil Memorial Day cookouts.  The Chinese, meanwhile, scramble the New York City subway system beyond its usual scrambling point.  Payback for the Asian bashings East and West, the Motherland is infected with new variations of bird flu – soon to be coming to America.

 

  

     Thursday,  June 3, 2021

             Infected:  33,428,083                       Dead:  596,403                         Dow:  34,577.04

 

   Fully vaxxed:  136,644,618        Doses shot:  297,720,926 Completely vaxxed: 41.63%

 

As partial vaxx rate hits 63%, President Joe proposes a “Month of Action” to get it up to his promised 70% by July 4th.  One Jonathan Carlyle of Toledo becomes second Ohio State Vax-a-Million winner.  Twelve blue (Democratic) states have now hit that 70% mark, but six Party of Trump strongholds still below 50%.

   Such troubles as exist are blamed on the new prosperity.  Lazy workers still blamed for the shortage of employees to fill unsafe, minimum wage jobs.  Lumber prices are skyrocketing, appliance warehouses are empty and Dr. Jah says America has a glut of vaccines (which we can sell… or give… overseas).  Dr. Fauci’s emails are hacked and tracked; conspiracy theorists now say he knew that the plague was a deliberate Chinese plot all along.  And the Pentagon denies the existence of UFOs, but does so ambiguously.

   Also on the upswing – violent crime.  12 and 14 year olds in shootout with police who are caught on bodycams hoping they don’t have to shoot them… but they do.  Disgruntled (natch!) fireman kills co-worker, burns down house and then commits suicide.  16 frat rats in Washington (state) arrested for hazing pledge who drank himself to death.  And a fungible artist sells an invisible sculpture for $18,000.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it has for the past few weeks, the Don bounced around a little, settled slightly higher this week… almost the same as two weeks ago.  Many of the indices were variable and subjective… housing prices keep rising, gladdening owners, discouraging renters and people who need to move for good reasons or bad.  Sales, however, are declining so realtors have that… what’s that buzzword above… “re-entry anxiety”?

 

THE DON JONES INDEX

 

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

 

                                (REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

 

                                                          See a further explanation of categories here

 

 

 

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%)

 

 

DON JONES’ PERSONAL ECONOMIC INDEX (45% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)

 

CATEGORY

VALUE

BASE

 

RESULTS

 

SCORE

SCORE

OUR SOURCE(S) and COMMENTS

 

 

  INCOME

(24%)

6/27/13

LAST

CHANGE

NEXT

  5/21/21

5/28/21

                             SOURCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wages (hourly, per capita)

9%

1350 pts.

 5/28/21

 +0.95%

 6/11/21

1,443.93

1,443.93

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages  25.45

 

 

Median Income (yearly)

4%

600

 5/28/21

 +0.025%

 6/11/21

670.35

670.52

http://www.usdebtclock.org/   35,494

 

 

*Unempl. (BLS – in millions

4%

600

 5/28/21

   +5.17%

 6/11/21

328.75

345.75

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 5.8%

 

 

*Official (DC – in millions)

2%

300

 5/28/21

   +1.32%

 6/11/21

404.04

398.72

http://www.usdebtclock.org/      9,796

 

 

*Unofficl. (DC – in millions)

2%

300

 5/28/21

   +1.17%

 6/11/21

333.63

329.74

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    17,596

 

 

Workforce Participation-Number  Workforce Participation-Percent

2%

300

 5/28/21

 

+0.225%

+0.25%

 6/11/21

 

313.91

 

314.69

In 151,469 Out 100,078 Total: 251,547

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 60.21

 

 

WP Percentage (ycharts)*

1%

150

 5/14/21

+0.325%

 6/11/21

152.48

152.48

https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate    61.70

 

OUTGO

(15%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Inflation

7%

1050

 5/21/21

+0.8%

 6/11/21

1,000.09

1,000.09

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.8

 

 

Food

2%

300

 5/21/21

+0.4%

 6/11/21

281.46

281.46

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.4

 

 

Gasoline

2%

300

 5/21/21

   -1.4%

 6/11/21

273.77

273.77

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm      -1.4

 

 

Medical Costs

2%

300

 5/21/21

   nc

 6/11/21

286.77

286.77

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.0

 

 

Shelter

2%

300

 5/21/21

+0.4%

 6/11/21

292.27

292.27

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm     +0.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEALTH

 

(6%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dow Jones Index

2%

300

 5/28/21

 -1.43%

 6/11/21

378.84

373.44

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/DJIA 34,084.15

 

 

Sales (homes)

Valuation (homes)

1%

1%

150

150

 5/21/21

- 2.66%

+3.80%

 6/11/21

170.00

171.95              

170.00

171.95              

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics

     Sales (M):  5.85 Valuations (K):  341.6

 

 

Debt (Personal)

2%

300

 5/28/21

+0.04%

 6/11/21

273.67

273.55

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    64,312 430

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             AMERICAN ECONOMIC INDEX (15% of TOTAL INDEX POINTS)

 

 

 

NATIONAL

(10%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenues (in trillions)

2%

300

 5/28/21

 -1.91%

 6/11/21

299.10          

293.29          

debtclock.org/       3,429.5

 

 

Expenditures (in tr.)

2%

300

 5/28/21

+4.07%

 6/11/21

219.30

210.38

debtclock.org/       7,055

 

 

National Debt (tr.)

3%

450

 5/28/21

+0.08%

 6/11/21

324.24

323.98

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    28,363

 

 

Aggregate Debt (tr.)

3%

450

 5/28/21

+0.11%

 6/11/21

364.77

364.37

http://www.usdebtclock.org/    86,760

 

 

 

GLOBAL

 

(5%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign Debt (tr.)

2%

300

 5/28/21

 +0.37%

 6/11/21

293.20             

294.28             

http://www.usdebtclock.org/   7,042

 

 

Exports (in billions – bl.)

1%

150

 5/28/21

 +6.78%

 6/11/21

 177.64

 177.64

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html  200.0

 

 

Imports (bl.)

1%

150

 5/28/21

 - 5.90%

 6/11/21

 120.35

 120.35

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html  274.5

 

 

Trade Deficit (bl.)

1%

150

 5/28/21

 - 4.44%

 6/11/21

   92.97            

   92.97            

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/index.html   74.4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOCIAL INDICES (40%)  

 

 

ACTS of MAN

(12%)

 

 

 

 

  World Peace

3%

450

5/28/21

   +0.3%

 6/11/21

393.03

393.42

Anti-poverty riots in Cali, Colombia provoke police massacre, anti-mask riots in Brussels provoke disgust.  Boris Johnson marries Carrie Symonds in London.  Eight opposition parties unite to boot Israeli PM Bibi (no longer the “Magician”) Netanyahu from power.  Peace in the Mideast?  Bad day for Iran – its largest warship catches fire and sinks, an oil refinery explodes.  Terrorism?  Nah!

 

Terrorism

2%

300

5/28/21

   -0.3%

 6/11/21

239.30

238.82

22 shot, 2 (later 3) die at Miami rap concert – only one of a spate of Florida mass murders. Corpses being exhumed from mass graves at Connecticut school for “special” children (215 suspected) and Tulsa (unknown). 

 

Politics

3%

450

5/28/21

   -0.1%

 6/11/21

436.44      

435.13      

VP Kamala gives 1st grad speech of ’21 to the Naval Academy.  After Senate defeat of bipartisan one-six investigation, Speaker Pelosi vows Democrat-only alternative.  President Joe further waters down infrastructure/tax bill, Mitchy wipes his ass with it after dissing dead cop Sicknick’s mother to kill Capitol Police reform.  Racist voting law in Texas fails after Democrats walk out.  (See Attachment)

 

Economics

3%

450

5/28/21

    +0.5%

 6/11/21

401.38     

401.38     

Economic boom = labor shortage.  Even feckless Fosdicks can find a job.  Restaurants raising prices to pay workers higher wages (or line the pockets of the corporate execs).  California to convert bankrupt malls into housing.

 

Crime

1%

150

5/28/21

   +0.5%

 6/11/21

250.76

250.01

Masking brawls on planes provoke alcohol sales ban.  Florida man busted for stealing 200 ventilators bound for El Salvador hospitals.  Chicago killer cop awaiting justice arrested in separate road rage incident.  Daughter-in-law of Brit politician arrested for killing police chief lover in Belize.  Atlanta Braves’ Marcel Ozuna arrested for assaulting cops and wife in home rage incident.  Missing 6 year old found murdered in Texas motel; searchers now pivoting to 11 year old boy in Iowa.

 

 

ACTS of GOD

(6%)

 

(with, in some cases, a little… or lots of… help from men, and a few women)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Environment/Weather

3%

450

 5/28/21

     -0.3%

 6/11/21

413.49

412.25

”Exceptional” Western drought and heat cause fire danger; cold, rainy Memorial Day in the East.   Cargo ship loaded with chemicals sinks off Sri Lanka.

 

Natural/Unnatural Disaster

3%

450

 5/28/21

    +0.2%

 6/11/21

407.73

408.55

Plague of Mighty Mice devours and devastates Australia.  Elephant herd invades and sacks Chinese cities.  Cuban refugees drown, others rescued when boat capsizes off Florida Keys.  Two Austin cops pull man from burning truck.  Riders rescued from defective Texas roller coaster.

 

 

LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX   (15%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Science, Tech, Education

4%

600

 5/28/21

   +0.1%

 6/11/21

665.35

666.01

“Avengers” get a “campus” for themselves at Disneyland.  Villainous Loki gets his own TV show.

 

Equality (econ./social)

4%

600

 5/28/21

  +0.2%

 6/11/21

566.68

567.81

Tulsa massacre survivors (3) and descendants (more) offered 2M reparations on 100th anniversary, demand 50M.  Transgender teen lynched in Florida school gets free Heat tickets.

 

Health

 

         

 

 

                    

                              Plague

4%

600

 5/28/21

 +0.1%

 

 

 

 

 

nc

 6/11/21

503.76

 

 

 

 

- 101.49

 

504.26

 

 

 

 

- 101.49

 

FDA approves drug to twerk lung cancer genetics and cure smokers, then declares war on killer infant sleep beds.  Texans maimed and torched by Tik Tok Fire Challenge.  500K Ram vehicles recalled after wheels start falling off, Tesla recall blames loose bolts.  FDA approves anti-cancer medicine tests.  Big Ag admits that 60% of American food is junk.  Benzen in sunscreen means cancer scene!

 

Deadlier, more contagious Vietnamese Variant manifests; vaxxing vulnerability still unknown.  Doctor ponders whether different shots are more efficient.  Paris tests vaxx efficiency with indoor rock concert.  Moderna claims that its vaxxes are OK for kids.

 

 

Freedom and Justice

3%

450

 5/28/21

+0.5%

 6/11/21

454.10

456.37

Four more Oath Keepers affected for the one-six.  Postmaster Louis DeJoy being investigated for de corruption.  Judge who sentenced 16 year old to 241 years (17 consecutive sentence for crimes including armed robbery) “evolves”; supports parole after only 23 years.  DA will not seek new death penalty for Scott Petersen.  Illegal alien who kickstarted Trump anti-immigrant fears convicted of Mollie Tibbetts murder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS and TRANSIENT INDEX        (7%)

 

 5/28/21

 

 

 

 

 5/28/21

 

Cultural incidents

3%

450

 5/28/21

+0.4%

 6/11/21

510.26

512.30

Helio Catronueves wins 4th Indy 500.  Tiger Woods to Golf Digest: rehab hurts, future unknown.  Naomi Osaka quits French Open after hounding by tabloiders draws threats of expulsion (hers) from WTA idiots.  Proud boy Peter (not John) McEnroe snorts: “You can’t have players doing anything they want.”  Movie chains reopening, making money on Quiet Place 2 and Cruella and raising prices.  E. L. James writes 50 Shades finale… “Freed”.  RIP celebrity lawyer F. Lee Bailey, TV Tarzan Mark Lara, Gavin (“Love Boat”, MTM) McLeod, NBA baller Mark Eaton, Cy Young pitcher Mike Marshall.  R(etire)IP Coach Mike K at Duke.  Happy 70th to Jill Biden.  Something or other to Reagan assassin John Hinckley who has become a folksinger.

 

Miscellaneous incidents

4%

450

 5/28/21

 +0.2%

 6/11/21

476.85

477.80

Small plane lands on Hollywood Freeway.  Hat store in Nashville sells yellow star anti-vax/mask gear… not popular.  Authorities cracking down on bad behavior on planes and sports events.  Latest banking slogan: “Dreams Never Sleep”. 

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Don Jones Index for the week of May 28th through June 4th, 2021 was DOWN 6.11 points.

 

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator/Editor.  The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com

 

 

 

 

 

ATTACHMENT ONE  from the American White House, March 26, 2021

 

President Biden Invites 40 World Leaders to Leaders Summit on Climate

 

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

 

PRESIDENT BIDEN INVITES 40 WORLD LEADERS TO LEADERS SUMMIT ON CLIMATE

Statements and Releases

 

Today, President Biden invited 40 world leaders to the Leaders Summit on Climate he will host on April 22 and 23.  The virtual Leaders Summit will be live streamed for public viewing.

President Biden took action his first day in office to return the United States to the Paris Agreement.  Days later, on January 27, he announced that he would soon convene a leaders summit to galvanize efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis.

The Leaders Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action.  It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.

In recent years, scientists have underscored the need to limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.  A key goal of both the Leaders Summit and COP26 will be to catalyze efforts that keep that 1.5-degree goal within reach.  The Summit will also highlight examples of how enhanced climate ambition will create good paying jobs, advance innovative technologies, and help vulnerable countries adapt to climate impacts.

By the time of the Summit, the United States will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement.  In his invitation, the President urged leaders to use the Summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.

The Summit will reconvene the U.S.-led Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which brings together 17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP.  The President also invited the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership, are especially vulnerable to climate impacts, or are charting innovative pathways to a net-zero economy.  A small number of business and civil society leaders will also participate in the Summit.

Key themes of the Summit will include:

·         Galvanizing efforts by the world’s major economies to reduce emissions during this critical decade to keep a limit to warming of 1.5 degree Celsius within reach.

·         Mobilizing public and private sector finance to drive the net-zero transition and to help vulnerable countries cope with climate impacts. 

·         The economic benefits of climate action, with a strong emphasis on job creation, and the importance of ensuring all communities and workers benefit from the transition to a new clean energy economy.

·         Spurring transformational technologies that can help reduce emissions and adapt to climate change, while also creating enormous new economic opportunities and building the industries of the future.

·         Showcasing subnational and non-state actors that are committed to green recovery and an equitable vision for limiting warming to 1.5 degree Celsius, and are working closely with national governments to advance ambition and resilience.

·         Discussing opportunities to strengthen capacity to protect lives and livelihoods from the impacts of climate change, address the global security challenges posed by climate change and the impact on readiness, and address the role of nature-based solutions in achieving net zero by 2050 goals. 

Further details on the Summit agenda, additional participants, media access, and public viewing will be provided in the coming weeks.

 

The President invited the following leaders to participate in the Summit:  (Attachment Two, below)

 

ATTACHMENT TWO – from VARIOUS

 

These are statements from invitees to the Earth Day (virtual) climate conference, April 22-3, as well as biographical and documentary material from local, hometown and global sources…

 

Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Antigua and Barbuda

 

STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER THE HON. GASTON BROWNE AT LEADERS SUMMIT ON CLIMATE

 

April 22nd to 23rd 2021

 

I thank President Biden for convening this very important gathering, to address the most significant threat facing, our one planet and our one humanity.

We are grateful that the United States and China have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and we look forward to swift action in their transitioning into carbon neutral economies.

We urge other major emitting nations to  follow this vital example set by the United States and China.

We remind that, the 44 members of the Alliance of Small Island States, through no fault of their own, confront the greatest threats of Climate Change.

The 44 AOSIS members, are the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but the most affected by climate change.

Collectively, they emit just 1.5 percent of the emissions of industrialized nations, and many of them have already begun to roll out ambitious programmes to reduce their small carbon footprint, particularly in renewable energy.

They made ambitious national commitments at COP 21 in Paris and they remain passionately committed to implementing them within their means.

However, the harmful effects of Climate Change are growing, and the cost of mitigation and recovery is being counted in human lives and livelihoods.

The economic situation of our countries was already grave before the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is now dire, particularly for tourism dependent nations.

We are literally teetering on the edge of despair.

Over the years, the debt of small states has risen to unsustainable levels, because of repeated borrowings to rebuild and recover from continuous debilitation by natural disasters, arising from climate change.

Mechanisms, introduced by International Financial Institutions (IFIs), for addressing the looming debt crisis are insufficient.

For some small states, even these inadequate instruments are denied, because of the false criterion, of middle and high per capita income, which ignores the huge vulnerabilities that small states face.

It is urgent that policy makers of the IFIs, instruct that more determining criteria of small size, resource constraints and vulnerabilities, be taken fully into account for concessional financing.

Colleagues, repayment of official debt by small states, including to the Paris Club, is near impossible in the prevailing parlous circumstances.

A permanent solution to the looming debt crisis is compelling and necessary.

This requires action to design new and innovative financial instruments and to provide debt relief, including debt cancellation, debt suspension, debt rescheduling, debt restructuring and debt-for-climate swaps.

Worsening Climate conditions are uprooting workers from previously productive sectors and causing a crisis of emigration and refugees.

This, too, must be reversed in the global interest.

We should acknowledge the interconnectedness of human civilisation and we need to respect and protect our common humanity.

Small states are also economic markets, providing revenues and employment for larger and richer nations.

Every major country benefits perennially from trade surpluses with small states.

To continue to be viable markets, to remain viable democracies that uphold human rights and the rule of law; to achieve climate justice, and to provide economic conditions that discourage refugees, we need the following:

·         Urgent access to COVID-19 vaccines, which should be prioritised based on vulnerability.

·         Immediate action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

·         A programme of debt forgiveness and debt rescheduling

·         Concessional financing that takes account of vulnerabilities and,

·         Funding to compensate for damage to help reconstruct our economies and funding to acquire decarbonised technologies to assist in building resilience.

It is our hope that a spirit of cooperation will emerge from this gathering of 40 that can be taken to Glasgow, to inspire an ambitious programme of action to achieve net zero by 2050.

Thank you.

Alejandra Padin-Dujon

 

FROM CARICOM

Two Caribbean heads of state were invited to U.S. President Joe Biden’s “Summit of 40 Leaders” on April 22-23, 2021. One of these was none other than Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda. Those interested in reading PM Browne’s full remarks, which are brief, may find them here.

The remarks:

“The 44 [Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)] members, are the least contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but the most affected by climate change.”

This is not a terribly new or remarkable take on the plight of small island developing states (SIDS). Nonetheless, it was a critical point to raise in light of wealthier countries’ tendency to assign uniform culpability and obligations to all members of the international community. Just as COVID-19 is not, in fact, a “great equalizer” where “we are all in the same boat,” not all countries suffer equally from climate change. Neither do all countries have the same resources, or bear the same blame, in this matter. PM Browne and other Caribbean leaders push deliberately against homogenizing narratives in recognition of the fact that the future of global climate policy depends on identifying resources and obligations where they actually exist.

“Collectively, [AOSIS emits] just 1.5 percent of the emissions of industrialized nations, and many of them have already begun to roll out ambitious programmes to reduce their small carbon footprint, particularly in renewable energy.”

Aha! Here we go. Without contradicting his earlier point about the minimal culpability of SIDS in creating the problem of climate change (“small carbon footprint”), PM Browne draws attention to climate mitigation efforts: namely, investment into renewable energy.

Global climate discourse is still dominated by developed, high-emitting countries, and as a result, climate mitigation (i.e., reducing greenhouse gas emissions) is a hot topic, whether or not the country in question actually pollutes significantly. It has been a long and arduous fight for climate-vulnerable developing countries to draw attention to the need for adaptation measures, and even now, many nations with the luxury of treating climate change as an impending problem and not a current one, call this attitude defeatism. To remain well-regarded players in the climate game, even SIDS need to participate in climate mitigation schemes. Declarations of commitment to renewable energy feed into a global hunger for technology-driven climate change solutions.

“For some small states, even these inadequate instruments [from international financial institutions] are denied, because of the false criterion, of middle and high per capita income, which ignores the huge vulnerabilities that small states face.”

PM Browne’s main point here echoes previous remarks by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, and possibly others, regarding the need to revise the rules of official development assistance (ODA). Oftentimes, choice remarks are directed toward Paris Club members for their dealings in the Caribbean as well. Climate vulnerability is a costly and destabilizing threat to SIDS finances, and this need is often neglected – especially in the Caribbean – due to World Bank classifications by per capita income. PM Browne’s case here is particularly salient for Antigua and Barbuda: the country was recently “upgraded” from upper middle income to high income in 2020, and is faced with drastic reductions in its access to ODA in the process. Most Caribbean islands are classified as middle or high income.

“Over the years, the debt of small states has risen to unsustainable levels, because of repeated borrowings to rebuild and recover from continuous debilitation by natural disasters, arising from climate change […] This requires action to design new and innovative financial instruments and to provide debt relief, including debt cancellation, debt suspension, debt rescheduling, debt restructuring and debt-for-climate swaps.”

This is where the Prime Minister enters into territory that might seem contentious for an American, a Brit, or another Western observer, but that is actually par for the course in Caribbean political dialogue. It isn’t radical so much as perceptive – and justified.

The fact is, Caribbean governments feel the crushing weight of a national debt – sometimes above 100% of GDP – that simply cannot be repaid. To add insult to injury, debt is oftentimes the result of wealthier countries’ heinous misdeeds, like the creation of anthropogenic climate change and centuries of colonialism. Caribbean countries’ borrowed funds are often poured into disaster relief efforts and postcolonial economic development. Caribbean debt, in other words, is not really a Caribbean problem. It is a European, American, Canadian, Australian, (etc.) one that is simply borne by Caribbean governments.

Thoughts:

PM Browne’s remarks expose the degree to which painting emissions as a universal problem falsely implicates small developing countries and distracts from discussions on adaptation. A subtler, but no less important point is the utter unsuitability of per capita income as an index of need for climate-vulnerable countries. Climate change is a global problem. Yet a lack of global attention to the nuances of prosperity and vulnerability in the developing world persists.

 

President Alberto Fernandez, Argentina 

From aa.com turkey

 

ARGENTINE PRESIDENT COMMITS TO FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE

LONDON  4/22/21

 

The president of Argentina participated in a virtual summit alongside 40 global leaders who pledged to tackle climate change.

Alberto Fernandez thanked US President Joe Biden for the invitation and reaffirmed Argentina's efforts to put "climate and environmental action" at the center of his government's agenda.

"It is now or never," insisted Fernandez. "I have instructed our National Climate Change Cabinet to prepare the National Adaptation and Mitigation Plan - to be presented at COP 26 in Glasgow,” he said, referencing the UN Climate Change Conference in the first half of November.

He also stressed that the nation will honor the Paris Agreement.

"I call on us to coordinate regional and solidarity measures. The new generations look to us. The time of doubt is over - no one is saved alone," said Fernandez as he encouraged joint action from Latin American and Caribbean governments.

"We assume the commitment to develop 30% of the national energy matrix with renewable energy," as part of Argentina's agenda to reduce its environmental footprint, he said.

He also announced that he would send an environmental bill to protect native forests. "We will adopt profound measures to eradicate illegal deforestation, classifying it as an environmental crime."

Fernandez said international credit organizations should contribute more, particularly with contributions "for ecosystem services" and "debt swaps for climate action."

He also raised the issue of negotiations with the IMF, pointing out that he believes environmental justice goes hand in hand with social and financial justice. "Let's go through a different time together with social, financial and environmental justice," said Fernandez.

He insisted that the coronavirus pandemic has worsened Argentina’s economy and debt restructure now requires "greater flexibility of terms, rates and conditions."

Fernandez also said that Argentina will promote the Federal Environmental Education Law to create more cultural awareness in the South American nation.

 

From Buenos Aires Times

 

PRESIDENT REITERATES ‘DEBT SWAPS FOR CLIMATE ACTION’ CALL BEFORE GLOBAL LEADERS

Alberto Fernández pledges Argentina’s commitment to tackling climate change, saying he has “put climate and environmental action at the centre of his government’s convictions.”

President Alberto Fernández on Thursday participated in a virtual Earth Day summit against climate change convened by his US counterpart Joe Biden, during which he said Argentina is fully committed to the environmental crisis.

Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva were among the officials who at the summit backed calls for higher carbon taxes and massive investments in green energy to curb rising temperatures and put the world on the path to prosperity.

Fernández, who was invited to attend the summit virtually in a letter from the US president back in March, told world leaders that he was fully onboard with attempts to limit the increase in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

The Peronist president said that under his leadership, Argentina "has put climate and environmental action at the centre of its convictions" and stressed that his country would “honour” the aims laid out in the Paris Agreement.

"It is now or never; I have instructed my Cabinet to develop a national adaptation and mitigation plan," said the president, as he addressed the summit, adding that he would soon send Congress "a bill for the environmental protection of native forests."

However, Fernández then used much of his speaking time to push the idea that international credit organisations should provide financial support for environmental commitments, such as "debt swaps for climate action." He also called for “a new allocation of [International Monetary Fund] Special Drawing Rights, without discrimination, to middle-income countries to improve our environment. "

He argued that “irresponsible over-indebtedness caused before the pandemic and aggravated by the presence of this virus, with greater flexibility of terms,” had left countries in crisis feeling the pinch.

"We need to renew the international financial architecture,” he added. “The agenda is clear: mobilisation of concessional and non-reimbursable resources channelled through multilateral and bilateral banks and with agile and transparent processes.”

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Australia  

STATEMENT 

Well thank you, Mr President, and very much to you for leading this Summit and can I also acknowledge you Mr Secretary as well as Special Envoy Kerry.

It’s right to speak to our ambitions at this Summit, it’s also right to focus on performance.

Australia has a strong track record of setting, achieving and exceeding our commitments to responsibly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and playing our part to keep the 1.5 degrees within reach.

We have met and exceeded our 2020 Kyoto commitments and we are transparent about our progress through our annual projection updates and quarterly carbon reporting.

We are well on the way to meet and beat our Paris commitments and will update our Long Term Emissions Reduction Strategy for Glasgow.

Achieving our 2030 target will see emissions per capita fall by almost half, of our emissions per unit of GDP by 70 per cent.

Already we have reduced our emissions by 19 per cent on 2019- on 2005 levels I should say, more than most other similar economies - and by 36% when you exclude exports.

We are deploying renewable energy ten times faster than the global average per person. We have the highest uptake of rooftop solar in the world.

Australia is on the pathway to net zero. Our goal is to get there as soon as we possibly can, through technology that enables and transforms our industries, not taxes that eliminate them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create, especially in our regions.

For Australia, it is not a question of if or even by when for net zero, but importantly how.

That is why we are investing in priority new technology solutions, through our Technology Investment Roadmap initiative.

We are investing around $20 billion to achieve ambitious goals that will bring the cost of clean hydrogen, green steel, energy storage and carbon capture to commercial parity. We expect this to leverage more than $80 billion in investment in the decade ahead.

In Australia our ambition is to produce the cheapest clean hydrogen in the world, at $2 per kilogram Australian.

Mr President, in the United States you have the Silicon Valley. Here in Australia we are creating our own ‘Hydrogen Valleys’. Where we will transform our transport industries, our mining and resource sectors, our manufacturing, our fuel and energy production.

In Australia our journey to net zero is being led by world class pioneering Australian companies like Fortescue, led by Dr Andrew Forrest, Visy, BHP, Rio Tinto, AGL and so many more of all sizes.

It is also being pioneered by our agricultural and marine sectors through soil science and sustainable fisheries.

Marine protected areas in Australia are approaching 40 per cent of our waters.

We have already funded over 100 cutting-edge projects to safeguard our global treasure, the Great Barrier Reef, and are committing a further $100 million to protect our oceans, coastal ecosystems and pioneer blue carbon initiatives to mitigate climate change.

We are also providing $1.5 billion in practical climate finance focusing on our blue Pacific family partners in our region.

Mr President, we want to work with others on the ‘how’, through our new international technology partnerships programme, led by Australia’s former Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel.

My Government is committed to playing its part in making COP26 a success in Glasgow, and you can always be sure that the commitments Australia makes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are bankable.

We have proven performance, transparent emissions accounting and transformative technology targets to unlock pathways to net zero.

Future generations, my colleagues and Excellencies, will thank us not for what we have promised, but what we deliver. And on that score Australia can always be relied upon. Thank you for your kind attention.

[Ends]

 

AUSTRALIA RESISTS CALLS FOR TOUGHER CLIMATE TARGETS

 

From bbc   4/23/21

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has resisted pressure to set more ambitious carbon emission targets while other major nations vowed deeper reductions to tackle climate change.

 

Addressing a global climate summit, Mr Morrison said Australia was on a path to net zero emissions.

But he stopped short of setting a timeline, saying the country would get there "as soon as possible".

It came as the US, Canada and Japan set new commitments for steeper cuts.

US President Joe Biden, who chaired the virtual summit, pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50-52% below 2005 levels by the year 2030. This new target essentially doubles the previous US promise.

By contrast, Australia will stick with its existing pledge of cutting carbon emissions by 26%-28% below 2005 levels, by 2030. That's in line with the Paris climate agreement, though Mr Morrison said Australia was on a pathway to net zero emissions.

"Our goal is to get there as soon as we possibly can, through technology that enables and transforms our industries, not taxes that eliminate them and the jobs and livelihoods they support and create," he told the summit.

"Future generations... will thank us not for what we have promised, but what we deliver."

Australia is one of the world's biggest carbon emitters on a per capita basis. Mr Morrison, who has faced sustained criticism over climate policy, said action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would focus on technology.

The prime minister said Australia is deploying renewable energy 10 times faster than the global average per person, and has the highest uptake of rooftop solar panels in the world.

Mr Morrison added Australia would invest $20bn ($15.4bn; 11.1bn) "to achieve ambitious goals that will bring the cost of clean hydrogen, green steel, energy storage and carbon capture to commercial parity".

"You can always be sure that the commitments Australia makes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are bankable."

Australia has seen growing international pressure to step up its efforts to cut emissions and tackle global warming. The country has warmed on average by 1.4 degrees C since national records began in 1910, according to its science and weather agencies. That's led to an increase in the number of extreme heat events, as well as increased fire danger days.

Ahead of the summit, President Biden's team urged countries that have been slow to embrace action on climate change to raise their ambition. While many nations heeded the call, big emitters China and India also made no new commitments.

"Scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade - this is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis," President Biden said at the summit's opening address.

Referring to America's new carbon-cutting pledge, President Biden added: "The signs are unmistakable, the science is undeniable, and the cost of inaction keeps mounting."

 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh

 

LEADERS’ SUMMIT ON CLIMATE: PM HASINA FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION PLAN

From Dhaka Tribune  Published at 07:50 pm April 22nd, 2021

·          

·         Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday put forward four suggestions to global leaders to fight climate change challenges with a strong collective response.

The premier made the suggestions in her prerecorded video message screened in the opening session of the two-day “Leaders’ Summit on Climate” hosted by US President Joe Biden.

Joe Biden invited 40 world leaders, including Sheikh Hasina, to join the virtual Summit to galvanize efforts by major economies to tackle the climate crisis.

Sheikh Hasina’s suggestions include – announcing an immediate and ambitious action plan by developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions to keep the global temperature at 1.5°C with focus on mitigation measures; and ensuring the annual target of $100 billion which should be balanced 50:50 between adaptation and mitigation with special attention while pursuing losses and damages.

The other two suggestions are, major economies, international financial institutions, and private sectors should come forward with plans for concessional climate financing as well as innovation and focusing on green economy and carbon-neutral technologies with a provision of technology transfer among nations.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us that any global crisis can only be addressed through a strong collective response,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina thanked US President Biden for convening the summit and inviting her to speak at this gathering saying that Bangladesh deeply appreciates the US’s return to the Paris Climate Agreement and is keen to engage with the international community.

“Despite being a climate-vulnerable country with resource constraints, Bangladesh has emerged as a global leader on adaptation and mitigation,” she said.

The prime minister mentioned that every year Bangladesh is spending about $5 billion, about 2.5% of the GDP, on climate adaptation and resilience-building measures.

“The 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar whom we’ve sheltered worsened our vulnerabilities,” she added.

The prime minister said Bangladesh is pursuing a low-carbon development path. “To raise its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and adaptation ambition, it has included new sectors in addition to the existing energy, industry, and transport sectors in the mitigation process. We’re planning to submit a quantified ambitious NDC by June 2021,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh is observing “Mujib Year,” marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

“We’re planting 30 million saplings nationwide and adopting the ‘Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan’ to achieve low-carbon economic growth,” she furthered.

As the chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and V20, Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh’s key focus is on upholding the interests of the climate-vulnerable countries, she added

The prime minister said Bangladesh is hosting the South Asian regional office of the Global Centre on Adaptation which is promoting locally-led adaptation solutions.

US President Biden and Vice President Harris opened the inaugural session of the summit. 

The opening session titled “Raising Our Climate Ambition” underscored the urgent need for the world’s major economies to strengthen their climate ambition by the time of COP 26 to keep the goal of limiting warming to 1.5°C within reach.

The UN Secretary General António Guterres, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, among other world leaders, spoke at the virtual summit.

The Leaders’ Summit on Climate would be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.

President Biden took action on his first day in office to return the US to the Paris Agreement as days later, on January 27, he announced that he would soon convene a leaders’ summit to galvanize efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis.

 

         From the Daily Star

 

05:54 PM, April 22, 2021 / LAST MODIFIED: 07:33 PM, April 22, 2021

 

ENSURE $100 BILLION ANNUAL FUND: PM AT LEADERS SUMMIT ON CLIMATE

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for ensuring the annual target of 100 billion US dollars which should be balanced 50:50 between adaptation and mitigation with special attention to the vulnerable communities.

"Major economies, international financial institutions and private sectors should come forward for concessional climate financing as well as innovation," she said virtually today at the Leaders Summit on Climate hosted by US President Joe Biden.

Hasina also suggested pursuing "Loss and Damage", a process that refers to the harms caused by anthropogenic climate change within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Forty world leaders including major emitting countries US, China, Russia, India, Japan, UK, Canada, as well as leaders from the climate vulnerable countries and those that demonstrated innovations and leadership in tackling climate change also attended the two-day summit.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, president of Climate Vulnerable Forum -- a group of 48 climate vulnerable countries -- said, "The Covid-19 pandemic has reminded us that global crisis can only be addressed through strong collective response."

As a responsible member state of the COP and as the Chair of CVF, she suggested an immediate and ambitious action plan by developed countries to reduce their carbon emissions to keep the global temperature rise at 1.5 degree Celsius.

"The developing nations should also focus on mitigation measures," she said in the virtual summit.

"Focus is needed on green economy and carbon neutral technologies with provision of technology transfer among nations," PM Hasina said.

 She thanked President Biden for convening the Summit and inviting her to speak to the august gathering and deeply appreciated the US' return to the Paris Climate Agreement. 

"Despite being a climate vulnerable country with resource constraints, Bangladesh has emerged as a global leader on adaptation and mitigation. Every year we are spending about 5 billion dollars, about 2.5 percent of our GDP, on climate adaptation and resilience-building measures," she said.

However, she said the 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar who took shelter in Bangladesh following the 2017 military crackdown in Rakhine have worsened Bangladesh's vulnerability. 

PM Hasina said Bangladesh is pursuing a low carbon development path and to raise the country's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and adaptation ambition, Bangladesh has included new sectors in addition to the existing energy, industry and transport sectors in the mitigation process. 

She said the Bangladesh government is planning to submit a quantified ambitious NDC by June 2021. 

She said Bangladesh is observing 'Mujib Year', marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and is planting 30 million saplings nationwide and adopted "Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan" to achieve low carbon economic growth.  

As the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and V20, Bangladesh's key focus is to uphold the interests of the climate vulnerable countries. 

She also said Bangladesh is hosting the South Asian regional office of the Global Centre on Adaptation which is promoting locally-led adaptation solutions.

 

Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, Bhutan

 From channelnews asia   By Jack Board 03 Aug 2020 06:08AM(Updated: )

 

CLIMATE CHANGE LIKE A CANCER THAT NEEDS URGENT TREATMENT, SAYS BHUTAN’S PM

 

THIMPHU: Bhutan’s Prime Minister Lotay Tshering, a practicing surgeon on weekends, has compared the global effects of climate change to cancer that without urgent action will become an incurable disease.

In an exclusive interview with CNA, Dr Tshering said he was “disappointed” by the lack of action being taken by the rest of the world, as more impacts start to be felt by the mountainous developing nation.

“The evidence is clear out there. If we, the decision makers, don’t listen to this, at some point, the Earth will suffer from an incurable disease. We don’t want to wait that long,” he said.

 

Bhutan, a kingdom of about 800,000 people, has for decades been a champion for environmental policy and action.

It is the only carbon negative country in the world, absorbing about four times as much emission as it produces. Through its exported renewable energy, it can offset millions of additional tonnes of carbon dioxide.