netherlands

 

Dutch government ends funding to Palestinian civil society group

Move comes despite external investigation finding no evidence of Israeli ‘terror’ claims made against Union of Agricultural Work Committees.

Palestinian workers harvest dates in the Jordan Valley village of Jiftlik in the Israeli-occupied West Bank 

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The Dutch government has said it will no longer fund one of the six major civil society and human rights organisations in Palestine which Israel banned as “terrorist groups” in October 2021.

In a statement denouncing Wednesday’s decision, the Ramallah-based Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) – for which the Dutch government has been the lead donor since 2013 – said “this is the first time a government ends its funding for Palestinian civil society based on political conditionality”.

The UAWC provides hands-on aid to Palestinians, including by rehabilitating land at risk of confiscation by Israel. It helps tens of thousands of farmers in Area C – the more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank under direct Israeli military control, and where most illegal Israeli settlements and their infrastructure are located.

The group said it would consider legal steps to challenge the Dutch government’s “harmful and unfair decision”, which, it warned, was “likely to resonate far beyond our organisation”.

In October 2021, Israel banned six organisations as “terrorist groups” under the pretext that they are affiliated with the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The move was widely condemned by the international community and rights groups as “unjustified” and “baseless” as the Israeli government has provided no evidence (PDF) to substantiate its claims.

Israel’s designation tied the six organisations to the armed wing of the PFLP, which was active as an organised body in the second Intifada (2000-2005) when it carried out attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets.

Five of the organisations are Palestinian: the Addameer prisoners’ rights group; Al-Haq rights group; the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC); the Bisan Center for Research and Development; and the UAWC. The sixth is the Palestine chapter of the Geneva-based Defence for Children International organisation.

Earth’s climate

 

Earth’s CO2 level passes a new climate milestone

The atmospheric CO2 level in May was 50 percent higher than during the pre-industrial era, raising fears about climate change.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat, gradually causing global warming 

Published On 4 Jun 20224 Jun 2022

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May were 50 percent higher than during the pre-industrial era, reaching levels not seen on Earth for about four million years, the main US climate agency said on Friday.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere passed the threshold of 420 parts per million (ppm), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. PPM is a unit of measurement used to quantify pollution in the atmosphere.

Global warming caused by humans, particularly through the production of electricity using fossil fuels, transport, the production of cement, or even deforestation, is responsible for the new high, the NOAA said.

CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat, gradually causing global warming. It remains in the atmosphere and oceans for thousands of years.

Its warming effect is already causing dramatic consequences, noted NOAA, including the multiplication of heatwaves, droughts, fires or floods.

This 2019 photo provided by NOAA shows the Mauna Loa atmospheric baseline observatory, high atop Hawaii’s largest mountain, which samples well-mixed background air free of local pollution 

“Carbon dioxide is at levels our species has never experienced before – this is not new,” said Pieter Tans, a scientist with the Global Monitoring Laboratory at NOAA.

“We have known about this for half a century, and have failed to do anything meaningful about it. What’s it going to take for us to wake up?”

Before the Industrial Revolution

The measurements are taken at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, ideally located high on a volcano, which allows it to escape the possible influence of local pollution.

Before the Industrial Revolution, levels of CO2 held steady at about 280ppm, a level maintained for approximately 6,000 years of human civilisation that preceded industrialisation, according to NOAA.

The level now is comparable to what it was between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago, when CO2 levels were near or above 400ppm, the NOAA said.

At that time, sea levels were between five and 25 metres higher than now, high enough to submerge many of today’s major cities. Large forests also occupied parts of the Arctic, according to studies.

 “The science is irrefutable: humans are altering our climate in ways that our economy and our infrastructure must adapt to,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad was quoted as saying by the climate agency website.