POLARISATIE

Opinie: Kamer en media, bestrijd ondermijning van de wetenschap door politici

De parlementaire immuniteit mag niet worden misbruikt om ongefundeerde beschuldigingen tegen wetenschappers te uiten. Dit leidt tot onnodige gezondheidsrisico’s, betogen Marc Bonten en Marion Koopmans namens ruim driehonderd wetenschappers en bestuurders.

Marc Bonten en Marion Koopmans         2 juni 2022, 05:00

Protest tegen de aangescherpte coronamaatregelen, in december 2021.Beeld Joris van Gennip

Vorige week kreeg een volksvertegenwoordiger in de Tweede Kamer 13 minuten de tijd om een prominent wetenschapper in overheidsdienst een leugenaar te noemen, te beschuldigen van corruptie en op zijn ontslag aan te dringen. Het betreffende Kamerlid kon – ondanks verzoeken van collega-Kamerleden – geen van deze uitspraken onderbouwen.

Helaas was dit geen incident, maar een zoveelste overtreffende trap in belediging van wetenschappers door een bepaald deel van het parlement. De beledigingen en beschuldigingen worden ook buiten de Tweede Kamer in het publieke domein steeds vaker geuit en zijn op sociale media al langer aan de orde van de dag. Hoewel onderzoek uitwijst dat het vertrouwen in de wetenschap nog steeds hoog is, ondermijnen deze ontwikkelingen dat vertrouwen.

Diezelfde wetenschap leverde gedurende de pandemie binnen enkele weken een betrouwbare test die wereldwijd uitgevoerd kon worden, binnen zes maanden een behandeling die de sterfte ten gevolge van infectie met ongeveer 20 procent reduceerde en binnen een jaar vaccins die veilig en uiterst effectief waren.OVER DE AUTEURS

Marc Bonten is hoogleraar medische microbiologie aan UMC Utrecht en Marion Koopmans is hoogleraar virologie aan ErsamusMC. Zie de websites van universitaire medische centra voor de volledige lijst met ondertekenaars.

Desinformatie

De stelselmatige aanvallen op de wetenschap en de wetenschappers hebben gevolgen. Hoewel er meerdere redenen kunnen zijn dat mensen zich niet laten vaccineren, heeft de polariserende toon van het debat en het verspreiden van desinformatie ertoe bijgedragen dat sommigen zich van vaccinatie hebben afgekeerd. Daardoor zijn mensen onnodig blootgesteld aan de risico’s van covid-19 en eraan overleden, terwijl vaccinatie de kans op sterfte met minstens 90 procent had kunnen reduceren. Mede door berichten op sociale media hebben mensen zich moedwillig blootgesteld aan onwerkzame en zelfs schadelijke behandelingen. Door dagelijkse ophitsing achtte de nationale veiligheidsdienst zelfs persoonlijke beveiliging nodig voor wetenschappers.

Wij maken ons grote zorgen over deze ontwikkelingen, en doen daarom een dringend beroep op de leden van de Tweede Kamer en de media om hier nog krachtiger stelling tegen te nemen. Sta niet toe dat de parlementaire immuniteit misbruikt wordt om ongefundeerde beschuldigingen en verdachtmakingen te uiten.

Transparantie

Wat mag u daarvoor terugverwachten van de wetenschap? Veel, zoals onverminderde inzet voor het welzijn van alle Nederlanders en bijdragen aan complexe vraagstukken zoals de energietransitie, de omgang met technologie en sociale ongelijkheid. Dit doen we met de hoogst mogelijke kwaliteitseisen en volledige transparantie over de manier waarop dat gebeurt, en met uiteraard de erkenning dat daarbij immer ruimte voor verbetering is. Daarnaast blijft de bereidheid om alle aspecten van het wetenschappelijk proces, inclusief de onzekerheden die resteren, toe te lichten.

Tenslotte weet elke wetenschapper dat continue kritische beoordeling, door collega’s en maatschappij, één van de fundamenten van de wetenschap is, waartoe dan ook iedereen uitgenodigd is.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/opinie-kamer-en-media-bestrijd-ondermijning-van-de-wetenschap-door-politici~b27f38b5/

Climate group sues Dutch airline KLM over ‘greenwashing’ adverts

 

Climate group sues Dutch airline KLM over ‘greenwashing’ adverts

‘Fly Responsibly’ adverts mislead customers on the sustainability of flying with KLM, say campaigners

Environmental group ClientEarth have launched a legal action against KLM. Photograph: Piroschka Van De Wouw/Reuters

Damien Gayle

@damiengayle

Tue 24 May 2022 17.19 BST

Environmental campaigners are suing the Dutch airline KLM over “greenwashing” adverts they say misleadingly promote the sustainability of flying.

Lawyers from ClientEarth are supporting Fossielvrij NL, a Netherlands-based campaign group, to bring a claim that KLM’s ad campaigns give a false impression of the sustainability of its flights and its plans to address its impact on the climate.

“KLM’s marketing misleads consumers into believing that its flights won’t worsen the climate emergency. But this is a myth,” said Hiske Arts, a campaigner at Fossielvrij NL.

“Unchecked flying is one of the fastest ways to heat up the planet. Customers need to be informed and protected from claims that suggest otherwise.”

Activists from Fossielvrij NL submitted a pre-action letter to Air France KLM, KLM’s parent company, during its AGM in Paris on Tuesday. Their legal action takes aim at KLM’s “Fly Responsibly” campaign, which presents the airline as “creating a more sustainable future”.

KLM’s campaign says it is on track to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and that it plans to introduce hydrogen and electric planes and scale up the use of synthetic kerosene from 2035.

The litigants claim KLM is violating European consumer law by misleading customers, as they say the aviation sector cannot reach net zero without limiting the overall number of flights.

Johnny White, a ClientEarth lawyer, said: “While climate experts warn we need to reduce air traffic to keep a just and livable world within reach, KLM and the airline industry are … lobbying intensively against climate regulation.

“It’s now or never for climate action. Airlines cannot be allowed to compete for business on claims that they are tackling the climate crisis, when the reality is they are fuelling it.

“Just as the fossil fuel industry is using greenwashing to protect their licence to operate, the aviation sector is using misleading advertising to protect its licence to grow. We need legislation to finally put an end to these delaying tactics for good.”

KLM received a rap on the knuckles over a separate marketing campaign using the line “Be a hero, fly CO2 zero” last month from the Dutch advertising regulator. The regulator found that although the carbon credits bought by KLM for the scheme resulted in some offsetting of emissions, it was not “adequate” for the airline to claim carbon neutrality.

According to Bloomberg, the slogan was judged by the watchdog to be an absolute claim, but the airline was unable to prove the statement. Air France KLM declined to comment on reports at the time.

Just 1% of the world’s population cause 50% of all commercial aviation emissions.

“Flying is not only one of the most climate-damaging products people can buy, it’s also uniquely unequal,” Arts said.

“It is unjust that a small group of frequent flyers continue to fuel climate breakdown, when it is the people with less money, people in the global south and future generations that stand to suffer the most as the world gets dangerously hotter.”

A KLM spokeswoman said: “We have received a letter of ClientEarth and will study its contents.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/24/climate-group-sues-dutch-airline-klm-over-adverts?utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwAR0x6uERjFTIlBrC5AAkgHXP9BzwboCHyDpokoc-4pbiLSlJEKE4918W0Rk

 

Current policies will bring ‘catastrophic’ climate breakdown, warn former UN leaders

Three former UN climate heads say gap between government promises and actions will change environment irreversibly

Activists dressed as world leaders protest beside Glasgow’s Forth and Clyde canal against rising water levels during the Cop26 summit. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent

Thu 2 Jun 2022 09.00 BST

The policies currently in place to tackle the climate crisis around the world will lead to “catastrophic” climate breakdown, as governments have failed to take the actions needed to fulfil their promises, three former UN climate leaders have warned.

There is a stark gap between what governments have promised to do to protect the climate, and the measures and policies needed to achieve the targets. At the Cop26 summit last November, countries agreed to bring forward plans to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – the limit of safety, according to scientists. They have so far submitted pledges that would limit temperatures to under 2C.

But the policies and measures passed and implemented by governments would lead to far greater temperature rises, of at least 2.7C, well beyond the threshold of relative safety, and potentially as much as 3.6C. That would have “catastrophic” impacts, in the form of extreme weather, sea-level rises and irreversible changes to the global climate.

The three living former directors of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have written together in Wednesday’s Guardian – the first time they have written jointly in a newspaper – of the disastrous consequences of failing to match national pledges on the climate with concrete actions and policies to follow them through.

They write: “In the 2015 Paris agreement, all governments agreed to ‘pursue efforts’ to limit global warming to 1.5C (34.7F). We are entitled now to ask where their efforts have reached, where they are heading and how genuine they are. Science shows action this decade to reduce all greenhouse gases is critical.”

They point to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published earlier this year, described as an “atlas of suffering” that showed the widespread devastation likely to ensue if we fail to tackle greenhouse gas emissions urgently.

“The myriad reports of extreme weather we have witnessed in 2022 suggest there is no time to waste,” they write. “The further climate change progresses, the more we lock in a future featuring more ruined harvests, and more food insecurity, along with a host of other problems including rises in sea level, threats to water security, drought and desertification. Governments must act against climate change while also dealing with other pressing crises.”

Actions by developed countries have so far been “disappointing”, in their failure to reduce emissions fast enough, and in not making finance available to poorer countries to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, they add.

The former UN top officials – Michael Zammit Cutajar, Yvo de Boer and Christiana Figueres – each successively held the post of executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, parent treaty to the Paris agreement, which was signed 30 years ago this week at the landmark Rio Earth Summit.

This month also marks the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm conference, when representatives from around the world first resolved that the global state of the environment was a cause for concern, and concerted international action was needed to solve problems such as pollution, species loss, land degradation and resource depletion.

The anniversary should prompt governments to renew their resolve, despite “frosty” geopolitics, before it is too late, the UN ex-officials write. “Rapidly changing economics mean that a climate-safe future is also a more prosperous one. The public’s will – especially among young people – to see climate change constrained is clear. As we recall the Stockholm conference, we need national leaders to recall what it demonstrated about the potential of cooperative action even in disturbed times. We need to see leaders delivering on their climate change promises, in the interests of people, prosperity and the planet.”

As governments grapple with high energy prices, and rising food prices, the former UN climate heads argue for a swift move to clean energy, which is now economically competitive with fossil fuels. “Unless one is invested in fossil fuels, there is now no reason not to take the clean energy path. Many corporate actors understand the need for early action on this front. But governments still need to incentivise the transition,” they write.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/02/current-policies-will-bring-catastrophic-climate-breakdown-warn-former-un-leaders

 

Steve Bannon leaves a New York federal court in August 2020. MARK KAUZLARICH/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES

STEVE BANNON'S ELECTION-TAKEOVER DREAM IS STARTING TO TAKE SHAPE 

Recordings obtained by Politico suggest the GOP is embracing the “precinct strategy" promoted by the former Trump adviser and right-wing podcast host, a plan that could lead to chaos at the polls in November. 

BY 

JUNE 1, 2022

Embracing the “precinct strategy” promoted by Steve Bannon, the GOP is reportedly preparing to sow chaos in the 2022 election by creating an “army” of poll workers and Republican lawyers to challenge voters in Democratic precincts. According to recordings obtained by Politico, the Republican National Committee has been recruiting and training poll watchers to contest votes and building a network of party-friendly attorneys to help them. The operation has been cast by Republican officials as an effort to even out party imbalances among poll workers in urban centers like Detroit. But its true aims seem clear: to gum up the democratic process in Democratic areas and lay the foundation for results to be challenged in swing states like Michigan that were key to Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

“Come election day you create massive failure of certification,” Nick Penniman, founder and CEO of the election watchdog group Issue One, told Politico. “The real hope is that you can throw the choosing of electors to state legislators.”

The undertaking illustrates the extent to which the GOP is institutionalizing Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies—and provides a glimpse into the party’s efforts to hijack the infrastructure of the election system. “This is completely unprecedented in the history of American elections that a political party would be working at this granular level to put a network together,” Penniman said. “It looks like now the Trump forces are going directly after the legal system itself and that should concern everyone.”

In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump and his allies mounted a relentless effort to contest the results in several states he lost. Under the new operation, the party could essentially do that in real time, with trained poll watchers—many of whom appear to have volunteered for positions because they subscribe to Trump’s “rigged election” lies—in direct contact with GOP lawyers who “could intervene to block vote counts at certain precincts,” Politico reported. “Being a poll worker, you just have so many more rights and things you can do to stop something than [as] a poll challenger,” Matthew Seifried, the RNC’s election integrity director for Michigan, said in a November meeting with state GOP activists, according to a recording obtained by the outlet.

“It’s going to be an army,” Seifried said at a different meeting last fall. “We’re going to have more lawyers than we’ve ever recruited, because let’s be honest, that’s where it’s going to be fought, right?”

Seifried referred Politico’s request to the RNC, which defended its plans. “Democrats have had a monopoly on poll watching for 40 years, and it speaks volumes that they’re terrified of an even playing field,” RNC spokesperson Gates McGavick told Politico. “The RNC is focused on training volunteers to take part in the election process because polling shows that American voters want bipartisan poll-watching to ensure transparency and security at the ballot box.”

The plan is essentially the “precinct strategy” that was developed a decade ago by Arizona lawyer Dan Schultz and championed more recently by Bannon, the former Trump strategist: “It’s going to be a fight, but this is a fight that must be won,” Bannon said on a podcast episode last year. “We’re going to take this back village by village…precinct by precinct.”

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As ProPublica has reported, Bannon’s promotion of that bottom-up technique has contributed to a groundswell of Large Lie proponents in search of roles within the election course of, together with as precinct officers and ballot employees. Trump himself gave his blessing to the plan this yr, approvingly citing Schultz—who has ties to the Oath Keepers, a far-right group that took half within the January 6 rebellion—in an e-mail to supporters in March. “Simply heard about an unimaginable effort underway that may strengthen the Republican Get together,” Trump stated, in response to ProPublica. “If members of our Nice motion begin getting concerned (meaning YOU changing into a precinct committeeman on your voting precinct), we will take again our nice Nation from the bottom up.”

It goes with out saying that enlisting election deniers to exert affect over the voting course of poses a significant menace to the democratic system. However it’s only one such menace: From anti-voting laws enacted on the idea of Trump’s lies to a gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano who has indicated he wouldn’t respect election outcomes, Republicans are constructing on the previous president’s 2020 efforts to overturn his loss. The democratic course of survived that stress take a look at a yr and a half in the past. The one it is going to face within the coming elections, as that anti-democratic push grows extra subtle, might be even more durable.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/06/steve-bannon-election-takeover-precinct-strategy