Environment – Lanka Socialists Forum

26 Mar

The origin of the term “Tree hugger”

wisidagamage0 CommentsEnvironment

Photo: The village women of the Chipko movement in the early 70's in the Garhwal Hills of India, protecting the trees from being cut down. The first tree huggers were 294 men and 69 women belonging to the Bishnois branch of Hinduism, who, in 1730, died while trying to protect the trees in their village from being turned into the raw material for building a palace. They literally clung to the trees, while being slaughtered by the foresters. But their action led to a royal decree prohibiting the cutting of trees in any Bishnoi village. And now those villages are…

25 Mar

Sri Lankan Parliament Concludes Second Reading on Bill to Dispossess Farmers of Farming Land

wisidagamage0 CommentsEconomy, Environment, Human Rights

17th March, 2022 Sri Lankan Parliament Concludes Second Reading on Bill to Dispossess Farmers of Farming Land The Land Development (LDO) (Amendment) Bill got through the second reading in Parliament last Friday. Ignorance and indifference exhibited by Members of Parliament on the issue of farmers’ indebtedness is outrageous. Many of them seem to believe that enabling farmers to mortgage their land to banks is a one-stop solution to all farmer’s problems. The Bill was hurriedly rushed through without creating an environment to deliberate on crucial clauses in the Bill. The LDO Amendment Bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It…

18 Mar

How did we get here? The roots and impacts of the climate crisis

wisidagamage0 CommentsEnvironment

People’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels and the cutting down of carbon-storing forests have transformed global climate. By Alexandra Witze MARCH 10, 2022 Even in a world increasingly battered by weather extremes, the summer 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest stood out. For several days in late June, cities such as Vancouver, Portland and Seattle baked in record temperatures that killed hundreds of people. On June 29, Lytton, a village in British Columbia, set an all-time heat record for Canada, at 121° Fahrenheit (49.6° Celsius); the next day, the village was incinerated by a wildfire. Within a week, an international group of…

20 Feb

Climate accountability now

wisidagamage0 CommentsEnvironment, Features

MARY ROBINSON 15th February 2022 Major emitters must deliver on critical ‘climate justice’ issues, such as financing for vulnerable countries. Short supply—poor countries rendered victims of climate change by rich-country emissions need much more financial support (Piyaset/shutterstock.com) It has been 30 years since world leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro and agreed a set of measures to start the global mobilisation against human-caused climate change and to meet the imperative of a more sustainable development model. Their Rio Declaration affirmed that ‘human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony…