Month: November 2020
By Yael Vink and Thaís Mota
These past weeks consumers have been bombarded by ads regarding Black Friday, a day which diametrically opposes the environmental and social justice movement. While activists fight for the reduction of waste and struggle against its impacts on the environment, capitalism perpetuates consumerist/toxic practices, fuelled by a simple element: absurdly low prices.
On the 4th of November 2020 the United States, the world’s second biggest emitter of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide, officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement, potentially acting as a hindrance to the rest of the world’s achievement of the goals. This thus represented a weakening of the developments to mitigate climate change, following detrimental policies enacted by the Trump anti-science administration, such as the dismantling of numerous regulations targeting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and the erosion of both the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act .