Good morning 99percenters!
Morning news dump and music by Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings.

150 Countries Pledge to Curb Carbon Emissions

Some 150 countries representing around 90 percent of the world’s carbon emissions have now filed pledges to curb them, dramatically increasing the chances of a deal at the Paris climate summit in December.

The promises made so far would still put the world on track for a dangerous global warming rise of 3°C (around 9°F). But they could be adjusted in the future to meet the 2°C target recommended by international scientists, the EU’s climate commissioner, Miguel Cañete, told a U.N. conference in Rabat, Morocco.

“The gap is not as big as expected if the INDCs (intended nationally determined contributions) are transformed and fully implemented,” said Cañete. “Their scope and scale is an achievement in itself.”

The French development minister, Annick Girardin, said that many of the pledges came from developing countries, and had brightened prospects for a climate treaty in December.

Bye-Bye, Big Oil: Obama Administration Scraps Arctic Drilling Plans
Campaigners say that the Obama administration is heeding the call of the climate movement—and slowly shifting action to match its rhetoric on global warming

The Obama administration announced late Friday that it was pulling the plug on new lease sales for drilling in the Arctic's Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, in a move environmentalists are hailing as a decided step to keep unburnable oil "in the ground."

Citing "current market conditions" and "low industry interest," as well as Shell's recent decision to scrap its Arctic drilling plans, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell declared that two offshore lease sales scheduled for 2016 and 2017 would be cancelled. 

However, campaigners said the move was likely the result of the fierce opposition campaign as well as the growing awareness that if the White House has any intention of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions the country must cease new oil exploration and, instead, invest in more renewable energy alternatives.

On World Food Day, Celebrating the Power of Regenerative Organic Farming
Agroecology is political; it requires us to challenge and transform structures of power in society.'

As environmentalists, humanitarians, and farmers from around the globe celebrate the 35th annual World Food Day on Friday, sustainability advocates are heralding the capacity of organic regenerative agriculture and agroecology to address wide-ranging challenges from climate change to public health to hunger.

"On this World Food Day we face two interlinked planetary challenges: to produce enough food for all people and to sequester enough carbon in the soil to reverse climate change," said Tom Newmark, co-founder of The Carbon Underground, on Friday.

Newmark made his statements at a Washington, D.C. press conference hosted by the nonprofit organization Regeneration International and featuring a panel of 10 international experts on organic agriculture, carbon sequestration, and world hunger.

One Story Shows Just How Insane U.S. Drone Policy Is

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that U.S. drone policy is insane.

But one story told by the main drone whistleblowing reporter – Jeremy Scahill – shows just how insane it really is.

Specifically, Scahill explained today that Americans target TALL people in Afghanistan and other countries … assuming that tall men must be Arabs or “foreign fighters.”

Putin is Defeating More than ISIS in Syria

Russia and its President, Vladimir Putin, a little more than a year ago, in July 2014 were the focus of attention in Europe and North America, accused, without a shred of forensic evidence, of shooting down an unarmed civilian Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine. The Russians were deemed out to restore the Soviet Union with their agreement to the popular referendum of Crimean citizens to annex into the Russian Federation and not Ukraine. Western sanctions were being thrown at Russia by both Washington and the EU. People spoke of a new Cold War. Today the picture is changing, and profoundly. It is Washington that is on the defensive, exposed for the criminal actions it has been doing in Syria and across the Middle East, including creating the recent asylum crisis in Germany and large parts of the EU.

As a student of international politics and economics for most of my adult life, I must say the emotional restraint that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government have shown against tasteless ad hominem attacks, from people such as Hillary Clinton who likened Putin to Adolf Hitler, is remarkable. But more than restraint is required to bring our world from the brink or some might say, the onset of a World War III. Brilliant and directed action is essential. Here something extraordinary has taken place in the very few days since President Vladimir Putin’s September 28, UNGA speech in New York.

What he said…

What Putin said to the UN General Assembly must be noted to put what he and Russia did in the days immediately following into clear focus. First of all he made clear what the international law behind the UN Charter means and that Russia is scrupulously abiding by the Charter in actions in Syria. Russia, unlike the US, has been formally asked by the legitimate Syrian government to aid its war against terror.

Kicking War Cans Down the Road

President Lyndon Johnson, whose record on civil rights, Medicare, the “war on poverty” and the environment made him one of the most progressive leaders in American history, destroyed his legacy by sinking the country ever deeper into the Vietnam War. President Barack Obama risks doing the same by refusing to summon the courage to end America’s fruitless and costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In October 2011, the White House famously declared, “President Obama has ended the war in Iraq . . . this moment represents more than an accomplishment for the President. It marks a monumental change of focus for our military and a fundamental shift in the way that our nation will engage in the world.”

Afghanistan was next on the promised list of ended wars. In January 2014, Obama boasted, “When I took office, nearly 180,000 Americans were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, all our troops are out of Iraq. . . . With Afghan forces now in the lead for their own security, our troops have moved to a support role. Together with our allies, we will complete our mission there by the end of this year, and America’s longest war will finally be over.”

How Much Privacy Are You Willing To Give Up?
An Expert Provides Some Surprising and Specific Advice On Protecting Yourself

Back in January of 1999, in the infancy of the internet, the founder and former head of Sun Microsystems, Scott McNealy, said, “There is no privacy, get over it.” And that was before Facebook, Uber, and “location-based” retail.

For a few internet-savvy users, the fear of someone invading their personal space, is a threat requiring ongoing vigilance. But most blithely accept the dangers in exchange for the benefits of a plugged-in, social-networked existence.

In this week’s podcast Felicia King, a technology and privacy expert, makes the case that we need a whole new approach to personal privacy.

This would range from erecting strong defenses to protect our online identity and using specially secure cell phones, to paying only in cash, being careful at medical offices, not letting our banks know us too well, exercising caution with copy machines, foregoing discount cards at grocery stores, and establishing relationships only with retailers we trust.

How Monsanto Solicited Academics to Bolster Their Pro-GMO Propaganda — Using Taxpayer Dollars
Thousands of emails reveal how the biotech giant enlisted public university academics to prop up their massive PR machine.

The Monsanto public relations machine has done a stellar job in recent years of reducing the GMO debate to one that pits “pro-science advocates” against “anti-science climate-denier types” — with Monsanto portrayed as being squarely planted in the pro-science camp.

But that well-oiled machine may be starting to sputter.

Turns out that Monsanto executive solicited pro-GMO articles from university researchers, and passed the “research” off as independent science which the biotech giant then used to prop up its image and further its agenda.

We know this, thanks to thousands of pages of emails obtained by U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). And because a host of news outlets—including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, the StarPhoenix and others — are now running with the story.

America's Greenest Cities: Where Does Your City Rank?
An analysis to find out just how green America's 100 most populous cities are yields some surprising results.

Did you know that the U.S. city with the highest percentage of commuters who drive is Corpus Christi? Or that the best city in the nation for biking is Minneapolis? What about the fact that San Francisco has the largest number of farmers markets per capita? These are some of the many eye-opening facts that came out of a recent analysis of 100 of America's most populous cities and their environmental friendliness.

A strong majority of Americans favor living sustainably. According to a Pew Research poll, 71 percent said the U.S. "should do whatever it takes to protect the environment." And as more than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas, examining the environmental friendliness of cities is an excellent way to take the nation's overall "sustainability pulse."

Conducted by the personal finance website Wallethub, 2015's Greenest Cities in America analyzes each the 100 cities across 13 key metrics (including percent of green space, number of smart-energy policies and per capita greenhouse gas emissions) to identify those cities that most encourage an environmentally friendly lifestyle — and the ones that are lagging behind.

Edward Snowden: Clinton made 'false claim' about whistleblower protection
Speaking via satellite at a privacy conference at Bard College in New York, Snowden disputed Clinton’s claim that he bypassed whistleblower protections

Edward Snowden has accused Hillary Clinton of “a lack of political courage” for her assertion during the Democratic presidential debate this week that the whistleblower had bypassed options for disclosing illegal government spying programs that would have protected him and not violated the law.

Speaking via satellite at a privacy conference at New York’s Bard College on Friday, Snowden said: “Hillary Clinton’s claims are false here.”

“This is important, right?” Snowden told an audience at the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. “Truth should matter in politics, and courage should matter in politics, because we need change. Everyone knows we need change. And we have been aggrieved and in many ways misled by political leaders in the past.”

The Federal Agency Behind the Gross Expansion of Fracking Pipelines

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a national agency with wide jurisdiction over gas industry projects, used to be one of those unseen government organizations that go quietly about their business, creating no headlines and flying under the public radar. But mounting citizen alarm about the high-volume hydraulic fracturing industry has changed all that, and FERC's opponents have publicly accused the agency of being a spearhead for fossil fuel corporate domination of the United States and its resources.

Early opposition to shale drilling was restricted to protests against what is commonly called fracking - blasting chemical-laden water into subterranean rock to fracture it, forcing it to yield the methane (natural gas) it contains. But for the past several years there has been increased opposition to the major, ever-expanding fracking infrastructures over which FERC has jurisdiction - pipelines and the compressor stations that pack down fracked gas for its pipeline journeys.

FERC was founded in 1977 as an independent agency, its status updated nearly 11 years ago by the 2005 Bush-Cheney Energy Act to include jurisdiction over interstate electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing and oil pipeline rates. FERC also reviews and authorizes liquefied natural gas terminals, interstate natural gas pipelines and non-federal hydropower projects.

California Says "No" to Plastic Microbeads

There will be no more exfoliating with plastic microbeads in California.

That's what Governor Jerry Brown decided last week when he approved a measure that will prohibit plastic microbeads in personal care products.

The ban won't go into effect until January 1, 2020, but the elimination of plastic beads from soaps, facial and body scrubs, shampoo and toothpaste is huge, as they are one of the most dangerous sources of plastic pollution.  

"We were basically saying: no plastic in these products that are washed down the drain," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. "That was always the objective and that's exactly what the governor signed today."

Why Sale of National Geographic to Fox Signals Perilous Times for Photojournalism

When the news broke that National Geographic was sold to Rupert Murdoch, fans of the magazine gasped. 

A magazine known for its photo essays paired with reports often based on scientific research being under the control of an outspoken climate change denier worried them.

As a photojournalist, it is to difficult for me to imagine that the sale of National Geographic to Murdoch won't contribute to the decline of photojournalism, because it is one of the few publications left whose brand is connected to original, visually-oriented content.

Shortly after the sale was announced, Susan Goldberg, National Geographic's editor-in-chief, claimed it was a good thing. "It's great news," she told the Washington Post. "It's really a doubling down on our journalism and an investment in our journalism." She pointed out that the partnership will bring more resources and distribution muscle to National Geographic's digital and print operations.