COPE VCC News
[Jun 08, 2026] Third World Ocean Assessment Underlines the Severe Stress on Oceans : The Third World Ocean Assessment “documents a deepening crisis, as climate change, pollution, overfishing and biodiversity loss put ocean systems under severe strain. Its findings demand urgent action, through stronger multilateral cooperation, greater ambition and decisions grounded in the best available science.” The article “‘Severe’ stress on oceans as rate of sea level rise doubles in 10 years, UN warns” by Karen McVeigh published in the Guardian discusses the key findings and action needed.
[Jun 04, 2026] ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: This is what the Global Justice Report published today by the World Inequality Lab makes very clear. Read the article by Jonathan Watts in the Guardian as an introduction. In an Opinion article also in the Guardian, several of the authors of the report, Thomas Piketty, Lucas Chancel, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky and Anmol Somanchi, state that a good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream, and they explain how it can be done. “Our plan is radical – but by transforming how we live on a finite planet, nearly everyone gains.”
While this equal and habitable world is still possible, it is very unlikely that we will transition to this world as long as greedy and unethical billionaires supported by governments they own compete to be the first trillionaire. The report underlines that the fight for an equal and habitable world has to be a fight against a system that rewards extraction and depletion of all resources and requires infinitely growing consumption devouring the Earth's life-support system; a system designed to increase inequality and sustain the exploitation of almost all to serve the greed of a few!
[May 17, 2026] The American epoch of oil is collapsing.: Jonathan Watts presents an excellent analysis of the on-going energy transition from fossil fuels to electricity in the article titled “The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly” published in the Guardian. China is the leader in this energy transition, and global leadership may well shift back to China.
[May 08, 2026] Injustice in the Emergency: In the article “Inequality causing 100,000 extra deaths a year from heat and cold in Europe” published in the Guardian, the author Ajit Niranjan reports on findings reported in the research paper “Socio-economic factors impact vulnerability to and burden of heat- and cold-related mortality in Europe” in Nature. Importantly, non-optimal temperatures disproportionally affect disadvantaged populations. This points to a growing climate-change related injustice.
[Apr 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.
[Apr 09, 2026] There Is No Way Back: In her latest blog, Jessica Wildfire gives a very clear and shilling description of the recent months, in which those who are in power have lost all pretense. There is no way back from that. It is now crystal clear that those wealthy people in power do not care for anything else than themselves. They realize that they may need far less of us others than they thought and can care even less about us. A very clarifying read!
Platform News
[Jun 04, 2026] ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: This is what the Global Justice Report published today makes very clear. Read the article by Jonathan Watts in the Guardian as an introduction. While this equal and habitable world is still possible, it is very unlikely that we will transition to this world as long as greedy and unethical billionaires supported by governments they own compete to be the first trillionaire. The report underlines that the fight for an equal and habitable world has to be a fight against a system that rewards extraction and depletion of all resources and requires infinitely growing consumption devouring the Earth's life-support system; a system designed to increase inequality and sustain the exploitation of almost all to serve the greed of a few!
[May 28, 2026] No King Day on June 14, 2026: The No Kings movement has announced a nationwide event on June 14, 2026, directly counter-programming the 80th birthday celebrations for Donald Trump and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout on the south lawn of the White House.
