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> "the western fossil fuel field in Turkmenistan, on the Caspian coast, leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8m tonnes. Together,
by sph 4y ago
> "the western fossil fuel field in Turkmenistan, on the Caspian coast, leaked 2.6m tonnes of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8m tonnes. Together, the two fields released emissions equivalent to 366m tonnes of CO2, more than the UK’s annual emissions"
> "Most of the facilities leaking the methane were owned by Turkmenoil, the national oil company"
Makes me wonder if we should one day have, alongside the crime against humanity, the crime against nature itself.
- robin_reala 4y agoThere’s an extensive push to get an international legal basis on this. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecocide .
- paganel 4y agoIf that means the Global South invading countries like the US or the UK in order to stop big ecociders like Shell, Exxon, Chevron or P&G, then I’m all for it. Unfortunately we all know that those are not the intended targets of that legislation.
- jupp0r 4y agoInvading other countries is against international law, and is exactly what these regulations aim to prevent.
- paganel 4y agoSo, then, how are they going to stop those supposed ecocides? Meaning, how are they going to enforce those regulations on countries that are not following them?
- red-iron-pine 4y agoThere are enforcement methods that don't involve invasions
- paganel 4y agoSuch as? More to the point, and putting ecocide and genocide in a similar ballpark, doesn’t anyone remember Rwanda anymore? Or Srebrenica? (this latter labeled technically as a massacre). Does anyone believe that those atrocities could have been stopped by “harsh words” alone? Or by economic sanctions? They weren’t. Enforcement in this case means imposition of force, which in an inter-state situation means invasion or, at the very least, a military attack (see Kosovo in ‘99, technically not an invasion).
- jupp0r 4y agoI didn't count UN sanctioned peacekeeping as "invasion", but I can see how this could be seen as a purely semantic distinction. I personally think it should be one instrument on the table as a matter of last resort, mainly for the purpose of deterrence.
- jones6ofMont 4y ago[dead]
- foverzar 4y ago> Invading other countries is against international law This is a popular assumption, but it is not true. At least, definitely not now: US and Europe invading multiple countries and international community being chill about it had set a strong enough precedent. C'mon, NATO had recently updated its doctrines to allow it warfare over climate - we have all the preconditions for fun stuff.
- h0l0cube 4y agoMaybe more carrot than stick makes sense here as law enforcement doesn't really work for an authoritarian state. If there was enough financial incentive to lower emissions and keep them lower, I'm sure the Turkmenistan government would. Unfortunately (according to TFA) they are more allied to Russia and China which take a hands-off approach at best.
- DrScientist 4y agoI wonder which country has the most emissions? ( China followed by US, and India ). If you adjust by per capita - then all the energy producing countries are top - but then they are emitting for other people - Turkmenistan isn't producing all that energy for domestic consumption. Easy to point fingers. It's the consumers, not the producers per se that are the problem.
- kashunstva 4y ago> Turkmenistan isn't producing all that energy for domestic consumption > It's the consumers, not the producers per se that are the problem. Irrespective of which party is the proximate cause of energy extraction in Turkmenistan, the large volume leakage of methane according to the article is not an inevitable byproduct of oil drilling. What’s more, the incremental costs of controlling methane emissions are tiny. And finally, consumers couldn’t go re-light methane flares at the drill sites even if they wanted to.
- red-iron-pine 4y agoIn other words, Turkmen Oil is fucking up and not doing basic methane leak management. All of the discussions around who is a larger consumer are pointless; the point is that they could be doing more, and at a very small cost to them directly.
- RobotToaster 4y ago>If you adjust by per capita - then all the energy producing countries are top If you use consumption based accounting, Luxembourg comes out number 1, apparently. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita#Consumption-based_emissions:_annual_carbon_dioxide_emissions_in_metric_tons_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...
- You-Are-Right 4y ago[dead]
- bregma 4y ago[flagged]
- blokey 4y agoWhat the heck does same-sex marriage have to do with "crimes against nature"? Note, that same-sex relationships exist /throughout/ nature and marriage itself is not "natural". Me thinks your biases and agenda is showing...
- zowie_vd 4y agoI don't necessarily agree with his point but homosexuality (/sodomy/buggery) used to be categorized as a crime against nature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_against_nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_against_nature
- Sharlin 4y ago[dead]
- sph 4y agoI knew someone was thick enough to make that remark, seemingly unaware of the two different meanings of the word "nature". 1. Basic or inherent characteristics of something. What GP is trolling about. 2. The entire global ecosystem and physical phenomena on planet Earth or the Universe at large. What I was talking about.
- emptyfile 4y ago[dead]
- Keyframe 4y agoMakes me wonder if we should one day have, alongside the crime against humanity, the crime against nature itself. It's not necessarily different.
- sph 4y agoIt is, because the latter is worse. Being a major cause of climate change does not only affect humanity, but future generations and all life on Earth as well. It is an order of magnitude worse than genocide. When a single entity is responsible for it, because of negligence or malice, the punishment should be more draconian than if it "only" caused harm to humanity.
- drewcoo 4y agoI live in the US, where we don't recognize any of that.