Pages

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Life Matters

"Even very ambitious mitigation" can't change the fact that the world has already "locked in" mid-century warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial times, the World Bank warns. It "confirms what scientists have been saying—past emissions have set an unavoidable course to warming over the next two decades, which will affect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people the most," stated Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank. Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change, explained, is that the greenhouse gas emissions already released into the atmosphere mean that "for next twenty years, the die has been cast."

This warming brings increased threats to food and water security and jeopardizes poverty-reduction efforts. Their report looked at how the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa will be impacted by more frequent weather extremes including heatwaves and drought. These extremes will be the "new climate normal."

With a 2°C rise—which the planet is on track to hit by mid-century—Brazil's soybean yield could decrease up to 70 percent, while melting glaciers will threaten cities in the region. Melting glaciers threaten Central Asia with torrential flooding as well. Thawing of permafrost in northern Russia threatens to unleash stored methane, contributing to a climate feedback loop. In the Middle East and North Africa, increased overall temperatures and more frequent heat-waves threaten already scarce water resources, a fact that could contribute to further conflict. Now that we all agree that climate change is happening, it has become an emergency after at least two decades of denial and procrastination, and requires urgent action. Of course the World Bank offer little in solutions except as recommended by Kim: "World leaders and policy makers should embrace affordable solutions like carbon pricing and policy choices that shift investment to clean public transport, cleaner energy and more energy efficient factories, buildings and appliances." Like all reformers Kim reckons we can easily solve climate change with a little economic tweaking, a carbon tax or support for renewables.

The Socialist Party is not reticent in offering critiques of others proposed path - System change, what system change? Action on climate - what type of action now? It helps clarify our situation and activists should find strength in useful criticism of particular advocated paths, maybe even a wakeup call that individual participants hadn't fully understood before, then have a much better idea of how to proceed. Paths that are outside of this box don't get anywhere near the adequate attention or debate they deserve. Current policy proposals excludes meaningful debate on real paths to climate solution because all policy formation is dominated by fossil fuel controlled bodies, by 'dominant advocacy coalitions' in governments and organizations themselves mostly completely captured by fossil fuel and other related business interests.


Russell Brand writes in his book “There is another way. There is the way. To live in accordance with truth, to accept we are on a planet that has resources and people on it. We have to respect the planet so we can use the resources to nourish the people. Somehow this simple equation has been allowed to become extremely confusing.” What is being demanded is not whimsical, he adds later, but “pragmatism, systems that function.” Yet none of this happens, and “can't because they [i.e. rich elites, big corporations and those who serve them in governments] have prioritised a bizarre, selfish and destructive idea over common sense.” Russel Brand asks plaintively:Why does the old maxim ‘From each according to his means, to each according to his needs' still linger in our conscience, even after all the “capitalist lies and communist [sic] misadventure” of the past century?

No comments:

Post a Comment