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Global warming: looking beyond Kyoto
Zoe Kenny, Green Left
… the kind of “drastic reductions” in fossil-fuel emissions that are required have barely even registered on the policy agendas of governments like Australia’s.
The degree to which the Howard government and the Bush regime in the US have shifted rhetoric on climate change reflects the cracks in the political and corporate elite over climate change. Those who now see global warming as a threat to the stability of capitalist economies, and, therefore, a threat to corporate profit, reflect an increasing body of elite opinion (as, indeed, is reflected by Gore).
But the kind of changes that are urgently needed – severe restrictions on greenhouse emissions, massive investment in public transport and renewable energy sources, access to clean technology for poor nations, and the eradication of the First World/Third World divide – will mean cutting into the “right” of corporations to profit at the expense of the environment. Governments that rule on behalf of the corporate rich, like Howard’s, will only take these steps – which are needed now – under pressure from a strong, grassroots environment movements.
However the global warming crisis also raises questions about the sustainability of the capitalist economic system.
(20 Oct 2006)
A long discussion summarizing recent developments in climate change. What is unusual is that this article appears in Green Left, an influential leftist publication from Australia. Most leftist groups are weak when it comes to climate change and environmental issues (note: some individual leftists are quite good, such as John Bellamy Foster of “Monthly Review”).
I wonder if the problem is that all three of the current political-economic models developed during the age of fossil fuels (~1800 to present):
- unrestrained capitalism
- restrained capitalism (aka social democracy)
- state socialism
An understanding of the pathologies of fossil fuels may have to come from outside these models.
-BA
Kent Council’s 12 ways to combat climate change
This Is Local London
RECOMMENDATIONS to combat climate change have been put forward by a council after a nine-month investigation.
Kent County Council (KCC)’s select committee put forward 12 recommendations including an assessment of climate change impacts on its services.
Flood risk will be taken into account, as will water resources, emergency planning, using alternative fuels in KCC buildings and vehicles, renewable energy and sustainable construction.
continued…
The 160-page report went before cabinet on October 16.
KCC cabinet member for environment, highways and waste, Councillor Keith Ferrin, said: “This is a vital issue for our time. What we do today affects Kent’s environment tomorrow and will leave a lasting legacy for our children.”
KCC’s full council will consider the recommendations on December 14.
(24 Oct 2006)
PDF versions of the KCC report are available at KCC Select Committee Report on Climate Change – October 2006.
Climate change ‘will threaten Britain’s water supply’
Andy McSmith, UK Independent
Britain’s water supplies, health, ecosystem, planning system and tourist industry are likely to be severely hit by climate change, a government report has warned.
…One part of yesterday’s research project published by the Department of Environment concluded that by the middle of the century, comparatively dry winters like last year’s will be followed by even drier summers, creating a significant threat to water supplies. Another part warned that railway companies are being prevented from taking precautions against extreme weather conditions that could cause rails to buckle, points to fail and flooding to wash out routes. The way the industry is regulated, with the emphasis on reducing costs, makes it “very difficult” for companies such as Network Rail to decide what to do about climate change.
(25 Oct 2006)
Baffin Island a global warming hot spot
Nathan VanderKlippe, Edmonton Journal via Vancouver Sun
YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. – Sea ice is disappearing from the waters around Baffin Island nearly four times as fast as the rest of the Arctic, according to new research published Tuesday.
The ice concentration around the island has decreased by 10 to 20 per cent per decade since 1979, the year when satellite records became available. The Arctic as a whole has averaged a three to five per cent per decade loss in that same time.
Kent Moore, the chair of the University of Toronto department of chemical and physical science who conducted the research in advance of a major weather research expedition to Baffin Island next year, called Baffin Island a ”bellwether” for the Far North.
”I was quite surprised at that result. I wasn’t expecting to see such a large decrease,” he said. ”It’s very widespread, occurring all around Baffin Island. So I think it’s a concern when you see such large changes.”
