“Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it. Whatever we
do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things
are bound together ... all things connect.” -
Chief Seattle
Climate Change. Global Warming. Holes
in the Ozone. The Big Melt. Methane
Release. CO2 Emissions. Peak Oil. Carbon
Tax. Climate Refugees. Acidification.
Deforestation. Desertification. Extreme
Weather. El Niño. Kyoto Accord. Copenhagen
Summit...It can be difficult to approach what's
going on with the environment of planet earth
without getting overwhelmed. The bottom line
is this: Human caused changes to the balance
of nature are increasing, and are having such
negative impacts we are in danger of damaging
the balance of life enough to make the
planet uninhabitable sooner rather later. This
catastrophe is unnecessary, but the big business
polluters who are responsible for pushing us
towards this scenario take advantage of our
confusion and inaction. The vast majority of
scientists agree that climate change is a global
emergency, but the good news is you don't
have to be a scientist to understand enough
about the issue to become part of the growing
global movement proposing and demanding
the necessary changes to save the environment
and humanity at the same time.
The Climate Crisis
Severe and unheard of weather disasters
from this summer alone are evidence that
something is going terribly wrong with the
environment. 99.84% of the land in California
is experience drought. Massive heatwaves in
Pakistan and India killed more than 3000
people. Puerto Rico went through its strictest
water rationing in history. More than 100,000
people were ordered to leave their homes in
Japan as torrential rains from Typhoon Etau
wreaked havoc. The examples of increasingly
drastic and uncontrollable weather changes
are endless.
On a broader scale, 2015 is set to beat 2014
as the hottest year on record. The rate of
droughts, floods and storms is five times
higher now than the 1970s. Glacier National
Park in Montana now only has 25 glaciers
left from 150 present in the year 1910. The
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are
melting and the extent and thickness of the
Arctic sea ice is decreasing. Global sea level
rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in
the last century. The rate in the last decade,
however, is nearly double of the entire century
before. 27% of the world’s coral reefs have
been lost to “bleaching” from increasing water
temperatures. If present rates of destruction
are allowed to continue, 60% of the world’s
coral reefs will be destroyed over the next 30
years. Everything is connected, and it’s not
difficult to see the growing chain reaction of
climate catastrophes wreaking havoc on the
earth.
Of course there are human consequences to
all of this as well. With continental interiors
drying out, the chief scientist at the U. S. State
Department in 2009 predicted a billion people
will suffer famine within twenty or thirty
years. The International Red Cross estimates
that there are more environmental refugees
than political refugees fleeing from wars and
other conflicts. The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says
36 million people were displaced by natural
disasters in 2009, the last year such a report
was taken. Scientists predict this number
could rise to 200 million by 2050.
Rising sea levels jeopardize life for millions
of coastal populations. Half the population
of Bangladesh lives less than 5 meters (16.5
feet) above sea level. In 1995, Bangladesh’s
Bhola Island was half-submerged by rising
sea levels, leaving 500,000 people homeless.
Conservative scientific estimates predict
Bangladesh will lose 17 percent of its land
by 2050 due to flooding caused by climate
change. The could create 20 million climate
refugees in Bangladesh alone.
What the Scientists Say – Why’s it’s
Human-Made
“One can see from space how the human
race has changed the Earth. Nearly all of
the available land has been cleared of forest
and is now used for agriculture or urban
development. The polar icecaps are shrinking
and the desert areas are increasing. At night,
the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas
are lit up. All of this is evidence that human
exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical
limit. But human demands and expectations
are ever-increasing. We cannot continue to
pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean
and exhaust the land. There isn’t any more
available.”
- Stephen Hawking, renowned scientist
(2007)
While there a few, mostly well funded,
scientists who argue that everything we’ve
just described is either exaggerated or part
of the normal climate cycles of planet earth.
However, NASA states that “Ninety-seven
percent of climate scientists agree that
climate-warming trends over the past century
are very likely due to human activities, and
most of the leading scientific organizations
worldwide have issued public statements
endorsing this position.”
A lot of climate change is caused because of
human caused carbon emissions. The David
Suzuki Foundation explains this phenomenon:
“- Life on Earth is possible because of the
warmth of the sun. While some of this
incoming solar radiation bounces back into
space, a small portion of it is trapped by the
delicate balance of gases that make up our
atmosphere. Without this layer of insulation,
Earth would simply be another frozen rock
hurtling through space. Carbon dioxide
(CO2) is the most important gas in this layer
of insulation.
- Carbon is stored all over the planet — in
plants, soil, the ocean, and even us. We release
it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide
through activities such as burning fossil fuels
(coal, oil and gas) and cutting down trees. As
a result, today’s atmosphere contains 42 per
cent more carbon dioxide than it did before
the industrial era.
- We have released so much carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases that our planet’s
atmosphere is now like a thick, heat-trapping
blanket. By disrupting the atmospheric
balance that keeps the climate stable, we
are now seeing extreme effects around the
globe...”
Worldwide, since 1880 the average surface
temperature has gone up by at least 0.8 °C.
The current mainstream scientific consensus
is that a rise of more the 2°C would mean
that catastrophic climate change would
be inevitable. But a new draft study being
published by a team of 17 leading international
climate scientists warns that even 2 degrees
of warming is “highly dangerous” and could
cause sea level rise of “at least several meters”
this century, leaving most of the world’s
coastal cities uninhabitable. Unfortunately,
NASA estimates that, “ In the absence of
major action to reduce emissions, global
temperature is on track to rise by an average
of 6 °C (10.8 °F)”
Since the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean
waters has increased by about 30 percent. This
increase is also the result of humans emitting
more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and
hence more being absorbed into the oceans.
According to Scientific American, “Estimates
of future carbon dioxide levels, based on
business as usual emission scenarios, indicate
that by the end of this century the surface
waters of the ocean could be nearly 150
percent more acidic, resulting in a pH that
the oceans haven’t experienced for more than
20 million years.” This will destroy the entire
marine life balance in ways which are difficult
to even comprehend.
Another big concern is the thaw of Arctic
permafrost which contains vast quantities of
CO2 as well as methane, which traps heat
over 20 times more effectively than CO2. This
would create what scientists call a “positive
feedback” as more global warming would cause
more thawing of Arctic permafrost, leading to
more emissions of carbon and methane into
the atmosphere, leading to more warming and
more thawing of Arctic permafrost. This leads
to doomsday scenario called, “Abrupt Climate
Change”.
There are countless other examples of other
human caused environmental concerns
which fill entire books and scientific journals:
the unchecked hyper-resource extraction
projects in mining, LNG and gas drilling and
hydraulic fracking, holes in the ozone layer
from the use of dangerous chemicals, massive
deforestation, mountains of garbage...it really
is impossible to deny that humans need to
change the way our societies are organized in
monumental ways.
But where to start?
Latin-American Shows the Way
“Stopping climate change cannot be left
to those who profit from the destruction
of nature. That is why we the peoples must
directly accept our own responsibility for
the continuation of life and society by taking
control of governments, and using that
power to pressure and force government and
businesses alike to take drastic and immediate
measures to stop us from falling into this
abyss of nature’s destruction.”
- Bolivian President Evo Morales
Humanity is at an pivotal time. We live on a
planet which has more than enough resources
to provide for everyone who lives on it.
Humans have also developed technologically
so incredibly that we have all of the resources
available to ensure that everyone has everything
they need. Yet we live in a world where the
majority go hungry, war and occupation
dominate the political landscape and the
environment is being rapidly destroyed. As
long as the primary driver of society remains
profit and not people, this will continue as all
other considerations are thrown into the ever
growing garbage heap. Climate change is the
symptom, capitalism is the problem.
Revolutionary Socialist Cuba Shows the
Way
Cuba has been leading the way for many years
now. A World Wildlife Fund study concluded
Cuba is the only country in the world with
both a high UN Human Development Index
and a relatively small “ecological footprint”.
The study concluded that if the world followed
Cuba’s example we’d only need the resources
of one Earth to sustain us indefinitely. This is
truly amazing for a country that inhabits only
11.5 million people.
Now across, Latin-America, Cuba is joined
by countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and
Ecuador which are emphasizing the creation
of societies and economies based on social
justice and respect for the humanity and
environment. They are creating their own
regional organizations such as ALBA (The
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas)
which directly challenge the United States
and their big business friends. They do this
by emphasizing cooperation and exchange
based on mutual respect. The results have
been incredible, both for people and the
environment.
President Evo Morales has also proposed
a Global Referendum on Climate Change
with 5 simple questions which get to the
fundamentals of climate change. Enacting
this referendum worldwide would be a game
changer for the climate justice movement.
The Global Referedum on Climate Change
questions are:
1.Do you agree with re-establishing harmony
with nature while recognizing the rights of
Mother Earth?
2.Do you agree with changing this model
of over-consumption and waste that the
capitalist system represents?
3.Do you agree that developed countries reduce
and re-absorb their domestic greenhouse gas
emissions so that the temperature does not
rise more than 1 degree Celsius?
4.Do you agree with transferring all that is
spent in wars to protecting the planet and
allocate a budget for climate change that is
bigger than what is used for defense?
5.Do you agree with a Climate Justice
Tribunal to judge those who destroy Mother
Earth?
The Solution is International
Large climate justice movements have also
been growing around the world. The largest
climate march in history happened in New
York on September 21 of last year, with over
400,000 people joining the “Peoples Climate
March” and over 270,000 more participating
in 2000 coordinated actions in 166 countries
across the globe. The actions coincided with
the UN Climate Summit. The movement lives
on and will join forces again on November
29, with similar actions being called around
the UN Climate Summit in Paris. The stated
goal is to break last year’s record of the largest
climate change rally in history and “for the
entire world, for the first time, to agree to
the goal of a decarbonised global economy
powered by clean energy.”
Ultimately climate change is a global problem
and requires a global solution. One which recognizes that developing countries and poor and
working people around the world have had to suffer the greatest consequences due to the profit
driven and disastrous policies of first world governments and their big business allies. When
those who created the problem tell us it is impossible to fix, we must remind ourselves that if
all of the resources which are today squandered and war, occupation and the obscene drive for
super-profits were dedicated to creating a healthy and sustainable world we would have been
able to accomplish the feat years ago. As the slogan on many signs at the Peoples Climate March
said, “There is No Planet B”. We must all join the anti capitalist and climate justice movement
to continue to educate, organize and mobilize until we have the planet and livelihoods we all ned and deserve.
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