Like the UK Government, the Indian Government says it is ‘green’ whilst doing everything to support climate changing fossil fuels!
By Raaj Manik At least five innocent protesters were killed after police opened fire on a protest of 1500 villagers who were protesting against two China-backed power plants in Chittagong, a locati…
One of the reason, I have no time for the Green Party, The Guardian, Jonathon Porritt, George Monbiot, Natalie Bennett and the like. Is that, they continue to believe we can continue consuming the World’s resources, but somehow in a different way! Whilst we only have the one planet, with its finite resources?
In his 2006 landmark report on how we should respond to the climate crisis, Nicholas Stern characterised global warming as an ‘externality’, a damage to others due to market activity whose cost is not met by those who cause it.
Indeed, Stern characterised climate change as ‘the largest ever market failure’. In other words, the problem of global warming arises because the market system is not working well enough, and if we could find a way to correct the fault then the problem would be solved.
It was a geophysicist, Brad Werner, who in 2012 argued precisely the opposite case – that we are in this mess not because the market system is not working well enough but because it is working too well. Werner’s startling presentation to the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union was titled ‘Is the Earth F**ked?’ and he posed in public the question climate…
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There is a Global movement calling for the end of ecocide: https://www.endecocide.org/en/. Something I think Mark Burton is striving for with Steady State Manchester. Manchester City Council, under Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein, have been pushing a policy of build, build and build more. This is offices, retail units, hotels and home-to-buy, when what is needed, is investment in front-line services and council housing. And as Mark points out, there are those, who are supposed to be ‘Green’, also wanting to follow the policy of build, build and more build. Which would would only drive climate change and inequality.
That is why I was to come across the European Trade Union Institute pursuing: Social innovation and equality keys to social ecological transition. At the bottom is a link to a presentation, showing how austerity has driven inequality. One change I would make to the presentation, is slide 5. I would change the box with ‘Inclusive Growth’ in it, to ‘Inclusive Prosperity’.
Yesterday, 3rd December, 2014, The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, made his autumn statement in which he set out the government’s plans on the economy.
He confirmed that a Tory government will continue to cut public spending in the years to come. Indeed it turns out, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. As the Office of Budget Responsibility puts it, the government’s plans mean that
Between 2009-10 and 2019-20, spending on public services, administration and grants by central government is projected to fall from 21.2 per cent to 12.6 per cent of GDP and from £5,650 to £3,880 per head in 2014-15 prices. Around 40 per cent of these cuts would have been delivered during this Parliament, with around 60 per cent to come during the next. The implied squeeze on local authority spending is similarly severe.
http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/December_2014_EFO-web513.pdf
For a sound analysis of where these cuts will fall, see Richard Murphy’s piece, accurately…
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Despite continuing warnings that we are getting close to a 2 degree global temperature rise, big business is still pushing the construction of old, dirty technology. In the UK the Government is still pushing through waste and biomass incinerator plants which are also major contributors to CO2 rises. But, Government and Big Business claim they are carbon neutral, which of course they are not. There are better technologies to deal with waste and biomass which do not produce large amounts of CO2. Such as AD biogesters, which have been for years in Europe and South America.
Also, energy efficiency is a subject talk about but little is actively being done about it. Just wander around a large town or city to see how much energy is needlessly being wasted, mostly on advertisements.
Revealed: the coal industry’s plan to devastate the climate | Greenpeace International.
An article on Climate Change, going into some detail on why we are experiencing some very unusual weather. It is those in the Global South and the poor in the Global North who suffer most, from these extreme weather patterns. And as he states, we are now on a slippery slope downwards, which we will not be able to get back up. And what do our leaders do, more of the same, which is the cause of Global Warming. It is time, those in the Global North, cut back on their excessive consumption and waste. It is time to throw away the motor car and give up flying on holidays abroad. Because, in the end, this is going to adversely affect everyone, no matter how much money you have. You cannot eat money, gold, shares, bonds or even bricks and mortar.
An in depth report on why we should be very worried about the melting ice-caps. and why we in the Global North should be cutting back our excessive consumption, especially of fossil fuels. Time to ditch the car and walk, cycle or use public transport. And do you really need to fly any where?
A very interesting animation showing populations, births, deaths and CO2 emissions. If you hover your mouse over a country, you can see what the countries CO2 emission are at the time of viewing, the total CO2 emissions per person and whether this country has reduced it’s CO2 emission from 4 years earlier. It gives a very visual indication of those countries that need to do the most to reduce CO2 emissions. And of course, the UK is one of the villains, compare us to Norway. The US is of course the really big bady. Basically politicians in the Global North have just talked about it then supported the fossil fuel industries in continuing polluting.
There may be question marks over the accuracy but I feel this is a good visual tool.
Breathingearth – CO2, birth & death rates by country, simulated real-time.
A couple of articles which have cropped up recently. Firstly one from the Rolling Stone magazine about the seriousness of Global Warming and the failure of our inept politicians. The other article is an article in response to a very flawed report arguing against regulations and product energy efficiency standards.
Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math | Politics News | Rolling Stone.
Overriding Common Sense: An Attack on Energy Efficiency Standards.
An article from John Broderick from the Tyndall Centre raising awareness that to combat Climate Change, we urgently need to reduce our energy consumption and how we use that energy. Something the Government and Manchester City Council do not seem to understand. Manchester City Council continue to let property developers build to the lower energy efficiency standards and ensure they include measure like rain water harvesting and grey water recycling. Walk around Manchester after midnight and see all the wasted energy from unnecessary lighting on, in buildings and outside them. The profusion of illuminated and automated advertising hoardings. And yet, the Council still talk about their ‘Manchester – A Certain Future’, without taking any real action.
New Statesman – Acknowledging the scale and urgency of the challenge we face.
In Manchester we have the council investing in the expansion of Manchester Airport, promising it will bring jobs and improve the local economy. Neither is true, especially when the majority of people who work at the Airport do not come from Manchester. And Airports suck money out of the local economy, with people flying and spending their money abroad. Manchester City Council has made very little progress towards a low carbon future, even though Siemens has it one of it’s Headquarters in Manchester.
This post is by Nick Mabey, chief executive and a founder director of E3G. It was first published on Guardian Sustainable Business.
Walking into Westminister tube station, members of parliament currently find themselves surrounded by a phalanx of purple adverts announcing that “The road to economic growth is … a flight path”. This is just the most visible manifestation of a massive business-led campaign arguing the importance of increased airport capacity to the UK economy.
At one level you have to admire the chutzpah of the British Airports Authority (BAA) in making this argument. New airport capacity is irrelevant to UK economic recovery and will not provide a single additional job before the end of the decade. With business passengers making up only 12% of total UK flights it is also clear that absolute capacity constraints are not a material business issue. But at least BAA’s opportunism is understandable…
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patricktsudlow 