Global Warming

Among the dangerous threats facing our species (and in fact all species on this planet) today is the grave threat of climate change and global warming. The following article was posted on BBC News today.

Climate change 'hitting Africa'
Climate change is already affecting people across Africa and will wipe out efforts to tackle poverty there unless urgent action is taken, a report says.
Droughts are getting worse and climate uncertainty is growing, the research from a coalition of UK aid agencies and environmental groups says.

Climate change is an "unprecedented" threat to food security, it says.

It calls for a "climate-proof" model of development and massive emissions cuts to avoid "possibly cataclysmic change".

The report, Up In Smoke 2, updates previous research from the organisations - Oxfam, the New Economics Foundation and the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, an umbrella group of aid and green groups.


Global warming is set to make many of the problems which Africa already deals with, much, much worse
Andrew Simms
New Economics Foundation

It says that although climates across Africa have always been erratic, scientific research and the experience of the contributing groups "indicates new and dangerous extremes".

Arid or semi-arid areas in northern, western, eastern and parts of southern Africa are becoming drier, while equatorial Africa and other parts of southern Africa are getting wetter, the report says.

The continent is, on average, 0.5C warmer than it was 100 years ago, but temperatures have risen much higher in some areas - such as a part of Kenya which has become 3.5C hotter in the past 20 years, the agencies report.

Andrew Simms, from the New Economics Foundation, said: "Global warming is set to make many of the problems which Africa already deals with, much, much worse," he said.

"In the last year alone, 25 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have faced food crisis.

"Global warming means that that many dry areas are going to get drier and wet areas are going to get wetter. They are going to be caught between the devil of drought and the deep blue seas of floods."

He added that the "great tragedy" was that Africa had played virtually no role in global warming, a problem he said was caused by economic activity of the rich, industrial countries.

Mr Simms said unless climate change was tackled all the "best efforts" to help Africa could come to nothing.

One of the biggest threats is growing climate unpredictability, which makes subsistence farming difficult, the report says.

The average number of food emergencies in Africa per year almost tripled since the mid 1980s, it points out.

But it says that better planning to reduce the risk from disasters, together with developing agricultural practices that can withstand changing climates, have been shown to work and could help mitigate the impact if used be more widely.

'Overwhelming'

Up in Smoke 2 also laments the failure of industrialised governments to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Between $10bn (£5.2bn) and $40bn is needed annually, the report says, but industrialised countries have given only $43m - a tenth of the amount they have pledged - while rich country fossil fuel subsidies total $73bn a year.

The agencies say that greenhouse emissions cuts of 60% - 90% will ultimately be needed - way beyond the targets set in the Kyoto agreement.

"Climate change is overwhelming the situation in Africa... unless we take genuine steps now to reduce our emissions, people in the developed world will be condemning millions to hunger, starvation and death," said Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth.

The report comes two weeks before a key summit on climate change in Nairobi, where delegates will look at the progress made on the Kyoto agreement that requires industrial nations to cut their emissions by an average of 5.2% from 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012.

Delegates will also consider what system should be adopted when the current period ends.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/6092564.stm

Published: 2006/10/28 23:44:57 GMT

© BBC MMVI

One of the organisations behind the report has some additional information available here.

The actual report is available here.

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Update: 31/10/2006

The British Treasury and Cambridge University have also produced a related report about the economic consequences of global warming.

The report is available through the official website of the British Treasury, accessable by clicking here.

Essentially the conclusions of the report (available most easily through the executive summary) are nothing new. For instance, one of the important assertions of the report is that it will cost less to stem pollution now than it will cost to deal with the warming effects later. Of course, a pure capitalist system does not really care about the future, for systematic reasons. The current Robber Barrons (masters of big business) view their position as being at the top of a democratic structure in which votes are cast in dollars (or foreign equivalent). The opinions of the public (as viewed by where the money is going) is of course of paramount importantce. However, in this system that is based strictly on the here and now, future generations are of no value as they cannot cast their dollar-votes today. As such, anything that would adversely affect the bottom line now is rejected.

However, this particular aspect of the system is in contrast with the general will of the populations of the world, the majority of whom would like to see governments sign and impliment the Kyoto Protocols on global warming.

The important question, which shouldn't even have to be brought up in "democratic" states, is will our governments do what we want?
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Update: November 4, 2006

The AFP today reports on a demonstration in London 10,000 strong calling for urgent action on climate change.

On Monday, November 6, the second United Nations Climate Change conference for parties to the (1997) Kyoto Protocols on climate change will meet in Nairobi, Kenya. This event is likely to be overshadowed by coverage of the US elections set to take place on 7 November, and will not include a delegation from the United States as the US is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocols. However, as the US the worlds leading producer of CO2 (greenhouse gas) emissions which have been increasing at an alarming rate over the past few decades and are likely to continue to increase exponentially without immediate action being taken, such as pollution reduction to 2002 target levels, which still hadn't been reached by many industrialised nations by 2005, the time at which the target levels were set to decrease again. These are simple steps to take, and of the utmost importance for those who care about the world that we leave (or don't leave) our children.

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Update 07-11-06
Insects to Rule the Earth soon due to Global Warming. From Pravda.ru

A rise in the Earth’s temperature could lead to an increase in the number of insects worldwide, with potentially dire consequences for humans, a new study suggests.

New research shows that insect species living in warmer areas are more likely to undergo rapid population growth because they have higher metabolic rates and reproduce more frequently. The finding has scientists concerned that global warming could give rise to more fast-growing insect populations and that we could see a spike in the number of six-legged critters.

The consequences could be more serious than just a few extra bug bites each summer. “If they’re crop species, we could count on needing to use more pesticides and it could be very costly,” said Melanie Frazier, a doctoral student at the University of Washington and lead author of the study.

Insect-borne diseases are also a worry. Malaria, Lyme Disease and a host of others rely on insect vectors to spread among humans, and a swell in their populations could mean more infections.

Already, scientists have observed a widening of malarial zones with new cases appearing in previously unaffected areas. The change is thought to be due to rising temperatures and an expansion of areas habitable for mosquitoes. The new research, detailed in the October issue of The American Naturalist, shows rising temperatures would mean insects would not only spread out, but also multiply more quickly.

...it continues...

Respect

Bishop Desmond Tutu once said "a person is a person because he recognises others as persons." The implication of that recognition is an integral part of my definition for what I believe is an important concept: Respect.

For an individual to be treated with respect, they must exhibit respect. There are concepts I believe that a morally guided person must have respect for. The very idea that we are capable of contemplating such concepts is unique to the human species, as we are the only ones capable of rational thought; that is what differentiates us from every other species of organism on this planet. Without the higher level of thought that is the basis for the particularly human system of intellectual organisation, we are no better than or different from slugs or bacteria.

Today, as in many other dark times in human history, there are individuals who for one reason or another have lost sight of the important notion of respect. For the greater good of our species, we must all maintain a level of respect for our fellow man, for the fragile ecosystem that sustains all life on this planet, for the sanctity of human life, for Morality, for the equality of all persons, for the freedom to pursue individual thought, for reason, for true freedom, for human rights, for love, and for knowledge.

An american race car driver by the name of Richard Petty once said "if guys don't respect themselves, they don't respect other people." Perhaps powerful people in our world today have no respect for themselves. Perhaps that's how they are able to justify taking away the freedom and the dignity of their fellow human beings, taking their lives, and doing so without any respect for basic humanity.

Aristotle once said "At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." There is no justice for those who have been tortured in Nazi-style prison camps. There is no law controlling the actions of perverted individuals operating illegally in an occupied country. This can only bring out the worst in people, at both the giving and receiving end of these policies.

Certain powerful individuals in the world today exhibit a total lack of respect for knowledge. The current prevailing mentality of certain regimes to move towards a military attack as the first option for a course of action is to ignore the lessons history has taught us as to the consequences of such a doctrine. Empires have crumbled under the weight of their own military ambitions. Such a contempt for knowledge, and for learning history's lessons, is contrary to the teachings of one of the most influential writings on military strategy, The Art of War by Sun Tzu. One of the main points of this writing is that knowledge is the most essential element for victory. The attack as a first response doctrine is also contrary to the teachings of the oldest recorded philosophical teachings, the Tao Te Ching. The Tao's book of Leadership and Strategy tells a story of a master thief who was caught stealing from the army of an ancient chinese king. The leader of that army, knowledgeable in the art of successful conflict resolution, decided that he would put the thief to use rather than put him to death for his crime. The theif was sent to the enemy camp where he stole the pillow from the bed of the sleeping enemy leader. The next day that pillow was returned with apologies. The enemy leader, fearing that if it were so easy for the pillow to be stolen from under his head as he slept it must be also possible for him to be killed in the same fashion, offered a truce and withdrew. The end result was the most preferable one: victory without any bloodshed.

This concept is an important one to note. I have mentioned previously my views on the fact that violence only brings more violence, as evidenced by the continuing "resistance" in Iraq, the ongoing bloody conflict between Palestine and Israel, murderous attacks by and against the Marxist rebels in Columbia, and so on. If a doctrine or mentality or virtuous intent is genuinely so strong, there is no need for continuing violence as to do so only sparks more angry resistance. If the virtuous intent of America is to be believed, they must stop their constant resort to violence, as it is the least desirable method towards an attempt at conflict resolution.

For some time now many powers have shown a contemptuous lack of respect for the fragile ecosystem that supports life on this planet. Our species must learn to enact the concepts of respect not only towards each other but towards our environment. Without the environment, there will be no human species for it to support. While the trend of Global Warming is well documented in recent years, startling knowledge has come to light recently that leads many experts to believe that the process of global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions is to increase exponentially in speed. This is due to the fact that ice shelfs that have covered a peat bog the size of France and Germany combined (peat produces Methane gas, a potent greenhouse gas) are melting rapidly so as to expose the Greenhouse gas producing substance. This will accellerate the warming process, which has already drastically increased in recent years as a result of industrial pollution. Not only is there a high probablity that such accelerated warming will leave large parts of this planet uninhabitable, but there is also research that suggests that it could lead to an abrupt non-linear climate change event. It is important to note that the end of the last ice age came abruptly, with the world temperature shifting from ice to temperate in only 20 years. Such a climate shift today would likely wipe out a large percentage of the worlds population, in addition to much animal and plant life. The continuing lack of respect for the environment in which we live will eventually, if it continues as it is going now, lead to there being no environment left for us to respect, and in turn we won't be around to try to fix the issue. Voluntary reduction of the level of increase of emissions from the worlds most dangerous pollutor are not enough. If changes are not made soon, and those in power realise that respecting the environment is vital to our survival, the consequences could be catastrophic.

Treat a person like an animal and they will behave like an animal. Treat a person with dignity and they will act with respect. To torture and detain our fellow man, to murder, to destroy: such actions by the worlds most powerful can only bring out the worst in people. I believe that we, as a people, have the capability to be so much better, and when leading with such an example others can be sure to follow. By leading with the example of kill first ask questions later (question 1: where are those WMDs?), we only encourage others to do the same. If we treat our environment with no respect, the environment will be incapable of showing us respect (allowing our continued existance). Changes must be made soon, because by all accounts later might be too late.




I shall leave you today with the inspired words of a U.S. Senator/ Basketball star by the name of Bill Bradley:

"Respect your fellow human being, treat them fairly, disagree with them honestly, enjoy their friendship, explore your thoughts about one another candidly, work together for a common goal and help one another achieve it. No destructive lies. No ridiculous fears. No debilitating anger."