The Climate Change public relations machine is now obsolete. The attempt to get the public to listen; in a mix of obfuscated and complex science - has failed. End of story.
It is
quite clear that the world has hit
Peak growth already. This is something that most climate scientists are not really understanding properly. They also seem to misunderstand the fact that it doesn't matter how much oil and coal remains beneath the ground. If it takes MORE energy to get out, than you get from burning - then it's a total waste of time. That applies for remaining coal reserves, oil shale, deep-ocean, tar-sands, etc. And burning these things to "keep warm" or "cook food" is not the sort of usage that has sent this world into crisis. It is the burning of these things for industrial profit, manufacturing, etc that has been the driver.
I had an article published concerning Peak Oil vis a vis climate change, and one commenter wrote the following:-
"It is supremely obvious ANY additional CO2e is not just ill-advised, but supremely dangerous, and this is an obvious conclusion. When we add in the residence time of CO2 being centuries."
It is profound ignorance like that which makes me very irritated. Do they want poor people to starve to death or go cold? Really? Also..maybe they should actually check the figures of the sort of things that overwhelmingly contribute to CO2:-
(In the case of Britain):-
http://www.guardian....arbonfootprints
Now think about what the figures would be if people started growing their own food, burned charcoal or bio-methane to heat and cook their own food, and used only public transport and local materials, etc.
I also get arguments from people saying "well, recent studies on feedback mechanisms mean that we are going to face up to 4C warming from just a 1C rise - and this will happen even if we drastically cut CO2 today". They claim that the feedbacks are all inherently +C in their effects and that there is growing certainty in that +C picture. But there isn't - as this NASA/NOAA study seems to illustrate:-
http://www.scienceda...01208085145.htm
We now have no choice at all - but to change our economic system to one based on a steady-state, non-debt paradigm. We are facing a potential mass-default on the debt in every nation-state up to its heels in toxic derivatives. The collateral on the debt no longer exists in a world where oil has peaked and can no longer meet growing demand. No amount of fossil-fuels remaining on this planet - can replace the current global economic edifice that has been created by oil. Contraction is inevitable, and that threatens very dangerous geopolitical consequences. Oil is liquid hegemonic power. The consequences of global warfare are very great if powers insist on holding onto oil as some form of industrial hegemony.
Climate scientist Kevin Anderson said in Cancun that
“the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years". If we are past peak growth and if we are at the point of
debt-saturation, please explain to me how these nations can keep growing overall in the next 5 years (never mind the next 20)? And then please explain to me what happens when we go to war with China or Russia over
energy-reserves in Eurasia?
We have NO CHOICE but to act now. Our economy is going to shrink regardless, we are going to get poorer and poorer, we are going to get bogged down in wars, rationing is coming and potential mass die-offs of people. Look what happens to a global fossil-fuel economy when oil reaches $300 a barrel. It turns off like a light-switch.
The "end of growth" reality is easier to articulate to people than the more complex issue of anthropogenic global warming. This is because we have zero evidence that oil production is going to regain its all-time peak that it acquired in 2006. Even if "abiotic oil" exists (unlikely) - it doesn't mean much for people if they can't have access to it and companies are unable to harness its apparent existence. I've even heard people on the libertarian right-wing who are contemplating preparing for a massive economic collapse and starting to engage in survivalist movements. They just need to realise that community is more important than rugged individualism in a post-peak world.
That's the bottomline.
Edited by PersianPaladin, 10 January 2011 - 23:57 .
