Hi all,

It's a good question, but the answer is that we HAVE TO build a green economy, GLOBALLY.

The IPCC is hiding the truth that we have already run out of carbon budget.  We are already on course for extremely dangerous warming - we are already committed to extremely dangerous warming - there is already too much long-life CO2 in the atmosphere and, together with current methane emissions and Arctic albedo loss, we are committed to several degrees warming by mid century and many degrees by end century. 

No amount of emissions reduction will prevent catastrophe.  There is nothing we can do about this simply by converting to green energy.  We have to get at the root cause of the problems: an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere, too much methane escaping into the atmosphere, and an Arctic losing its albedo as it proceeds unchecked towards total meltdown.

The answers to these three underlying problems all require interventions of one kind or other.  We cannot simply hope and wait for Mother Nature to redress the balance and take us back to the comfortable world that we have been brought up to expect to last indefinitely.

1.  We require interventions to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, faster than we are putting CO2 into the atmosphere, aiming to bring the level down quickly to a safe level, e.g. below 360 ppm within two decades.

2.  We require interventions to suppress methane: both fugitive methane from oil and gas production/distribution and natural methane released from wetlands, land permafrost and, most importantly, Arctic subsea permafrost.

3.  We require interventions to cool the Arctic and restore albedo, principally by saving the sea ice, which otherwise will disappear for most of summer within a decade (almost certainly ensuring that intervention will be too late to prevent catastrophic sea level rise, climate chaos from disrupted jet stream behaviour, and possibly runaway global warming from methane feedback).

The good news:
All these interventions can be successful, if pursued with sufficient determination and international collaboration.

The bad news:
Nobody in the scientific community seems to be accepting the nature and scale of the underlying problems, let alone alerting governments, industry or environmentalists to the required interventions.

While all attention is on emissions reductions, we are not tackling the three underlying problems.

Could the TUC be the first body to acknowledge what's happening, and what needs to be done?

To tackle the excess of CO2, we don't just need a green economy, we need a super-green revolution, world-wide, to employ agriculture practices that lock-down carbon into the soil while feeding growing populations.  The TUC could concentrate on this aspect.  The UK has a wealth of expertise on such practices, e.g. using biochar for soil improvement.

Cheers, John

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On 10/10/2014 20:35, Patrick Ainley wrote:
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(You/ Chris know about this presumably, Linda. P)
 
From: [log in to unmask]
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Sent: 06/10/2014 20:25:57 GMT Daylight Time
Subj: Can we ever build a green economy? Free TUC half day conference
 

www.tuc.org.uk | Expert analysis of economic and social policy issues affecting people at work Monday 6th October 2014






Event

Can we ever build a green economy? Free TUC half day conference


Thursday 6 November 2014, 09.30-13.00, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London

This national half day conference will set out the importance of taking international and national action to address climate change. 

With the economic recovery finally underway, growing public understanding of the role greener growth could play and all parties committed to strengthening the government's approach to industrial policy, what more needs to be done to shift the UK towards a lower carbon economy? How can we achieve the substantial shifts we need in power generation, business finance and energy efficiency to give our climate change objectives any chance of being met? 

Speakers at this important event include:

  • Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
  • Sir David King, Special Representative for Climate Change, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
  • Frances O'Grady, General Secretary, TUC            
  • Professor Paul Ekins, Director, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy, UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources

With new work from Lord Stern (noted LSE economist and author of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change) set to develop the case that immediate action to decarbonise our economy will be far more effective than action delayed, as well as boosting overall growth rates, a strong policy response has never been as important. 

We also know that national action alone will not be enough. With next year set to be an unprecedented period of climate change diplomacy internationally what can civil society organisations do to strengthen the case for change? How can we ensure that a strong and comprehensive UN agreement is reached in 2015?

The event will also see the launch of a set of three expert essays setting out the importance of a new climate deal. The authors outline their arguments to the conference and we debate them in our workshops, each of which will include commentaries from an expert panel.

For further information and to register for free please visit our registration page

 







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