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
--
On 10/10/2014 20:35, Patrick Ainley wrote:
(You/ Chris know about this presumably, Linda. P)
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www.tuc.org.uk
| Expert analysis
of economic and
social policy
issues affecting
people at work |
Monday
6th October 2014 |
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Event |
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Can we
ever build a green
economy? Free TUC
half day
conference
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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.
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