Dave Nellist’s global warning

Dave NellistIN 1972, David Bowie sang: "News had just come over… Earth was
really dying". He was wrong, we’re still here. But for how long? NASA
scientists now say the Earth is warmer than at any time for the last
10,000 years.

By Dave Nellist, Socialist Party councillor in Coventry and a former Labour MP

Over the past 30 years, average surface temperatures have risen 0.2C a decade. But some areas (especially higher and more northern latitudes) are warming even faster. Another 10 years of “business as usual” carbon emissions, reports NASA, could trigger runaway climate change.

If that happens, New Scientist describes how in the northern tundra
(Siberia, northern Canada and Alaska) huge amounts of methane could be
released from thawing peat in melting permafrost.

Methane is 23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon
dioxide. Global warming could accelerate in what is called positive
feedback.

The Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
predicts that climate change could lead to a massive extension of
drought and deserts, as global warming changes rainfall patterns.

Extreme drought, where agriculture is impossible, could affect almost
one-third of the planet by 2100. Hundreds of millions of people could be
forced to flee before then from hunger and thirst.

In November a UN conference will propose a replacement for the weak
Kyoto treaty which set targets (not being met!) for states and
businesses to limit greenhouse gases. Left to big business, will those
targets be met in time?

Drax in Yorkshire, Europe’s largest coal fired power station, is
Britain’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases. Last year Drax produced
nearly 21m tonnes of carbon dioxide. The owners predict that figure will
be worse this year. They claim that’s because they’re not given enough
financial incentives to burn biofuels, although Drax doubled its profits
to £317 million in the first six months of the year!

With earnings like these, what’s the incentive for shareholders to
forego such profits? A serious plan to radically reduce carbon dioxide
must start with public ownership and the removal of the role of profit.
Climate change is too serious to leave to capitalist politicians and big
business.


Climate change demo

Saturday 4 November, 12noon

March from US embassy, Grosvenor Square, to Trafalgar Square,
London.