Join the Socialist Party Join us today!

Printable version Printable version

Facebook   Twitter

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/744/15764

From The Socialist newspaper, 28 November 2012

Flooding tragedies - Socialist action needed to tackle climate change

Flooding in Gloucester in 2007, photo Chris Moore

Flooding in Gloucester in 2007, photo Chris Moore   (Click to enlarge)

While some of the worst storms and flooding in recent memory hit parts of Britain, UK climate change secretary Ed Davey was in Doha for the latest in the series of toothless United Nations Climate Change conferences. Davey is hypocritically calling for greater cuts in carbon emissions, while nothing is being done by his government in the UK. Flood barriers are being overtopped and people are suffering.

Our warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so that climate change is already a factor making the flooding events we see today in the UK and worldwide more devastating and vast in scale. Pete Mason explains.

"Climate change: Five years ago we feared the worst. But it's looking even worse than that" ran the headline of the New Scientist on 17 November. On every front, the last five years have met or exceeded the worst projections of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Extreme climate-influenced events not expected until the end of the century are happening now, as New Yorkers discovered when superstorm Sandy crashed into the state.

Emissions increasing

Meanwhile, the New Scientist notes in a major article, nothing has been done to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases - on the contrary, coal-fired power plants are springing up like mushrooms across the planet and emissions are still increasing.

You can take your pick from seven disaster scenarios, such as the collapse of the inherently unstable West Antarctic ice sheet, resulting from a host of newly discovered mechanisms. A recent Sunday edition of the New York Times, ruminating on Hurricane Sandy, asked: "Is This the End?" Whether in 50 or 100 or 200 years, "there's a good chance that New York City will sink beneath the sea."

Effects for us

Ordinary people are suffering food scarcity, extreme weather and heat exhaustion. Our inability to predict the results of the feedback effects that have now been triggered, such as the release of the powerful greenhouse gas methane from frozen deposits, is giving scientists nightmares.

The New Scientist editorial appeals to US President Obama, newly re-elected and - in theory - with renewed authority to act on climate change. He declared "We want our children to live in an America... that isn't threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet" in his re-election speech.

It's not only the next generation that we need to worry about, the New Scientist points out - the effects of climate change are real and here now. In reality, Obama is a representative of big business, which criminally continues to fund climate change denial machinery and to profit from polluting the environment.

The tremendous 29% vote won by Socialist Alternative's Kshama Sawant in Seattle shows that the US working class - like the British working class adversely affected by global warming and least able to flee from storms, flooding and drought - will not stand idly by while the planet burns.

Only democratic socialist planning, mobilising material and human resources on a world scale through taking the major companies responsible for global warming into public ownership, can tackle climate change.

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

  • The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
  • When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.

Please donate here.

All payments are made through a secure server.

My donation £

 

Your message: 

 


In The Socialist 28 November 2012:


 

Home   |   The Socialist 28 November 2012   |   Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe   |   Donate   |   PDF  




Related links:

Climate change:

triangleCumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?

triangleBig Energy piles on the misery

triangle'Building back greener' - yet more Tory greenwash

triangleBristol North Socialist Party: Climate change - Only a socialist solution?

Socialist:

triangleWest London Socialist Party: The Paris Commune

triangleWest London Socialist Party: The current crisis and the struggle for working class representation

triangleWest London Socialist Party: How do socialists struggle for self-determination?

triangleOppose bans on vigils - Defend the right to protest

Flooding:

triangleTruth about Zane: Cover-up Tories crack

triangleMajor funding for flood risk management needed

triangleWe need system change to halt climate change

Global:

triangleCovid 'vaccine wars' underline failure of capitalist nation states to deal with the global pandemic

triangleGlobal capitalism at most dangerous conjuncture since the 1930s

Global warming:

triangleTV Review: Apocalypse Cow

News and socialist analysis

News and socialist analysis

13/3/21

Protest

Oppose bans on vigils - Defend the right to protest

10/3/21

NHS

NHS pay - 15% now

10/3/21

Poverty

The 'old normal' meant poverty for young people

10/3/21

Big business

Super-deduction will help big business pay less tax

10/3/21

School

Workers respond to 'back to school'

10/3/21

Budget

Tories keep bailing out bosses, while piling pain on workers and public services

10/3/21

NHS

NHS workers say: We are ready to fight Tory pay insult

5/3/21

Budget

Tories keep bailing out bosses, while piling the pain on workers and public services

3/3/21

Budget

Not a budget for the working class!

3/3/21

Women

Women's health matters

3/3/21

Budget

Public sector workers respond to the budget

26/2/21

Labour

Liverpool Labour meltdown

24/2/21

Schools

Johnson's 'road map' for schools: Act together to protect safety

24/2/21

Uber

Drivers win case - they are workers

24/2/21

Covid

Where's the road map to jobs and wages Boris?

triangleMore News and socialist analysis articles...


Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe to Socialist Party publications
Donate to the Socialist Party
Socialist Party Facebook page
Socialist Party on Twitter
Visit us on Youtube

LATEST POSTS

CONTACT US

Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777

Email: [email protected]

Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206

Regional Socialist Party organisers:

Eastern: 079 8202 1969

East Mids: 077 3797 8057

London: 075 4018 9052

North East: 078 4114 4890

North West 079 5437 6096

South West: 077 5979 6478

Southern: 078 3368 1910

Wales: 079 3539 1947

West Mids: 024 7655 5620

Yorkshire: 077 0671 0041

ABOUT US

ARCHIVE

Alphabetical listing


March 2021

February 2021

January 2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999