“The “Climate Safety” report gives a simple summary of the latest science, delivering a clear message that to have any chance of maintaining a safe climate, we must rapidly decarbonise our society, preserve global sinks, and address the problem with an unprecedented degree of seriousness.”

The new report is said to show that we can’t afford to follow Brown’s or Obama’s climate plans, which both calls for an 80% reduction in global emissions. Instead global emissions must decline by between 6-8% per year from 2020 to 2040, and lead up to a complete 100% decarbonisation by 2050, according to a paper by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.

“Even with a commitment to 80% carbon cuts by 2050, “Climate Safety” warns that our current policy response does not match up to the scale of the challenge. Join us to discuss finding a way to get beyond “politics-as-usual” and achieve a full, emergency response.”

And if we are to keep global temperatures from reaching a 2 degree increase we need to cut global emissions by even more than 8% a year. So there is no point anymore in arguing about any percentage as everything has to go, and the sooner the better.

Some people have already read the new Climate Safety report. George Monbiot is one of them, and he says that “you cannot overstate the importance of this report: it has opened my eyes to levels of climate risk far beyond those of which I was aware. Crisp, clear-headed and profoundly shocking, this report should be read immediately by everyone who cares.”

And Mark Lynas, author of “Six Degrees”, says that “Climate Safety plainly shows us that we need to inject a sense of urgency into the debate about how we respond to climate change. It’s not about gradually reducing emissions any more, it’s about recognising the risks we face and cutting our emissions to zero as quickly as possible.”

Climate Safety is “a report to keep every policy maker awake at night,” Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party in the UK, have said. Let’s hope she is right.

Now a second, extensively edited and revised version of this book has been published in Melbourne: “Climate Code Red- the case for emergency action” by David Spratt and Phillip Sutton (Scribe, Melbourne, 2008). This revised version is very readable and accordingly ideal for getting this extremely serious message across to the general public.

I must confess that as a scientist I preferred the first version for scientific cultural reasons because of the detailed scientific literature documentation provided and in particular for a 2 page colour insert that summarized the core data in a series of Figures. Indeed, when I reviewed the first version it was very convenient to base the bulk of my review on this 2 page data review. However as a lover of poetry, plays and novels as well as of dispassionately presented scientific rigour, I readily concede the Two Cultures argument to the extremely well written second version of Climate Code Red. Further, a selection of key references are provided for each chapter and a key photograph, a key Figure and a key Table are provided to complement the argument.

The hard, scientific case for emergency action presented in “Climate Code Red” is best summarized in the following quotation from a scientific article by top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen (Head, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies) and his American, British and French colleagues:

“Paleoclimate data show that climate sensitivity is ~3 deg-C for doubled CO2 [carbon dioxide; atmospheric CO2 280 ppm pre-industrial], including only fast feedback processes. Equilibrium sensitivity, including slower surface albedo feedbacks, is ~6 deg-C for doubled CO2 for the range of climate states between glacial conditions and ice-free Antarctica. Decreasing CO2 was the main cause of a cooling trend that began 50 million years ago, large scale glaciation occurring when CO2 fell to 450 +/- 100 ppm [parts per million], a level that will be exceeded within decades, barring prompt policy changes. If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm. The largest uncertainty in the target arises from possible changes of non-CO2 forcings. An initial 350 ppm CO2 target may be achievable by phasing out coal use except where CO2 is captured and adopting agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon. If the present overshoot of this target CO2 is not brief, there is a possibility of seeding irreversible catastrophic effects”.

In the last analysis, while cognizant of the need for sensible open-mindedness, rational risk management means we must take very seriously the advice of top scientific experts at the cutting edge of climate change research – just as we would take very seriously the advice of top specialist medical experts in relation to a life threatening medical condition. Top US and World expert on climate change, Dr Hansen, commented thus on “Climate Code Red”: “A compelling case … we face a climate emergency”.

Eminent medical scientist and Governor of the State of Victoria, Australia, Professor David de Kretser launched “Climate Code Red –the case for emergency action” in the Victorian State Parliament House in Melbourne recently and used the following unambiguous words:

“The book draws on a vast array of information to build a cogent and compelling case that we do have a genuine emergency on our hands if we are to limit the rise of greenhouse gas emissions to a level at which we can limit the degradation of our planet to manageable levels … There is no doubt in my mind that this is the greatest problem confronting mankind at this time and that it has reached the level of a state of emergency”.

Outstanding Australian scientist and Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty has recently published a related book entitled “A Light History of Hot Air” (Melbourne University Publishing, 2007) in which he states : “We are consuming the future and it’s up to us to develop and use renewable resources”. In an interview about this Professor Doherty summarized the dilemma thus: “Everything is about hot air. Political and in the atmosphere. We are in real danger. The recent CSIRO report suggests that temperatures could rise as much as five degrees by 2070. The ice is melting much more quickly than anyone expected. The Himalayas are melting very fast. We are now talking about the Arctic being ice-free by 2030”.

David Spratt (climate policy analyst and founder of Carbon Equity) and Phillip Sutton (convenor of the environmental strategy-based Greenleap Strategic Institute) are economic analysts and not scientists, but were driven, in part, to write “Climate Code Red” by the apparent silence (with notable exceptions ) of the scientific community. This problem of academic and institutional timidity has been perceived by no less than outstanding UK and World climate change scientist Dr James Lovelock FRS (2008): “I hate academia. Most of the scientists who work there are not free men any more and they can’t speak out. That’s no way to do science”.

“Climate Code Red” is divided into 3 parts, specifically Part One, “The Big Melt” (the threat to the biosphere due to global warming and the ice melting in the polar regions), Part Two “Targets”( where we are headed in terms of temperature increase of over 2 degrees Centigrade, massive sea level rise and huge loss of ecosystems and human sustainability – and where we have to aim for to avoid catastrophe), and Part Three “The Climate Emergency” (how to achieve a safe climate economy and deal effectively with the Climate Emergency).

Part One “The Big Melt”deals with the accelerating loss of Arctic sea ice (if you want to be shocked see the latest images and data on the official US National Snow and Ice Data Center, NSIDC), the thawing of Greenland, the Himalayan glaciers, the tundra and the Antarctic and the threat from rising sea levels. Chapter 6 deals with the current mass species extinction phenomena and the threat to ecosystems across the world. Chapter 7 “The Price of Reticence” deals with the institutional scientific conservatism (and cowardice) that has been dishonestly exploited by “dirty energy” big business and the climate sceptics.

Part Two, “Targets”, begins with the sentence “Something is wrong and we must make it right”. Successive chapters explore what is a safe climate zone (less than a 2 degree C rise above pre-industrial; we are already 0.8 degrees C and on track for a 3-6 degrees C increase above the 1750 value as indicated in the quote from Dr Hansen given above). How we can get to a safe zone will require mechanisms for a draw-down on atmospheric CO2 to less than 350 ppm (renewable energy use, cessation of carbon burning, re-afforestation, return of carbon as biochar to soils).

Part Three, “The Climate Emergency”, gets into the economic systems management area of professional expertise of the authors. Successive chapters deal with how we must deal with the Climate Emergency. Chapter 26 “In the End” draws upon the experience of World War 2 and the dramatic increase in military outlays as a percentage of national income in the US, UK, Germany and Japan i.e. we have already an extraordinary precedent for extraordinary, short term societal effort.

The 2008 current market collapse has already provided an example of the rapid global action currently being taken at enormous expense to protect the vested interests of the very people (Top Capitalists) primarily responsible for the Climate Emergency. Earlier this year Nobel Laureate Al Gore urged dramatic requisite action to save the planet : “Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years … So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge – for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It’s time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now”.

Dramatic changes in technology mean that Al Gore’s vision is achievable NOW – the energy cost cross-over point has finally been reached and the best renewable and geothermal power options now cost essentially the same as the (heavily subsidized) “market cost” of coal power (see “One Day Pathétique” Symphony Painting. HOPE – Best Renewables Now Cost Same as Coal Power”).

“Climate Code Red” is a powerful statement of the case for emergency action to deal with the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency. Most importantly, “Climate Code Red” is a very well written and eminently readable book directed at sensible citizens in general. Inevitably one can make criticisms such as those made above at the beginning of this review – but more Tables, Figures and Scientific References would have been to the detriment of readability and hence of public education. In some ways “Climate Code Red” did not go far enough. Thus matters that could have been raised include the “true cost” of coal burning-based power (4-5 times the heavily subsidized”market price) and the avoidable death of 0.2 million people each year world-wide from the effects of coal burning pollutants (see Yarra Valley Climate Action Group). Also absent was the likely death of over 6 billion people this century due to unaddressed climate change (according to Dr James Lovelock FRS).

“Climate Code Red” was condemnatory of both scientific reticence and climate sceptic ignorance, and indeed represents a major step towards reversing public ignorance about the Climate Emergency. However “Climate Code Red” could have gone even further in exposing and condemning the core of the problem that lies in a culture of ignoring, of wishful thinking and of “looking away” that is actively promoted by a dominant political and media culture committed to carbon-based economic growth.

Indeed Dr James Hansen recently advocated criminal prosecution of climate criminal corporate heads involved in self-interested misinforming of the public to the detriment of public safety (see James Hansen: Try Fossil Fuel CEOs for “High Crimes Against Humanity”) . In my own modest way I have acted by exposing the extraordinary Culture of Ignoring in Australia’s media, political and academic Establishment over the Climate Emergency and other very serious matters (see “Climate Emergency, Exceptionalism & Ignoring Downunder. Letter to Eminent Australians over Public Honesty”).

There is zero tolerance for lying in science and this now needs to be made a general rule in a world facing a Climate Emergency. “Climate Code Red – the case for emergency action” sets an important baseline for climate reality and public responsibility. This important book should be in every school and institutional library. “Climate Code Red – the case for emergency action” is a cogently argued blueprint for the survival of Humanity and the Biosphere.

I did my duty as a citizen of Australia and of Planet Earth and sent them 255 Ideas (see: http://australia2020ideas.blogspot.com/…/) which I then edited back to about 200 in the formal submission (see: http://australia2020ideas.blogspot.com/…/).

This was indeed an important opportunity because Australia and the World are facing a Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency as cogently outlined in the recent book “Climate Code Red – the case for a sustainability emergency” by David Spratt and Philip Sutton (see: ; for my book review on Green Blog see: climatecodered.net ; for a review of this book see Green Blog).

Despite the fine rhetoric of the newly-elected Australian Rudd Labor Government and its signing up to the Kyoto Protocol (a decade late for Australia), it helped the US sabotage the December Bali Climate Change Conference by rejecting specific 2020 pollution reduction targets. Rational approaches to save the Planet are STILL being resolutely opposed by racist, greedy, climate Bush America (arguably still the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluter and stand-out Kyoto non-signatory) and by Bush’s “Asia Sheriff”, climate criminal Australia (the world’s developed country with the worst annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution and the world’s biggest coal exporter) (see: http://green-blog.org/…/).

Thus 2004 data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA; see: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov) reveal that “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 (India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh). Neither Bush America nor Bush-ite Australia will cut greenhouse gas pollution but the countries facing devastation from global warming are the mega-delta, below-World-average polluting countries of China, India and Bangladesh.

Australia is the world’s big country with the highest annual per capita greenhouse polluter and STILL currently playing “dog in the manger” (together with the US and Canada) in opposing short-term greenhouse gas pollution reduction targets.

Of course “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” is but one – albeit a very important – indicator of climate criminality. The Germanwatch Climate Change Index 2008, a comparison of the 56 top CO2 emitting nations (see: http://www.germanwatch.org), takes other parameters into account in ranking climate criminals. In this ranking of 56 top CO2 emitting nations, Sweden and Germany are #1 and #2 for greenhouse responsibility, while shale-oil-rich Canada (a US lackey), coal-rich Australia (another US satrap), the USA and oil-rich Saudi Arabia (a puppet of anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic Bush US ) rank #53, #54, #55 and #56, respectively (see: http://germanwatch.org) .

On this basis Australia is one of the worst greenhouse gas polluters and shows little sign of doing anything substantial in the short term to change the situation. In climate criminal Australia Coal is King.

With this as background, here are 25 carefully documented ideas for Greening Australia that I sent to the co-chairmen of the Australia 2020 (Prime Minister Rudd and University of Melbourne Vice Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis).

i. Australia’s population is too great already as assessed from the enormous environmental impact and flora and fauna extinctions – public education and action are urgently required in this area (Australia is a world leader in greenhouse gas pollution, land destruction, flora and fauna extinctions and ecocide; see “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 1998: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com; http://climateemergency.blogspot.com).

ii. Indigenous Australians have a tremendous cultural contribution to make in relation to sustainability – White Australia should seize this opportunity for collaboration (largely ignored for over 2 centuries) for the benefit of the land and ALL its People (the Indigenous culture involved sustainable use but was supplanted by a highly destructive non-Indigenous, non-sustainable culture that has brought Australia and the world to disastrous tipping points; see Diamond, J. (1997), Guns, Germs and Steel. The Fates of Human Societies (Jonathan Cape, London); see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com).

iii. Water is needed for citizen consumption, agriculture, industry and the environment and there must be a New Deal to meet these needs (thus profligate citizen and agricultural uses should be urgently controlled. While financial return/megalitre of water for vegetables can be $1,000/ML as compared to $100,000/ML for an expensive car, we must have food – but the world’s driest continent should NOT be exporting water).

iv. Enough is enough – there should be CESSATION of flora and fauna extinction in Australia and that means national and global action to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to about 350 ppm (10% BELOW the current atmospheric CO2 concentration of 383 ppm) (see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com).

v. Urgent action on CO2 pollution is needed NOW in the light of our arrival already at key “tipping points” for mass extinctions and massive ecosystem destruction ( QUOTE: “Based on climate model studies and the history of the Earth the authors conclude that additional global warming of about 1°C (1.8°F) or more, above global temperature in 2000, is likely to be dangerous. In turn, the temperature limit has implications for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which has already increased from the pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million (ppm) to 383 ppm today and is rising by about 2 ppm per year. According to study co-author Makiko Sato of Columbia’s Earth Institute, "the temperature limit implies that CO2 exceeding 450 ppm is almost surely dangerous, and the ceiling may be even lower”” – see NASA report “Research finds that Earth’s climate is approaching dangerous point”: http://giss.nasa.gov ; see also “Climate tipping points get scarier”: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/…/ ; Imminent tipping point for total loss of Arctic summer ice – “Arctic sea ice gone in 5 years?”: http://news.nationalgeographic.com).

vi. Stringent duty of care must be observed by local, state and federal Governments in relation to coastal assets – to avoid irreversible damage through storm surge and sea level inundation AND to avoid litigation (see NASA’s Dr James Hansen “Huge sea level rises are coming unless we act now”, New scientist: http://environment.newscientist.com).

vii. The 85% fossil-fuel-based electricity production in Australia is an international disgrace in the light of the Climate Emergency and existence of cost-effective and cost-competitive technologies that can be implemented NOW on a big scale (e.g. the top US climate expert Dr Hansen has written to UK PM Gordon Brown over planned coal-burning plants – according to a BBC Report: “present concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (380 parts per million by volume, ppmv) had already committed the Earth to large climate impacts, such as the loss of summer sea-ice in the Arctic and sea level rise greater than one metre. But Dr Hansen stressed that the point of no return had not been reached – that irreversible change had not taken place. He said that to get the Arctic ice to recover would require a reduction in CO2 concentrations down to about 300 or 350 ppmv. He believed this was possible, and called for greater energy efficiency and corrective pricing of carbon to allow cleaner technologies to compete and take over from fossil fuels”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…/ ; and Greenpeace: “Indeed, Gordon Brown very recently committed the UK to generating around 40% of our electricity from renewables by 2020. If he means it, Britain could become a world leader in clean energy and his case for nuclear evaporates. At the moment Germany has 300 times as much solar power and 10 times as much wind power installed as the UK and has given up on nuclear”.: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/…/).

viii. Possible Antarctic sea ice loss comparable to that already in the Arctic, impending total loss of the Great Barrier Reef, elevated Indian Ocean temperature (2 degree rise in 40 years), predicted intensifying Southern Australian drought (due to Indian Ocean warming) and cessation of Southern Ocean absorption of CO2 all represent acute “mine canary” warnings in the Australian region alone that we have gone too far – and must do everything we can to reverse the CO2 pollution of the atmosphere (see: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071212-AP-arctic-melt.html ; http://csiro.au/…/; http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/…/ ; http://abc.net.au/rn/…/).

ix. Examination of US Energy Information Administration data over the last quarter century shows a constant rate of increase of Australian CO2 pollution and fossil fuel exports that has been impervious to increasingly forceful and alarmed scientist and IPCC warnings over this period – “waiting for Garnaut” for a year is NOT an option for the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluter, Australia (see “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency”, submission of Dr Gideon Polya to the Garnaut Climate Change Review: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com).

x. The Climate Emergency means that the Bali-wrecking Australian Government (US and Canada) position of “no 2020 targets” is an insult to Humanity demanding immediate retraction when according to top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen and top UK climate scientist Professor James Lovelock FRS we need “negative CO2 emissions” NOW (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…/ ; Lovelock, J. (2006), The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth is Fighting Back – and How We Can Still Save Humanity (Allen Lane, London); http://climateemergency.blogspot.com ; http://green-blog.org/…/).

xi. Australia must act urgently on Climate Genocide NOW by observing the post-Holocaust protocol of C4A (CAAAA) involving Cessation and reversal of CO2 pollution, Acknowledgment of the ongoing crime, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone” (see “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency”: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com ; Article 2, UN Genocide Convention, “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” : http://edwebproject.orgl ; 25 years of sustained, deliberate, remorseless, unrestrained Australian CO2 pollution that IS CONTINUING, see “Rudd Australia Report Card #2. Climate criminal Australia and Climate genocide”: http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/…/).

xii. Australia must act urgently and comprehensively to avoid International Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs and Reparations Demands over its Climate Criminal policies that are contributing to a mounting Climate Genocide (see: “Climate criminal, Bali-wrecker Rudd Australia faces World sanctions”: http://green-blog.org/…/).

xiii. “Waiting for Garnaut” should CEASE – there is an urgent need for ACTION and updated public education about the Climate Emergency (the “waiting for Garnaut” approach is a complete denial of the horrendous emergency ACTUALITY: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com ; the science and technology has been well reviewed internationally (see the 2007 IPCC Reports: http://www.ipcc.ch and a recent review of renewable scenarios: http://martinot.info) as indeed has the economics of climate change via the Stern Report (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review).

xiv. The Government should legitimately act against racist, irresponsible, genocide-ignoring electronic and print media not reporting ethically about the Climate Emergency and Climate Genocide by removal of licences and taxpayer-funding purchase for Government schools and other bodies (this how they would act if such media engaged in denial of the Jewish Holocaust that involved the murder of 6 million Jews in the period 1941-1945 – yet Professor James Lovelock FRS estimates acute damage to 6-9 billion people and over 6 billion deaths this century: and ALREADY 16 million people die avoidably each year due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease: http://www.rollingstone.com/…/).

xv. Rational Risk Management instructs that Australia must urgently face up to the harsh reality of its World leading criminal status as the World’s worst developed country for “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” (2004 data from the US Energy Information Administration reveal that “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution” in tonnes CO2/person is 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh): http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/…/).

xvi. Australia must urgently recognize that the Rudd Labor Government election commitments actually mean that Australia’ s annual per capita CO2 pollution will INCREASE over the next 4 decades (The Rudd Labor commitment to “20% renewables by 2020”, “”60% reduction on 2000 greenhouse gas pollution by 2050” and no constraint on fossil fuel extraction for export ACTUALLY means (based on US Energy Information Administration data, assuming current constant coal, gas and CO2 pollution growth rates, constant population and including Australia’s fossil fuel EXPORTS) “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO2 emission in tonnes per person per year” of 43 (2007), 56 (2020) and 65 (2050): http://ruddaustraliareportcard.blogspot.com/…/).

xvii. There must be urgent changes to infrastructure and energy provision – there must be a rapid shift to high efficiency, low cost, zero CO2 polluting renewable technologies (such as wind, concentrated solar, non-silicon thin-film photovoltaics, balloon- and sliver- based silicon photovoltaics, wind power, wave power and geothermal) , fully renewable-energy-run, comprehensive public transport, demise of the private car, and cessation of urban sprawl and highway building (for details see Item #2, Economic infrastructure; see “Renewables – how they stack up”: http://newmatilda.com/…/ ; see key articles by Dr Mark Diesendorf (A sustainable Energy Futrure for Australia), Professor John Deevers (The Innamincka Hot Fractured Rock Project) and Martin Mahy (Hydrogen Minibuses) in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (a compendium of essays by 28 variously prominent Australians edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://abc.net.au/…/).

xviii. Apropos of urgent changes being required, using Australia’s annual $10 billion pa fossil fuel subsidies to build wind farms at $2 per watt would replace our current 50 billion watts of 85% coal-based electricity capacity with 100% renewable wind energy in 10 years (of course in reality there would be a sensible “mix” of renewable technologies for efficiency and base-load but the example demonstrates the climate criminal incompetence of successive Australian Governments).

xix. Deforestation contributes about 15-20% to increased net global greenhouse gas production annually and should be countered urgently by Australia both at home and abroad (According to Sir Nicholas Stern: "For $10-15bn (£4.8-7.2bn) per year, a programme could be constructed that could stop up to half the deforestation” (see: http://guardian.co.uk/…/).

xx. The fundamental qualitative position that is backed by quantitative estimates of “total economic value” is that further extinctions and ecocides are intolerable and what is left of wild nature must be used sustainably (It has been estimated by Balmford et al in the prestigious scientific journal Science (see “Economic reasons for preserving wild nature”: http://sciencemag.org/…/) that for a variety of “biomes” (ecological systems) the total economic value (TEV) is about 50% greater when the resource is used sustainably as opposed to destructive conversion. Further, these scientists have found that the economic benefit from preserving what is left of wild nature is OVER 100 TIMES greater than the cost of preservation).

xxi. Australia and the World must make an immediate Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency, a State of Emergency to prevent catastrophic run-away climate change (see: http://countercurrents.org , http://green-blog.org/…/ , http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42).

xxii. There must be a fundamental shift in public attitude to Government disposal of grossly under-valued public resources to selfish and corrupt private hands (there must be a new transparency in order to save Australia and indeed the World from run-away climate change).

xxiii. Massive changes to water-related infrastructure are urgently needed as Indian Ocean warming forces more drought on Southern Australia (e.g. pipes rather than channels for long-distance water carriage; expansion of enclosed hydroponic farming).

xxiv. Australia should join with other countries in applying Green tariffs, Sanctions, Boycotts and Sanctions against climate criminal countries involved in Climate Genocide (unfortunately Australia is currently on a per capita basis the worst developed country in this respect; see “Australian Genocide – Oz ignores Aboriginal, Ira2i, Afghan & Climate Genocides”: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12578/42).

xxv. In addition to a Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urgent actions toward NEGATIVE CO2 emissions, Australia must recognize its overall PAST contribution to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) pollution and respond correspondingly with EXTRA cuts and Reparations (indeed the World will insist upon this; see climate Sustainability Emergency: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42).

Well, I hope that my amended list (shortened to meet the Submission Guidelines) gives the delegates pause for thought. I am not going to hold my breath. Coal is King in climate criminal Australia and public life in this Western Murdochracy is dominated by egregiously dishonest Mainstream media – Australia is the Land of Flies, Lies and Slies (spin-based untruths).

However my last suggestion on the final Topic #10 “Australia’s Future in the World” in my formal Submission (Submission ID 2015) was: “19. URGENT – a Global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to a safe and sustainable level of 300-350 ppm.”

My more fulsomely-expressed, very final suggestion in my 255 Ideas sent to PM Rudd and VC Glyn Davis was as follows:

10.xx. There should an immediate Australian and Global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urgent adoption of policy, as advocated by America’s top climate scientist Dr James Hansen, of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) to a safe and sustainable level of 300-350 ppm (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm).

Many of these ideas may well be relevant to Greening YOUR country too.

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ). He is currently preparing a revised and updated version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a possibly 100-fold greater famine catastrophe (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya310308.htm ) than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ).

“Climate Code Red is a very important and timely book. It adduces the latest scientific evidence that we have already passed a key environmental “tipping point” , argues for a national and global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urges rapid implementation of the “negative CO2 emissions policy” advocated by NASA’s Dr James Hansen i.e. rapid replacement of fossil fuel burning with renewables and rapid installation of mechanisms to reduce atmospheric CO2.

“Climate Code Red” argues the case for a Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency. In short, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (2007) was out of date when it was published (for a Summary of the Summary of the 2007 IPCC AR4 Synthesis report on GreenBlog see: http://green-blog.org/2007/11/21/summary-of-the-summary-of-the-2007-ipcc-ar4-synthesis-report/). The IPCC had a literature cut-off date of 2005 and since then scientific perception of the state of the world has changed dramatically. In particular it has been found that the rate of melting of Arctic sea ice and of Greenland glaciers is much faster than predicted. The top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen (Goddard Space Research Center, NASA) declares that we have already reached a “tipping point” such that Arctic summer ice may be completely gone in several years i.e. the CURRENT atmospheric CO2 concentration of 385 ppm means catastrophic ecosystem change ALREADY and that accordingly we must have NEGATIVE CO2 emissions to bring it back to a safe and sustainable 300-350 ppm (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7143567.stm ). That necessary reversal of 2 centuries of profligate CO2 pollution can be achieved by a massive shift to renewable power sources, immediate cessation of fossil fuel burning and measures such as re-afforestation, return of pyrolytically-charred biomass (biochar) to soil and, if need be, generation of global dimming SO2 aerosols (see: http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html).

“Climate Code Red” is an acutely timely book that declares that “CO2 emissions targets” and even “zero CO2 emissions” are simply not good enough – that we must follow the advice of Dr James Hansen and his colleagues and urgently REVERSE the current dangerous CO2 pollution of our atmosphere. In social actuality this will involve urgently educating the people, media and politicians to what the science is saying in order to achieve a Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and urgent actions such as those outlined by NASA’s Dr James Hansen.

Part 1 of the book reviews the latest evidence about climate change. It is illustrated by 2 colour pages of figures that make extremely sobering reading as summarized below.

Figure 1 shows a roughly constant rate of various IPCC PREDICTIONS of a constant rate of loss of Arctic summer sea ice from 2000 (about 90% of the mean 1979-1990 extent) to 2100 (only about 10% left). However what will ALARM you is the ACTUAL, precipitous decline of Arctic summer ice in recent years to about 70% of the 1979-1990 mean, indicating that ALL the Arctic summer ice will be gone in several YEARS rather than in 9 decades. This is a massive ecosystem change that is happening NOW with huge implications for polar warming, Greenland ice sheet melting, tundra thawing and further positive feedbacks to accelerate global warming e.g. the albedo flip (change from light-reflecting white ice to light-absorbing dark sea); lubrication of glacier movement by melt water; and methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from thawing tundra in North America and Siberia.

Figure 2 plots sea level (in metres) versus global mean temperature (oC). There is a remarkably linear relationship as you go from the last glacial maximum 20,000 years ago (sea level minus 120 metres relative to today’s sea level, global mean temperature 9.5oC), to TODAY (15 oC), to the Pliocene 3 million years ago (sea level plus 20 metres, mean temperature 18oC) and the Eocene 40 million years ago (sea level plus 80 metres, mean temperature 19oC). The IPCC projection for sea level rise is less than 1 metre rise by about 18oC (clearly a big underestimate) and a temperature rise predicted to be 3oC on a “business as usual” scenario means a 20 metre rise in sea level.

“Climate Code Red” quotes the following dire comment by Dr James Hansen: “There is strong evidence that the Earth is within 1oC of its highest temperature in the past million years. Oxygen isotopes in the deep sea foraminifera reveal that the earth was last 2oC to 3oC warmer [relative to 2000] around 3 million years ago, with carbon dioxide levels of perhaps 350 to 450 parts per million. It was a dramatically different planet then, with no Arctic sea ice in the warm seasons and sea levels about 25 metres higher, give or take 10 metres.”

The atmosphere is ALREADY at 385 ppm CO2 and CO2 is increasing at about 2.5 ppm per year; global average temperature is about 1oC above the pre-industrial and increasing at about 0.25 oC per decade.

Figure 3 plots “warming per decade in oC” versus time for various scenarios of fossil fuel use identified by past IPCC reports. Thus the worst scenario involving intensive fossil fuel use shows “warming per decade” peaking at a catastrophic 0.65 oC per decade in about 2060. However the ACTUAL data indicate that the world greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is already well above the worst scenario.

Superimposed on Figure 3 are graphical indications how all ecosystems and also forests in particular cope with various rates of climate change. Thus in the PRESENT circumstances of about 0.25 oC warming per decade, the poleward isotherm shift is about 75 kilometers per decade and only about 40% of all ecosystems and only about 20% of forests adapt to the rate of temperature change – an extremely serious situation ALREADY. However we are evidently on track to achieve a 0.4 oC increase per decade within 2 decades, at which point very few ecosystems or forests are able to adapt – a catastrophic situation for a world already suffering serious resource depletion.

Figure 4 plots the “West Equatorial Pacific sea temperature” over the last 1.35 million years. The temperature fluctuates between a minimum of about 25 oC and a maximum of 30 oC, this reflecting successive ice ages and periods of warming and with most of the data lying between 26 oC and 29 oC. From a pre-industrial temperature of about 28.7 oC (about 3 oC warmer than in the prior ice age situation of about 15,000 years ago) the temperature has steadily climbed in a mere 2 centuries to a current 29.7 oC, the hottest it has been for about 0.1 million years. The earth is on track to exceed in a mere several decades the highest temperatures for millions of years.

Figure 5 plots “global carbon emissions in gigatonnes/year” (billions of tonnes/year) from 1950 value of 2 to the present 9.5 gigatonnes carbon /year and thence projections for (a) “business as usual” (rising to a maximum of 16 gigatonnes per year in about 2050 and thence declining in a devastated world) and (b) various scenarios for capping temperature increase to about 2 oC (with carbon emissions declining about 80% from current levels by 2050, noting that much greater cuts now appear to be necessary to achieve this). However we are ALREADY on track to exceed the worst case scenario leading to a catastrophic temperature increase of 5 oC or greater.

This sobering information in a nutshell tells us that we are on track for a “worst case scenario” global biosphere catastrophe with rapid temperature rise in a few decades to take us beyond what the earth has experienced for millions of years.

However the possible scenario advanced by Dr James Hansen is that loss of Arctic summer sea-ice will speed up the ongoing loss of the Greenland ice sheet and a rise of sea levels by as much as 5 metres this century.

A key problem identified in “Climate Code Red” is the short-term global mean temperature increase expected in the next decade. We are already 0.8 oC above the pre-industrial temperature but there is an “in-built” “thermal inertia” capacity due to existing GHG pollution of the atmosphere for a further 0.6 oC increase over and above a baseline current increase of about 0.3 oC per decade and positive feedback elements (e.g. the albedo flip and GHG gas release from thawing tundra) may give a further 0.3 oC. Thus it can be argued that even if we stop GHG pollution NOW we have an inbuilt capacity ALREADY to achieve a 2 oC increase in global temperature over the pre-industrial in the coming decades.

Part 2 of “Climate Code Red” is entitled “Target Practice” and discusses what temperature and GHG pollution targets are realistic or safe. Their essential and important conclusion is that “we suggest the goal is a climate safe for all people and all species over “all generations”. It is quite clear from massive species extinctions so far and to major damage to forests, soil, fisheries and other ecosystems (e.g. the complete loss of Arctic summer ice in several years’ time) that at 385 ppm atmospheric CO2 we have ALREADY passed a “safe point” and that a combination of GHG pollution cessation and “Hansen cooling” is required to return us to a safe and sustainable state.

Part 3 of Climate Code Red is entitled “facing up to the challenge” and deals with what has to be done in practice and how urgent action can be achieved. What has to be achieved is urgent cessation of GHG pollution through a rapid shift to already available renewable technologies plus mechanisms for reducing the existing CO2 in the atmosphere (re-afforestation, putting biomass-derived biochar back in the soil and further mechanisms for global cooling e.g. SO2 aerosols if need be as suggested by Dr Hansen).

Politically such rapid implementation requires global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and a successful analogy given is the extraordinary civilian-to-military turnaround of the US economy in World War 2 after Pearl Harbor.

The book concludes with the following assessment: “Many of us – in business and at work, in climate action groups, in NGOs and in political parties – know in our hearts that on climate the world is going backwards very rapidly and the sorts of solutions that currently dominate national and global forums are simply too little, too late because of the continuing pre-occupation with “politics as usual” and “business as usual”. But sometimes we dare to imagine that there could be a really rapid transition, a great national and international mobilisation, to a safe-climate, post-carbon sustainable way of living. We now need to “think the unthinkable”, because the sustainability emergency is not so much a radical idea as now simply a necessary mode of action.”

I would urge you to read “Climate Code Red”, suggest this book to your friends and to libraries and to join with other citizens in demanding a national and global Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency and rapid implementation of a “negative CO2 emissions policy” involving rapid installation of renewable energy sources, cessation of fossil fuel burning and reduction of atmospheric CO2 back to a safe and sustainable level.

The morning sessions of the Convergence were devoted to a series of succinct addresses by a series of very well-informed speakers who variously addressed topics such as the Bali Conference, the Pacific Islands facing inundation, Carbon Equity, Technological Solutions, Opportunities for Business, Forests, Youth activism, Union Solidarity and Green Enterprises, North-South Issues , Social Justice and Equity, Arctic ice loss and Climate Emergency and the urgent need for a Climate State of Emergency Declaration. A repeated theme was indeed the current Climate Emergency and Sustainability Emergency and the need to take effective action to convince society, business and politicians to declare a Climate State of Emergency NOW.

The afternoon sessions began with the launch of “Climate Code Red – the Case for a Sustainability Emergency” by David Spratt (Carbon Equity) and Philip Sutton (Greenleap Strategic Institute) (http://www.climatecodered.net) (I will review this important book in detail on Green Blog shortly but a brief summary is provided below). The Convergence then continued with specific Workshops and Regional Climate Action Group (CAG) get-togethers. A key outcome was the decision by some of these groups to reinforce sentiment from a prior initial meeting by agreeing to form a Coalition for a Climate Emergency Declaration.

The essence of the exhaustively referenced “Climate Code Red” book is that the IPCC 2007 Report was several years out of date when it appeared (their literature for consideration cut-off date was 2005) and that the global situation is far more serious than hitherto surmised. The latest climate research, in particular from NASA’s Dr James Hansen and his colleagues, reveals that we have already reached a “tipping point” in relation to the complete melting of Arctic summer ice (now predicted by some to occur as soon as in a few years’ time). The massive thinning and complete melting of Arctic ice is being driven by “positive feedback” elements (notably the so-called “albedo flip” involved in conversion of light-reflecting white ice to light-absorbing dark sea and consequent further sea and air warming). However this Arctic ice melting is promoting OTHER adverse events with attendant positive feedback effects leading to accelerated warming and ice melting phenomena e.g. the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are melting much faster than hitherto predicted (due to increased polar temperature and lubrication of glacier movements by melt water) and the tundra is thawing (with release of the greenhouse gases methane [CH4] and carbon dioxide [CO2], increased global warming etc).

The authors of “Climate Code Red” agree with NASA’s Dr James Hansen that the appropriate RESPONSE to this present situation of ACTUAL massive ecosystem damage (and with evident initiation of other likely non-linear global warming related events, notably ice sheet and tundra melting) is no longer the Bali-style “finite CO2 emission reduction targets”) or even “zero emissions” but must be an urgent global policy of “negative CO2 emissions”. This will involve cessation of coal power, and other fossil fuel burning, rapid expansion of renewable energy provision and mechanisms to REDUCE existing atmospheric CO2 from 385 ppm to a “safe”, sustainability-consistent 300-350 ppm (e.g. re-forestation, sulphate aerosols and return of carbon to the soil with pyrolytic biomass charring) (see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/…/).

According to Dr James Hansen, in calling for an immediate cessation of coal power:

“If disintegration of these ice sheets passes their tipping points, dynamical collapse could proceed out of our control. If it melts completely, West Antarctica alone contains enough water to cause about 20 feet (6 meters) of sea-level rise. There are also tipping points in life systems. Today, as global temperature increases at a rate of about 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, isotherms (a line of average temperature) are moving poleward at a rate of about 50-60 kilometers (35 miles) per decade. In response, some species are moving.” (see “: http://www.thebulletin.org/columns/james-hansen/20080124.html ).

David Spratt and Philip Sutton crystallized the road ahead as indicated by “Climate Code Red – the Case for a Sustainability Emergency” by 5 key propositions that I have reproduced as headings below and addressed succinctly using my own words and perceptions.

1. “Our goal is a safe-climate future – we have no right to bargain away species or human lives.” Massive species extinctions have already occurred; there is massive ecosystem damage ALREADY; un-ameliorated current 2.5 ppm per year increases in CO2 from the present 385 ppm CO2 threaten even more damage (world coral dies above 450 ppm; the ocean phytoplankton system goes at 500 ppm; sea level rises of 5 meters this century due to Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheet loss); current global warming ALREADY harms billions of people; and projected unaddressed global warming acutely threatens 6-9 billion people this century with over 6 billion predicted to perish this century by Professor Lovelock FRS (see: (see: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/…/ ; http://climateemergency.blogspot.com).

2. “We are facing rapid warming impacts: the danger is immediate, not just in the future.” Temperature increases approaching 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial (an average global temperature not seen for a million years) are ALREADY implicit in the system – a global average 0.8 degrees C above pre-industrial ALREADY, with a further 0.6 degrees C in-built from current CO2 levels and 0.4 degrees C per decade temperature increases possible from continuing “business as usual” CO2 pollution and declining carbon sink efficacy (through de-forestation, phytoplankton decline and storm-impacted loss of net CO2 absorption by the Oceans – this has ALREADY occurred with the Southern Ocean). Major UN relief programs are ALREADY being impacted by global warming effects, notably in Africa.

3.”For a safe climate future, strong action is required now to stop emissions and to cool the earth.” According to Dr Hansen we have ALREADY passed the “tipping point” for complete melting of Arctic sea ice and the attendant threats of accelerating Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheet melting, carbon sink failure, permafrost loss, phytoplankton and forest loss with non-linear effects and positive feedbacks. The technology and the economic incentives are ALREADY available to replace fossil fuel burning by renewables (essentially ALL renewable energy sources are ALREADY cheaper than the “true cost” of coal–based power which is about 5 times higher than the current “market cost” (see: http://climateemergency.blogspot.com). Cooling the Earth can be further achieved by sulphate aerosols, soil carbon sequestration by adding pyrolytically charred biomass and massive re-forestation.

4. “It is necessary to plan a large-scale transition to a post-carbon economy and society.” There are analogous precedents for rapid, highly profitable, industrial conversion in the WW2 US armaments-geared economic boom, the post-war economic boom, the Asian Tiger economic expansion, the current China and India expansions and the IT revolution of the 1990s. 10,000 times more solar energy hits the Earth than is needed for Man’s current energy needs and the major renewable technologies are ALREADY cheaper than the “true cost” of coal power (see “Renewables: how the numbers stack up”: http://www.newmatilda.com/2007/08/08/how-numbers-stack).

5. “We should recognize a climate and sustainability emergency, because we need to move at a pace far beyond business and politics as usual.” Dramtic industrial turn-around has happened before in war-time (driven by the absolute need for victory), it has happened before in relation to New Technologies (driven by desire for profit) and it has happened in Asia (driven by a post-colonial desire for a better life above the starvation level of the colonial era). Aside from the moral obligations for biosphere and species sustainability, there is an extraordinary economic, social and indeed political advantage from Declaration of a Climate State of Emergency.

We have got to this present parlous state because of LYING – through the myth that the Powerful can take what they want with impunity from the water, air, land and biological resources that are the COMMON Property of ALL Humanity. As soon as these climate criminal, climate genocidal barbarians are made to pay the FULL environmental and human cost of what they are doing, the ALREADY AVAILABLE and economically-dictated renewable, sustainable solutions will become imperative. But before that can happen and as dictated by the climate science, we must ACT to Declare a Climate Emergency, a Climate State of Emergency, and we must do it NOW (see: “Climate Sustainability Emergency. Negative CO2 emissions needed now to save Planet“: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/20133/42/ ; “Climate Emergency, Sustainability Emergency”).

Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has just published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com ).