Photo credit: azrainman

When discussing climate change, the old saying needs to be amended to “What do you want first, the somewhat good news, or the astoundingly awful bad news?”

The bad news is piling up fast:

* The ice sheets in the Artic, Antarctic and Greenland are melting twice as fast as earlier projections from just a year or two ago, which will lead to the sea level rising about a foot every 20 or 25 years – meaning a 3-foot rise by the end of the century, enough to wipe out some island nations, flood much of Bangladesh and other low-lying coastal countries, threaten many coastal cities around the world, and increase erosion on coasts.

* Glaciers are melting faster as well – meaning that before the end of this century, glaciers in the Himalayas may disappear, and these glaciers provide water for over a billion people, an environmental, agricultural and human catastrophe. This extra melting will first cause more floods in India and China, and then cause extreme water stress for humans and for agriculture.

* Previous estimates of the massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane locked up in the permafrost were too small, increasing the likelihood of an unstoppable tipping point if too much of the permafrost melts and releases these greenhouse gases, potentially overwhelming any human efforts to slow and control carbon emissions.

* While it is not possible to link any one weather event to global warming, extreme weather events are increasing in intensity and frequency, such as the droughts in Australia and the U.S. Southeast and Southwest which heavily impact on agricultural production of essential foodstuffs like wheat.

* Scientific projections are now that even with all the planned emission cuts, the world’s average temperature will rise 6 degrees by the end of the century, with disastrous consequences for extreme weather events, droughts, disruption of agriculture, species extinction, water stress, population dislocation, spread of tropical diseases, ocean acidification, and many other aspects of life. This will be the hottest world in the last 11,000 years or more, the entire period of human agricultural development.

Are you scared now? There is some good news:

* The Waxman/Markey energy bill has passed the House of Representatives and has some serious support in the Senate (the companion Senate bill was introduced on Sept. 29, sponsored by John Kerry and Barbara Boxer), though whether or not this can overcome the fierce lobbying by energy companies, right-wing climate change deniers, and coal-producing states is still to be determined, in part by our activism.

* In a cloud/silver lining way, the global economic crisis has resulted in a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions over the last year, with decreases in travel and shipping, and the shelving or delay of some proposed coal-fired plants.

* China has made significant strides in increasing its energy efficiency, and it projects a four-fold increase in energy efficiency in the coming decades, which means its economy can still continue to expand, lifting millions out of poverty, without increasing the threats to the atmosphere. China is also making other important strides in improving its environmental efforts, though it still opposes mandatory caps on the emissions of developing countries.

* Diplomatic efforts and meetings to prepare for the upcoming Copenhagen climate change conference are intensifying, and include important proposals such as the U.S. proposal to cut energy subsidies; a fund to compensate countries such as Brazil and Indonesia for ending or at least slowing rampant deforestation; and various proposals to share technology and costs for the poorest countries, which have contributed least to the problem yet face the earliest and sharpest impacts of climate change, and to mitigate and adapt to rising sea levels and set limits on carbon emissions.

* The production of alternative energy is increasing; the efficiency of alternative energy processes is increasing – making them more economically competitive with fossil fuels; subsidies for alternative energy are increasing – such as $60 billion in the U.S. stimulus package; and alternative energy sector jobs are increasing.

* Economic projections of the costs of carbon emissions caps and other environmental measures have decreased, making these efforts more economically and politically feasible.

There is much public posturing leading up to the Copenhagen conference, which has the goal of negotiating the international treaty that will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Passage of a climate change bill by the full Congress and completion of a treaty in Copenhagen complete with mandatory emission reductions for at least all the industrially developed countries are the minimum steps needed, before the bad news gets much worse.

Author: Marc Brodine, People’s World

Australia has had a notorious history of imposing invasion, occupation, holocaust and genocide on Indigenous peoples that continues to this day. However with the support of 90% of the Australian people, successive pro-coal Australian Governments have effectively committed to inaction on its world leading per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and hence to Climate Genocide of the Developing World.

White Australia has an appalling secret genocide history that falls into 3 phases, specifically:

(1) 1788-1901, as a genocidal British colony involved in the Aboriginal Genocide (in which the Indigenous or Aboriginal population fell from 1 million to 0.1 million) and in genocidal British colonial atrocities (notably in the Sudan, India, South Africa, China, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands);

(2) 1901-2001, as a UK- and then US-linked independent nation involved in continuing Aboriginal Genocide (by occasional massacres, deprivation, social exclusion and forced removal of Indigenous children from their mothers) and with genocidal, civilian targetting, UK and US imperial atrocities in Europe and in nearly every Asian country – Australia participated in WW1 (invading or bombing numerous countries) , invasion of Russia, WW2 (invading or bombing numerous countries), and military actions against Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Iraq ); and

(3) 2001- the present, in continuing the Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 excess Indigenous deaths annually) and as a lackey of US imperialism involved militarily in the ongoing Iraqi Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths 2.3 million, 5-6 million refugees) and ongoing Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths 3-7 million, 3-4 million refugees with a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees from US robot-bombed NW Pakistan); and diplomatic legislative and financial involvement in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide by racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel (post-invasion excess deaths 0.3 million, 7 million refugees). [1].

White Australia has participated in all post-1950 US Asian wars that have been associated (so far) with 25 million violent excess deaths (from bombs and bullets) or non-violent excess deaths (from deprivation). However this carnage is dwarfed by the mostly non-violent excess deaths (avoidable deaths) associated with First World hegemony. Excess deaths for a country in a given period is the difference between actual deaths and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics. Using UN Population Division demographic data it has been estimated that post-1950 excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.3 billion (the World), 1.2 billion (the non-European World) and 0.6 billion (the Muslim World) – with the latter representing a Muslim Holocaust 100 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed) or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust, the man-made Bengal Famine in which Churchill deliberately starved 6-7 million Indians to death. [2].

As a minor but nevertheless important player in post-war Anglo-American imperialism, White Australia has a major complicity in the 1.3 billion-victim post-1950 Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. However it gets worse – White Australia (aka Apartheid Australia because of its draconian race-based laws against Indigenous Australians and its diplomatic, legislative and financial support for Apartheid Israel’s ongoing Palestinian Genocide) is a world leader in worsening Climate Genocide. White Australia is the leader in First World commitment to steadily increasing ecocidal, terracidal, greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution that will very likely result in Climate Genocide of 10 billion non-Europeans this century due to unaddressed climate change, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims, 2 billion Indians, 0.3 billion Bangladeshis and 0.3 billion Pakistanis. [3].

White Australia is committed to a climate criminal policy of “60% reduction in 2000 GHG pollution by 2050” – in marked contrast to the urging of top climate scientists and analysts for “cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”. [4-6].

Importantly, Australia is the world’s biggest coal exporter and 92% of its electric power comes from burning fossil fuels. The climate criminal policies of the present pro-war, pro-coal Labor Party Government are essentially consonant with the policies of the pro-war, pro-coal Liberal Party-National Party Coalition (the Nationals being the most troglodytic and Luddite of the three). These extreme right wing parties are collectively known as the Lib-Labs and command about 90% electoral support, with a minority of 10% of Australian voters supporting the anti-war, anti-coal, pro-peace, pro-environment Australians Greens.

Already Australia is a world-leading per capita GHG polluter. As of 2008, “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 2.2 (India), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included. [5, 7].

Reducing Australia’s 2000 Domestic emissions 60% by 2020 would mean 2050 domestic emissions of 0.6 x 535.3 million tonnes CO2-e (CO2-equiv; GHG pollution including CO2, methane and nitrous oxide (N2O) and expressed in terms of CO2 equivalents) = 321.2 Mt CO2-e (million tonnes CO2-e). However Australia’s projected Exported GHG pollution in 2050 will be 1,318.2 t CO2-e (tonnes CO2-e). According to the UN Population Division Australia’s projected population in 2050 will be 28.0 million. [5].

Accordingly, the Australian Government projection is for a 2050 annual per capita Domestic GHG pollution of 321.2 MtCO2-e/28 million people = 11.5 tonnes CO2-e per person per year – roughly 2 times the current value for China, 5 times that of India, 8 times that of Pakistan and 13 times that of Bangladesh.

However Australia’s projected Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution in 2050 will be (321.2 + 1,318.2) Mt CO2–e/28 million people = 58.6 tonnes CO2-e per person per year, 8.5% greater than its current values and 9 times the present annual per capita GHG pollution for the World, 10 times that of China, 27 times that of India, 39 times that of Pakistan and 65 times that of Bangladesh.

Pro-coal, pro-pollution Australia is essentially committed to business-as–usual (BAU) in the face of the climate emergency and to maintaining its world-leading per capita GHG pollution position. In stark contrast, after the 2009 G8 meeting, the Indian PM Manmohan Singh pledged that India’s per capita CO2 emissions (already one of the World’s lowest) will never exceed the average for Developing Countries. [8-9].

It gets worse. The White Australian Rudd Labor Government has instructed its Treasury officials to model for a “target” concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at between 450 and 550 parts per million CO2-equivalent (i.e. including the GHGs carbon dioxide, CO2, methane, CH4, and nitrous oxide, N2O), this corresponding to about 390-480 ppm CO2 (with atmospheric CO2 concentration currently increasing at 2 ppm per year). [3, 10].

The Rudd Labor Australian Government pledge of 450-550 CO2-e means a minimum atmospheric CO2 concentration of over 400 ppm CO2 within 5 years with this rising to about 500 ppm CO2.

According to Australian Greens Senator Milne:

“450 ppm [CO2-e] gives us a less than even chance of avoiding 2 degrees warming, leading most likely to the complete loss of Arctic summer ice, extinction of polar bears and so many other species in the wild, and potentially setting in train positive feedback loops that could send our climate into an uncontrollable heating cycle.550 ppm [CO2-e] will send us toward 3 degrees warming, destroy the Great Barrier Reef and almost certainly trigger runaway climate change, leading some to say that there is no such thing as stabilisation at 550 ppm. It should not even be being modelled as it is beyond the point where a safe climate for all living creatures, including humanity, can be imagined.” [10].

What do leading scientists say about these White Australia-proposed levels of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere?

According to Australian National University paleoclimate and earth scientist Dr Andrew Glikson:

“The continuing use of the atmosphere as an open sewer for industrial pollution has already added some 305 GtC to the atmosphere together with land clearing and animal-emitted methane. This raised CO2 levels to 387 ppm CO2 to date, leading toward conditions which existed on Earth about 3 million years (Ma) ago (mid-Pliocene), when CO2 levels rose to about 400 ppm, temperatures to about 2–3 degrees C and sea levels by about 25 +/- 12 metres.” [11].

According to top US climate scientist Dr James Hansen and colleagues (2008):

“Stabilization of Arctic sea ice cover requires, to first approximation, restoration of planetary energy balance. Climate models driven by known forcings yield a present planetary energy imbalance of +0.5-1 W/m2. Observed heat increase in the upper 700 m of the ocean confirms the planetary energy imbalance, but observations of the entire ocean are needed for quantification. CO2 amount must be reduced to 325-355 ppm to increase outgoing flux 0.5-1 W/m2, if other forcings are unchanged. A further imbalance reduction, and thus CO2 ~300-325 ppm, may be needed to restore sea ice to its area of 25 years ago.” [12].

Top UK climate scientist Dr James Lovelock FRS has stated the following of the consequences of an atmospheric CO2 concentration of over 500 ppm:

“In Chapter 1 I describe a simple model where the sensitive part of the Earth system is the ocean; as it warms, so the area of the sea that can support the growth of algae grows smaller as it is driven ever closer to the poles, until algal growth ceases. The discontinuity comes because algae in the ocean both pump down carbon dioxide [by photosynthesis] and produce clouds [through cloud-seeding dimethyl sulphide production]. (Algae floating in the ocean actively remove carbon dioxide from the air and use it for growth; we call the process “pumping down” to distinguish it from the passive and reversible removal of carbon dioxide as it dissolves in rain or sea water). The threshold for the failure of the algae is about 500 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, about the same as it is for Greenland’s unstoppable melting.” [13].

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg (a top world expert on climate change and coral, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia), re 450 ppm CO2, 2007:

“What we find out is that the threat is much closer than we thought in the past, and in fact the magic number may be 450. When I say ’450′; 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide and we lose them … Lose coral reefs. If you look around Australia today, in fact the world, you find that coral reefs only prosper when you’ve got a certain amount of carbonate ions in the water. The level at which the carbonate ion drops below that level is when you’ve got 450 parts per million, and of course we know that we haven’t actually had that concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for possibly 20 million years, so this does make sense. So once we’ve identified this number, I get the feeling that our politicians, even with their best intentions in Bali, are still flailing around trying to identify the target. And I think that everything, and this goes for not only coral reefs but for rainforest, for the breakdown of the Greenland ice sheet and all of these other issues, 450 is going to be what we must at all costs aim for.” [14].

As outlined above, the Australian Labor Government is committed to polices that will mean an increase in Australia’s already world leading annual per capita Domestic and Exported GHG pollution from 54 tonnes CO2-e per person per year to 59 tonnes CO2-e per person per year – about 9 times the present World average annual per capita GHG pollution.

Back in 1901, Australia’s first PM, racist Edmund Barton, declared that “The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of an Englishman and the Chinaman.” [15].

In 1947 the racist Labor Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, notoriously declared that “Two Wongs do not make a White.” [16].

Now, in the 21st century, the Australian Labor Federal Government is committed to 2050 policy targets that effectively state in relation to permissible per capita GHG pollution that 10 Chinese, 27 Indians, 39 Pakistanis or 65 Bangladeshis are not equivalent to one White Australian.

Further, the Australian Labor Federal Government policy goes well beyond the mere climate racism of “65 Bangladeshis do not equal one White Australian” to what must be described as climate genocide, ecocide and terracide. Thus the atmospheric GHG targets of the Australian Labor Federal Government (generally supported by the conservative Opposition and hence by the 90% of Australians who vote for the Lib-Labs) mean the destruction of Australian and World coral reefs, destruction of the Greenland ice sheet, massive destruction of the phytoplankton of the Oceans together with much of the ocean food chain as well as cloud seeding.

Climate racist, climate criminal, White Australia is overwhelmingly committed to destruction of much of Humanity and the biosphere in the interests of short-term private gain of Australian- and foreign-owned corporate interests who generously fund the egregiously corrupt, dishonest and racist Australian Labor Party (aka the Apartheid Labor Party) and no doubt the other Lib-Lab parties too.

Of course, Australia is not the only climate criminal First World country – it is simply the worst by far of the OECD climate criminals. Indeed the G8 meeting at L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009 was a comprehensive failure that committed the First World to a policy of unspoken Climate Genocide. Thus, according to top UK climate scientist Dr James Lovelock FRS, fewer than 1 billion people will survive this century, this corresponding to the avoidable death this century of 10 billion non-Europeans, with this holocaust including 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims (a Muslim Holocaust 500 times bigger than the 5-6 million victim WW2 Jewish Holocaust), 2 billion Indians (more than the 1.8 billion victim Indian Holocaust under the racist British, 1757-1947) , 0.3 billion Bangladeshis (100 times more than the 3 million victim Bengali Holocaust under the US-backed Pakistan Army in 1971) and 0.3 billion Pakistanis. [9].

What can decent people (including decent Australians) do to protect themselves, their loved ones, Humanity and the very biosphere of Planet Earth from the climate racist, climate criminal, pro-coal Australian Libs-Labs?

Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people must urgently act by (a) informing others about the worsening, Australia-lead Climate Genocide and (b) urging application of Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs, reparations demands and criminal prosecutions before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to bring to heel all of the climate criminals, most notably climate racist White Australia and its climate criminal Anglo-American associates, who are knowingly threatening the non-European World with Climate Genocide. [17].

Greenpeace is going after Unilever, the makers of Dove beauty products. According to Greenpeace Unilever “are causing forest destruction, species extinction and climate change.”

The palm oil that is needed in products like those from Dove comes from companies who are irresponsibly destroying Indonesia’s rainforests to make way for their palm oil plantations.

Dove is not the only company that uses palm oil from destroyed rainforests. But they are the biggest single user of palm oil, in the world.

“Unilever pretends to be an environmentally responsible company, but what it is actually responsible for is destroying areas of rainforest, driving species extinction and speeding up global warming. Being one of the biggest users of palm oil on the planet, Unilever must stop buying palm oil from these companies and call for a halt on the destruction of Indonesian forests to grow palm oil.”

Greenpeace wants all companies, and not just Unilever, who are involved in palm oil production to commit to stopping further deforestation by supporting a moratorium on rainforest and peatlands. They have also set uo five criterias the palm oil industry must agree on:

• No new plantations within mapped forest areas
• No plantations resulting in the degradation of peatlands
• No plantations or expansion post November 2005 resulting in deforestation or degradation of high conservation value areas including peatlands
• No plantations or plantation expansion established on indigenous peoples and other forest dependent communities without their free prior and informed consent
• Establish full supply chain traceability and segregation systems which exclude palm oil that fails to meet the above criteria

If you want you can read “Burning up Borneo” (PDF), released April 2008, for more detailed scientific information of the campaign. You can also watch the campaign video (you can find the HD version below) and sign the open letter to Unilever.

Also: Alison Benjamin from the Guardian talks to Greenpeace executive director John Sauven about why Greenpeace are targeting Unilever in their weekly podcast.

Dove Onslaught(er) from Greenpeace on Vimeo.

Image credits: Greenpeace.Italia

We are already now starting to see riots and protests around the world that have been triggered by the lack of resources. And unfortunately this is a sight we will see more and more of in the future.

People are protesting in Haiti, Argentina, Cambodia, Indonesia, Egypt, Bolivia, Senegal and Yemen because of rising food costs or because they can’t even buy any food – cause there isn’t any.

The FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, warns that the crisis is much worse than previously thought. According to a new report released earlier this month 37 countries around the world are currently facing food crises.

FAO urges “all donors and International Financing Institutions to increase their assistance or consider reprogramming part of their ongoing aid in countries negatively affected by high food prices”.

Sir John Holmes, undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, warns that the rising food price threatens global security and will undermine already weak governments.

“We are seeing a new face of hunger. We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it.”

The food prices are rising due to many different things that are linked together like a huge global ecosystem.

When our global population grows at record speeds the demand for food and other resources also grows.

And when the oil reserves shrink the price on gas and oil rises and makes it harder to sustain our global trade system. Farmers must pay more for their gas to their tractors and equipments and shipping the food around also costs more due to the rising fuel costs.

At the same time farmers face climate changes (that our addiction to oil have created) that reduces their harvests.

Now we are even trying to satisfy our oil addiction and car-fetish by replacing the oil with different biofuels (that are overall worse than the oil).

The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Scientific Committee recently called for the suspension of EU’s target to increase the share of biofuels used in transport to 10% by 2020. The committee calls for a new, “comprehensive scientific study on the environmental risks and benefits of biofuels” before any targets should be set.

The rising demand for meat is also a part of the problem.

But no matter how much we try to stop our unsustainable food and resource system and move over to a more local and sustainable system the food crisis will still remain a big issue around the world, now and further ahead in the future.

Now maybe the only thing that can save us is the rationing of greenhouse gas emissions as well as our provisions, especially the meat, worldwide.

Image Credit: UN World Food Programme. Photo by Giuseppe Bizzarri.