… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Climate Crisis

  • Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice in less than 30 years

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    ‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame for the loss

    A total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

    The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century.

    “To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands,” said Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling.

    The scientists also warn that the melting of ice in these quantities is now seriously reducing the planet’s ability to reflect solar radiation back into space. White ice is disappearing and the dark sea or soil exposed beneath it is absorbing more and more heat, further increasing the warming of the planet.

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    Greta Thunberg: After two years of school strikes, the world is still in a state of climate crisis denial

    Science doesn’t tell anyone what to do, it merely collects and presents verified information. It is up to us to study and connect the dots. When you read the IPCC SR1.5 report and the UNEP production gap report, as well as what leaders have actually signed up for in the Paris agreement, you see that the climate and ecological crisis can no longer be solved within today’s systems. Even a child can see that policies of today don’t add up with the current best available science.

    We need to end the ongoing wrecking, exploitation and destruction of our life support systems and move towards a fully decarbonised economy that is centred on the wellbeing of all people, democracy and the natural world.

    If we are to have a chance of staying below 1.5C of warming, our emissions need to immediately start reducing rapidly towards zero and then on to negative figures. That’s a fact. And since we don’t have all the technical solutions we need to achieve that, we have to work with what we have at hand today. And this has to include stopping doing certain things. That’s also a fact. However, it’s a fact that most people refuse to accept. Just the thought of being in a crisis that we cannot buy, build or invest our way out of seems to create some kind of collective mental short circuit.

    This mix of ignorance, denial and unawareness is at the very heart of the problem. As it is now, we can have as many meetings and climate conferences as we want. They will not lead to sufficient changes, because the willingness to act and the level of awareness needed are still nowhere in sight. The only way forward is for society to start treating the crisis like a crisis.

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  • UK politics assessment

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    An update to an earlier post from March 2019 to reflect changes since then. This is a work in progress and needs to be finished.

    Since then Boris Johnson was apponted leader of the Conservative party in July 2019 and we’ve had the general election of December 2019. To my surprise the UK Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn fared poorly in the general election and Boris Johnson’s Conservatives won comfortably. Jeremy Corbyn was replaced by Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the UK has experienced the Coronavirus pandemic during 2020 with a lockdown starting in late March.

    Boris Johnson & Co are rabid Eurosceptics and succeeded at the general election using the simplistic mantra “Get Brexit Done”. Johnson & Co are indicating that they are intending to pursue a no-deal Brexit whereby UK will leave the EU in a chaotic manner. Their strategy appears to be to align closely with US instead of EU so that another simplistic mantra for the simple “we want our country back” is exposed as bolox.

    Boris Johnson is widely regarded as an elitist, racist and sexist incompetent idiot. What is beyond doubt is that he is negligent and often poorly prepared. The UK has suffered severely from Coronavirus / Covid-19 under Johnson’s chaotic and inadequate response. Johnson failed to attent 5 early Cobra meetings addressing Coronavirus https://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-skipped-five-emergency-meetings-on-the-coronavirus-2020-4

    I wrote in my previous post that “Socialists are a diverse bunch often fighting injustice e.g. anti-racism, and campaign for human rights, universal healthcare, democracy, equality, workers’ rights, etc. There are more radical Socialists outside of parliamentary politics fragmented according to adherence to the different historical origins and aspects of Socialist Ideology. The Labour party catchphrase “For the many, not the few” catches the Socialist ethos perfectly.”

    Current UK Labour party leader Keir Starmer does not meet this definition and we have instead returned to the normal situation whereby UK voters are denied the opportunity to vote for a Socialist party.

    During Keir Starmer’s previous role as UK’s Director of Public Prosecutions, he … < to be continued >

    The climate crisis receives very little attention from UK politicians and we currently have allegations of Russian hacking which appear to be a moral panic totally without substance.

  • Greta Thunberg: What will you tell your children?

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  • New year message

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    New year to all my readers. I wish you a successful and productive year – like I will have – unless you’re a Tory or Republican, Fascist, Racist, Xenophobe or a climate crisis-denying ignoramus. [ed: apologies that I forgot to exclude misogynists.]

    We have to make some real progress on the Climate Crisis this year – at least Scotland is a good example. [2/1/20 Hopefully Murdoch will be dead soon.]

    I’m hoping to pay a lot of tax for this year. I’ll probably still kick ass even if that doesn’t happen. I’ll also be being more sexy – easy enough: get fitter, lose a little weight, have sex. I don’t doubt that many people want to take me out. I’ve been so skint lately that an evening out has been shopping at a discount supermarket. I’m open to suggestions of all sorts but please keep it green e.g. no flying involved.

    I’m starting my Biac* project today. More on that later.

    *Boris is a …

    4/1/20 I’m tagging something minor on here for the benefit of those who are keen to connect apparently unconnected events. I was burgled in 2019 and was woken by an uninvited strange man in my bedroom at 6.30am. (and the answer is no chance;) 4/1 later: I may be mistaken about this and it’s not important anyway ;)

  • Comment on General Election result

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    As a supporter of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies, I was truly shocked and disappointed by the result of the recent general election. The Labour Party achieved an unexpected poor result losing 59 seats while the Conservatives won an additional 47 seats. I expected the Labour party to improve on their 2017 result.

    Boris Johnson shamelessly and repeatedly lied during the campaign – the big lie being “get Brexit done” – but also 40 new hospitals, 50,000 new nurses and “… no checks on goods going from GB to NI and NI to GB …”. While the media failed to nail him on his incessant lying he was also assisted by burying a report into Russian interference in British politics and the Metropolitan Police inquiry into his sponsorship of Jennifer Arcuri getting postponed until after the election.

    The electorate latched onto the “get Brexit done” lie and that BJ’s BJexit deal is a Trumpian “great deal” while Labour failed to convey the message that Brexit fatigue and turmoil is all down to the Conservatives.

    Jeremy Corbyn proved personally unpopular. People refer to him as a Communist without realising that he is simply a typical Democratic Socialist with a typical Socialist agenda. There were accusations that he would slaughter Kulaks and the intention to nationalise and provide free broadband was accused of being Communism. There is nothing wrong with having utilities and train services provided by the state – that is the normal way of doing it.

    Jeremy Corbyn’s personal unpopularity must be down to the incessant and unjustified accusations of anti-Semitism. Zionists have succeeded in imposing Israel’s veto on Jeremy Corbyn. That veto is documented. Labour’s policy of appeasing the Zionists has failed.

    Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party proposed a real Socialist alternative. The manifesto was huge because they have a real vision of change.

    Despite proposing real policies to address the climate crisis, it appears that the public remain ignorant of the pressing need for action.

    I feel for the Labour party and fellow Socialists and climate activists.