Re: [Marxism] Will Big Business Save the Earth? Jared Diamond NYT Op-Ed

[Patrick Bond]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


The PNG fraudster Diamond, the WWF and Obama's cap-and-trade, what a 
potent capitalist combo. Here's how it looks from South Africa and 
Copenhagen (and in 1993 from PNG).

> But today I have more nuanced feelings. Over the years I’ve joined the
> boards of two environmental groups, the World Wildlife Fund and Conservation
> International, serving alongside many business executives.
> ...
> My friends in the business world keep telling me that Washington can help on
> two fronts: by investing in green research, offering tax incentives and
> passing cap-and-trade legislation...



The Mercury
Eye on Civil Society

Set for carbon emissions sell-out in Copenhagen

Durban appears as a central site from which to fight climate injustice, 
as major SA environmental groups greenwash firms addicted to fossil fuels

December 08, 2009 Edition 1

Patrick Bond

THERE are crucial moments when dividing-and-conquering a pliable civil 
society occurs far too easily, and just such a moment has arrived here 
in Copenhagen, as the UN climate summit begins.

With outright climate denialism now passé (notwithstanding scandalous 
e-mail traffic between numbskull University of East Anglia researchers), 
more sophisticated ways have emerged for polluting corporations and 
states to maintain business as usual.

Usefully for those addicted to fossil fuels, a few "green" agencies are 
making common cause with polluters and governments. They endorse the Cap 
and Trade carbon trading strategy allegedly meant to lower greenhouse 
gases - even though the European Union's pilot Emissions Trading Scheme 
has conclusively failed. Sadly, two local groups are also greenwashing 
SA firms addicted to fossil fuels - including metals smelters and mining 
houses desperate for more cheap, coal-fired electricity - plus Pretoria 
politicians like Environment Minister Buyelwa Sonjica.

Science requires a steady reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the 
world scale, starting now and reaching a 45 percent decline by 2020. 
Given the vast waste in the world economy, that's not an unreasonable 
figure to shoot for in the North; the US Environmental Protection Agency 
could begin immediately, by all accounts.

But the same is true in the most egregious "emerging market" economies 
whose growth strategies have stunted genuine development in favour of 
carbon-intensive exports. SA is a case in point.

Look in the mirror and let's be frank: we're one of the world's ugliest, 
meanest carbon tsotsis. It's not only because of our extreme social 
inequality, which limits adequate, affordable electricity access to the 
wealthiest, but even more so due to the metals and mining houses which 
use an inordinate share of the world's cheapest electricity. Eskom's CO2 
emissions are many times worse per unit of per capita economic output 
than even the United States, that great climate satan.

Shady deals

Why? Shady, decades-long deals done during apartheid are still in place, 
providing Anglo, Arcelor Mittal, BHP Billiton and their ilk with huge 
profits, which they export to London and Melbourne - in the process 
worsening SA's extreme balance of payments deficit and driving the 
electricity price for the rest of us skyhigh.

As a result, deputy Transport Minister Jeremy Cronin last month 
suggested "phasing out aluminium smelters" to lower both emissions and 
Eskom tariff hikes. In early 2008 Standard Bank chairman Derek Cooper 
advocated cutting the smelters' power source to avoid brownouts.

The new social movement, Climate Justice Now (CJN), also calls for 
immediate reductions and a policy of keeping fossil fuels like oil in 
the soil, and coal in the hole. And CJN's members in Earthlife Africa 
were instrumental in defeating Sasol's carbon trading strategy earlier 
in 2009, and in making Sasol a leading candidate for the mock prize of 
most obnoxious polluter to be found lobbying here in Copenhagen (the 
Angry Mermaid award, named after the famous harbour statue).

In contrast, the most visible and well-resourced NGO, the World Wildlife 
Fund (WWF), is tightly allied with Pretoria's obscure Long Term 
Mitigation Scenario, which its staff helped draft during the reign of 
environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. His successor, Sonjica, 
has apparently rejected Cronin's wise counsel in order to maintain Van 
Schalkwyk's destructive trajectory: SA's emissions will rise until 2025, 
thanks mainly to two huge new coal-fired power plants, "plateau for a 
decade and then decline from 2035", as she confirmed in a speech last 
month.

Sonjica added: "Without financial and technology support, it will not be 
possible to do more than what we are already doing." This is nonsense, 
of course (as Cronin shows in an Umsebenzi article), and reflects mainly 

[Marxism] Labor and students from Iran

[Louis Proyect]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Statement of Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organizationon the
occasion of the arrest of a member of the committee in Iran:Closing
Statement of Ceremonies of Coordinating Committee Condemning the Arrest of
Pedram Nasrollahi

http://revolutionaryflowerpot.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-labor-leader-pedram-narollahi.html

Also of interest ... the Statement by Bazr (a university student paper),
on the occasion of the Student Day/16th Azar (held on Dec. 7th):
16th Azar: Always Red! Bazr Student Periodical: On the Occasion of 16
Azar/December 7, 2009

http://revolutionaryflowerpot.blogspot.com/2009/12/iran-student-day-2009.html








Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Global Warming again

[Mark Lause]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


On one level, at least the holocaust deniers could plead that they weren't
around at the time it was taking place.  Not so with global warming...or
with its kindred willful deniers of the absence of WMDs in Iraq, etc.  Fifty
to twenty years ago, enough people were doing this work to where some were
passing through my rather narrow, not particularly scientific circles in a
small Midwestern city.

The fallback position, that it's just a natural cycle, is equally absurd.

In the US, we have about 20% of the population whose entire self-perception
is wrapped up in what can only be called a religious frenzy of denial.  And
about half the overall population thinks it bad manners to point out that
they're just nuts.  Anyway, at the rate things seem to be headed here, we
might well wind up with another global warming denier in the White
House...and won't that be peachy keen for the rest of the world

So,

Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Global Warming again

[S. Artesian]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Plant growth?  Full disclosure-- I've never studied this.   However,  if we 
accept that increased levels of carbon dioxide are the result of currently 
organized production, transportation, distribution etc., and that mode 
requires and maintains clearing of  vast areas of natural plant growth, 
where is the benefit to plant growth?

Somehow I think burning the rain forests in the Amazon to clear the land for 
cattle raising is of no benefit to the rain forest, or to other forests for 
that matter.  But maybe that's just me.


- Original Message - 
From: "Paddy Apling" 



Not zero, but vastly over-rated and not justifying the hyperbole, just
consider the facts;  not least its contribution to plant growth - see
web-sites, of various scientists including mine at
apling.freeservers.com/science.htm awaiting updated links.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com





Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

Re: [Marxism] Global Warming again

[Paddy Apling]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Not zero, but vastly over-rated and not justifying the hyperbole, just 
consider the facts;  not least its contribution to plant growth - see 
web-sites, of various scientists including mine at 
apling.freeservers.com/science.htm awaiting updated links.

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com


- Original Message - 
From: "Les Schaffer" 
To: 
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 12:58 PM
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Global Warming again


==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Paddy Apling wrote:
> Events of the last few weeks show clealy that the time has come to 
> properly consider and discuss the science of climate

where you been Paddy, that's been going on for decades. you just don't
like the results to date. any other scientist knows its not just models,
tho they are important. there is proxy data, there is measurements. you
are surprisingly inept at making sound scientific assessment about
climate science, yet you talk as if you know what you are saying. in
this regard, you ARE in the camp of climate change denialists. all heat,
no light. but you are following the good rule of propaganda, just say NO!.

so, Paddy, you think the sensitivity of the climate to CO2 changes is
EXACTLY zero, is that your position?



Les


Nature Geoscience
Published online: 6 December 2009

Earth system sensitivity inferred from Pliocene modelling and data

Daniel J. Lunt, Alan M. Haywood, Gavin A. Schmidt, Ulrich Salzmann, Paul
J. Valdes & Harry J. Dowsett

Abstract

Quantifying the equilibrium response of global temperatures to an
increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is one of the
cornerstones of climate research. Components of the Earth's climate
system that vary over long timescales, such as ice sheets and
vegetation, could have an important effect on this temperature
sensitivity, but have often been neglected. Here we use a coupled
atmosphere–ocean general circulation model to simulate the climate of
the mid-Pliocene warm period (about three million years ago), and
analyse the forcings and feedbacks that contributed to the relatively
warm temperatures. Furthermore, we compare our simulation with proxy
records of mid-Pliocene sea surface temperature. Taking these lines of
evidence together, we estimate that the response of the Earth system to
elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is 30–50% greater
than the response based on those fast-adjusting components of the
climate system that are used traditionally to estimate climate
sensitivity. We conclude that targets for the long-term stabilization of
atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations aimed at preventing a
dangerous human interference with the climate system should take into
account this higher sensitivity of the Earth system.


Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/e.c.apling%40btinternet.com




Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com

[Marxism] Britain: Massive climate protest demands real deal at Copenhagen

[Stuart Munckton]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


http://www.greenleft.org.au/2009/821/42226
Britain: Massive climate protest demands real deal at Copenhagen
Lauren Carroll Harris, London
8 December 2009


*December 5 — “It feels like we're going to war”, I overheard one teenager
say to his friend. Such was the atmosphere of serious, creative resistance
to government inaction on climate change that marked the London’s December 5
Wave demonstration. *

 London’s streets were awash with a sea of blue as more than 50,000 people
joined together, filling the city with noise and colour. Protesters
encircled parliament to demand immediate government action on global warming
ahead of this week’s COP15 United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

The Wave was called to urge a deal at Copenhagen that commits rich countries
to significant cuts in carbon emissions, while allowing Third World
countries to continue to develop with the aid of the First World.

A diversity of protesters — young, old, families, students, cycling blocks,
community contingents and drumming circles — urged the British government to
quit coal, act fairly and quickly, and protect the poorest in its response
to the biggest single threat to the planet and its people.

Before the Wave, hundreds participated in a “Climate Emergency” rally, which
was called around more explicit and radical demands — and to ensure the
demonstrations weren’t hijacked by the media and government to portray
support for the COP15 talks.

The five demands of the “Climate Emergency” rally were: the declaration of a
climate emergency; a 10% cut in carbon emissions by the end of 2010 (which
many protesters amended on their placards to 40%); a million green jobs by
the end of 2010; an immediate ban on all domestic flights; a national 55mph
speed limit and an end to the roads program; and a ban on agrofuel use.

Many speakers highlighted the need for a comprehensive system of free and
frequent public transport, a shift to renewable transport and solidarity
with workers’ struggles as key to building a society that is both
ecologically sustainable and socially just.

Tom Stewart, an activist from the Heathrow Association for the Control of
Aircraft Noise, highlighted the British government’s hypocritical stance on
climate change, pointing out that should plans for a new runway at Heathrow
airport go ahead, Heathrow will be the single largest emitter of CO2 in
Britain.

While posturing as green ahead of the COP15 talks, “the UK government aims
to triple domestic flights by 2030”, Stewart said. He instead called for
“fast and affordable rail alternatives”.

The Climate Emergency rally also included a contingent of workers from
Vestas, Britain’s only wind turbine manufacturing plant, who have been
struggling against job losses and plant closures.

Theo Simon of the radical folk band Seize the Day, which provided musical
interludes during the rally, spoke of the need to protect workers’ rights in
the shift to a low carbon economy.

“There’s a company called Vestas that makes windmills, but they are not a
green company”, Simon said.

“Because if you are green, and you support the climate, then you must also
support social justice and you treat your workforce well.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted an online video in response to
the Wave demonstration shortly after it occurred.

He tried to spin the demonstration as one of support for the British
government’s position on Copenhagen.

Brown said: “I strongly support the Wave demonstration today. We will only
get an ambitious climate change deal at Copenhagen and make climate change
history if governments all around the world feel the pressure of their
public calling on them to make ambitious commitments and thereby to put the
world on a path toward a safe future for our children.

“On the eve of the Copenhagen conference it is vitally important that people
lend their support for an ambitious deal. Four years ago, public commitment
and huge demonstrations changed the world through the Make Poverty History
campaign, and it can be done again.

“Copenhagen needs to be something we have never achieved before — a climate
change deal which involves all countries and sets the world on a path toward
the reduction of global emissions.

“It can be done. Together we can make climate change history."

Brown’s rhetoric is at odds with the reality of his government’s climate
policies.

A recent UN report says that Britain’s pledged commitments at COP15 fall
short of what is necessary to prevent catastrophic warming of 2°C.

Nonetheless, Brown’s attempt to pay lip service to public desire for action
on the climate reveals the growing pressure for serious measures.

From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue
#8219 December 2009.

[Marxism] Global Warming again

[Paddy Apling]

==
Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
==


Events of the last few weeks show clealy that the time has come to properly 
consider and discuss the science of climate - which is a science in its infancy 
which is almost entirely based on the output of computer models, which have 
assumed that correlations surely indicate causation (which they never can 
without experimental verification).

A brief but telling video account, suitable for understanding by the 
non-scientist, is available on U-Tube, by John Coleman of the US Weather 
Channel, which requires to be properly considered without the knee-jerk 
response that this is an ideological response of the right-wing of politics.  
On the basis of a life-time career in food and environmental science I 
recommend this as a very good summary of the present extent of real knowledge 
of what controls climate change..

http://www.youtube.com/v/Gwmz79hVyos&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1";
 

Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com

Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com