[Mb-civic] Climate Change, the Absent Issue

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

After this important article I have tacked on a few environews nuggets from 
the Daily Grist....

comment | Posted October 13, 2004

Climate, the Absent Issue
by Mark Hertsgaard 

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041101&s=hertzgaard
 
 Every once in a while there is good news in this troubled world, and the 
choice of Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai as this year's Nobel 
Peace Prizewinner is one such moment. The timing could not be more apt. 
The choice of Maathai was announced near the end of a US presidential 
campaign that has resolutely ignored the greatest danger facing humanity, 
global climate change. Her selection thus stands as an implicit rebuke to the 
environmental backwardness of America's political and media classes. It also 
represents an explicit assertion that, as the Nobel committee put it, "Peace 
on Earth depends on our ability to secure our living environment." 

The Bush Administration remains in denial about climate change even 
though its closest overseas ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, said in 
September that climate change is the single biggest long-term problem his 
nation faces. Blair's top scientific adviser, David King, has gone further, 
declaring that climate change is the biggest threat civilization has ever faced-
-bigger even than the global terrorism that dominates headlines and 
obsesses George W. Bush. King warned in July that there is now enough 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to melt all the ice on earth, which would put 
most of the world's biggest cities under water, starting with low-lying 
metropolises like New York, London and New Orleans. "I am sure that 
climate change is the biggest problem that civilization has had to face in 
5,000 years," King said. Even Shell Oil chairman Ron Oxburgh admitted in 
June that he is "really very worried for the planet." 

Climate change is to the twenty-first century what the nuclear arms race was 
to the twentieth: the overriding threat to humanity's continued existence on 
this planet. And it is already killing people. In the summer of 2003, some 
15,000 people died in France from an unprecedented heat wave. No single 
weather event can be definitively attributed to climate change, but such heat 
waves are exactly what scientists expect as warming intensifies. If climate 
change is not moderated, more will die in years to come--either directly, 
through more destructive storms and droughts, or indirectly, through declines 
in food production and the spread of infectious disease. 

Yet except for two brief references to the Kyoto Protocol during the Bush-
Kerry debates, climate change has been absent from the presidential 
campaign. Kerry criticized Bush for walking away from Kyoto without 
mentioning that he himself also opposes the protocol (though Kerry pledges 
that, as President, he would re-open negotiations and fix what he considers 
its flaws). Bush sounded almost proud of having rejected Kyoto, which he 
claimed, incorrectly, would hurt the US economy. 

Although parts of the media have woken up to the danger--Business Week 
and National Geographic ran cover stories on it this past summer--most US 
journalists still don't get it. At best, they see climate change as just one of 
many environmental issues. At worst, they are still fooled by industry 
propaganda casting doubt on the science behind claims of climate change. 
Television networks approach the issue with a particular conflict of interest. 
As Robert Kennedy Jr. has observed, cars are the leading source of US 
greenhouse gas emissions, but car ads are the leading revenue source for 
US television networks. 

Thus climate change remains marginal to the political debate in the United 
States. Public awareness and policy-making lag years behind the rest of the 
world, as the impending implementation of the Kyoto accord, without US 
participation, illustrates. (Now that Russia supports Kyoto, the United States 
and Australia are the only major industrial countries outside the protocol.) 
Some state and local governments are reacting; California recently required 
that automakers increase fuel efficiency 30 percent by 2009. But progress is 
incremental when it needs to come at hyper-speed. 

Which is where the example of Wangari Maathai offers hope. The 64-year-
old biologist is Kenya's assistant minister for environment and natural 
resources, but she has spent most of her life as a grassroots activist and 
critic of the former US-supported dictatorship of Daniel Arap Moi. Maathai's 
great innovation was to create the Green Belt Movement. This radical but 
practical program pays poor women to plant tree seedlings in their 
communities; 30 million trees have reportedly been planted since the 
program began in the late 1970s. 

The selection of Maathai for the peace prize generated controversy in 
Norway from critics who said that honoring an environmentalist diluted the 
meaning of peace work. But that criticism was contradicted by a United 
Nations report issued a week earlier, showing how deforestation and water 
scarcity--which are exacerbated by global warming--have repeatedly led to 
armed conflict in Africa. 

Maathai's Green Belt Movement is based on a holistic analysis of the 
intertwined problems of war, poverty, environmental degradation and lower 
status for women. (Kenya had one of the highest birth rates in the world when 
Green Belt was founded in 1977, in part because women thought their only 
option in life was to bear children.) Green Belt puts money in women's 
pockets, boosting their independence and the educational prospects for their 
children. Meanwhile, the planting of trees replenishes the forests that are the 
foundation of Kenya's agricultural productivity and the primary fuel source for 
its poor. And thanks to photosynthesis, the new trees also fight global 
warming by absorbing carbon dioxide. 

Like the best political ideas, Wangari Maathai's Green Belt program is 
specific yet universal, grounded in intellect but insistent upon action. Its 
underlying principles are the very ones needed to build a sustainable, and 
therefore peaceful, future: restoration of ravaged ecosystems, expansion of 
economic opportunity for the poor, a guarantee of equal justice for all and 
strengthening of democracy. The Nobel committee lauded Maathai for work 
that has transformed the lives of countless Kenyans. But her achievements 
also suggest how the rest of the world, including the vastly richer United 
States, can combat climate change, if only it wakes up and tries. 

-----

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
Airlines start cutting emissions and raising efficiency

Once considered burdensome headaches, techniques to cut pollution and
increase efficiency are now being embraced by many large airlines. Why? 
"It turns out that good environmental behavior is also cost-effective,"
said Bengt-Olov Nas of Norway's Scandinavian Airlines System.  The
principal driver is rising fuel costs:  The price of refined jet kerosene
has risen by about 60 percent since January, eroding airlines'
already-slim profit margins.  In response, airlines are pushing to
increase fuel efficiency and taking a number of steps to decrease waste: 
polishing planes to reduce scratches that increase drag, painting planes
lighter colors to reduce heat absorption, and reducing weight via lighter
seats and less onboard water and fuel.  Also, various airlines are
lobbying for more direct flight paths and the opening of some military
flight space, and trying to reduce taxiing and in-flight delays.  Unlike
other cost-cutting measures -- like, say, firing people -- these measures
are supported by just about everybody, including passengers and unions.

straight to the source:  The Wall Street Journal, Keith Johnson, 15 
Oct 2004 (access ain't free)
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3351>



THE HANSEN BOTHERS
More climate scientists come out against Bush

Andrew Revkin of The New York Times has written what may be the 
definitive account of the battle over science politicization in and 
around the Bush administration.  The broad outlines are familiar -- 
the science community is more politically mobilized than it has been in
decades, outraged at what it sees as the Bush administration's disregard
for and manipulation of science -- but there are juicy new details for
those interested in Bushian climate-change policy. Revkin reveals that the
2001 decision to backtrack on Bush's campaign promise to regulate
carbon-dioxide emissions was based on a single, tendentious Energy
Department study -- one that assumed that there would be no technical
advances to make compliance cheaper, and that was contradicted by several
other studies.  Another interesting tidbit is that NASA scientist James
Hansen, one of the pioneers of climate science, has spoken publicly for
the first time in criticism of Bush, joining several others inside and
outside of government in accusing his administration of suppressing and
distorting inconvenient facts about global warming.  It's worth a read.

straight to the source:  The New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 19 Oct 2004
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3360>


WE TAKE OUR COFFEE GREEN
Central American coffee industry rebounds by going green

A global surplus of coffee five years ago sent the Central American 
coffee industry into a tailspin, but it is gradually recovering by 
focusing on high-quality beans -- which in many cases means 
organically grown.  In that rarest of things, a genuine win-win 
situation, the industry is being helped by an odd coalition including
large U.S. coffee corporations, international conservation groups, U.S.
aid agencies, and Central American governments.  The U.S. government sees
aid as a way of encouraging financial stability in nearby nations;
conservation groups see it as a way of encouraging biodiversity and
reducing erosion, both enabled by organic coffee farms; U.S. coffee
corporations see it as a way of ensuring a steady supply of high-quality
coffee, which is in high demand these days; and Central American
governments see it as a way of reducing unemployment and social unrest. 
The assistance available to farmers willing to go organic also enables
them to pay higher salaries and offer more health benefits.

straight to the source:  The Washington Post, Mary Jordan, 17 Oct 2004
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3357>


THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE DEARTH
Climate change threatens to reverse progress on fighting poverty

Global warming will disproportionately harm the world's poorest 
people and "perpetuate injustices unprecedented in human history," 
says Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth.  Such is the conclusion of a
sobering report called "Up in Smoke," released this week by a 17-member
coalition of environmental and international aid groups. Climate change,
it says, threatens to make the Millennium Development Goals -- focused on
halving world poverty by 2015 -- unattainable. When it comes to
recommendations, the report pulls no punches:  It says developed countries
need to reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent from
1990 levels, well beyond Kyoto targets, and stop subsidizing fossil-fuel
industries to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year.  It also
urges that plans be made to relocate communities hit particularly hard by
warming, and asks developed countries to spend more on education and
small-scale renewable-energy projects in poor countries.

straight to the source:  BBC News, Alex Kirby, 20 Oct 2004
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3376>

straight to the source:  Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 20 Oct 2004
<http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3377>


THE MEEK SHALL INHERIT THE DEARTH
Climate change threatens to reverse progress on fighting poverty

Global warming will disproportionately harm the world's poorest 
people and "perpetuate injustices unprecedented in human history," 
says Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth.  Such is the conclusion of a
sobering report called "Up in Smoke," released this week by a 17-member
coalition of environmental and international aid groups. Climate change,
it says, threatens to make the Millennium Development Goals -- focused on
halving world poverty by 2015 -- unattainable. When it comes to
recommendations, the report pulls no punches:  It says developed countries
need to reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent from
1990 levels, well beyond Kyoto targets, and stop subsidizing fossil-fuel
industries to the tune of tens of billions of dollars a year.  It also
urges that plans be made to relocate communities hit particularly hard by
warming, and asks developed countries to spend more on education and
small-scale renewable-energy projects in poor countries.

straight to the source:  BBC News, Alex Kirby, 20 Oct 2004
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3376>

straight to the source:  Terra Daily, Agence France-Presse, 20 Oct 2004
<http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=3377>

------



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