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RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE: MASS MURDER OR MASS SUICIDE?
"If we have the kind of climate future that many scientists are saying we are heading directly and quickly towards, then it's going to be a loss of easily half the population of Earth. And I say 'half the population', when I say that to many people I interact with they say 'Oh if we get off easy, it will be only half'. We're talking about very, very serious dimensions here."
- Stuart Scott on Radio Ecoshock
Think of it. There are experts, scientists and likely policy makers, even corporate heads, who have already considered a die-off of half the population of Earth and yet (a) are not telling the public their fears/predictions and (b) many of them are not trying to stop it.
Perhaps deep down, many humans already know this is coming. They just assume that it will hit only far-away countries and leave heir own area and loved-ones intact. Everyone has that fantasy. Is it fair to say all those who can entertain this future, without dedicating themselves to preventing it, are already part of pre-meditated mass murder? Who knows how many, are willing to sacrifice billions to keep driving and flying around, to keep consuming, to have a big house? Or should we call it mass suicide, to enable a giant shift in Earth's climate?
A month ago on Radio Ecoshock, I gave a heads-up that the economic system is teetering on the edge. Looking at the crashing markets around the world, desperate debt deals, bankruptcies and mass layoffs - our guest Michael T. Snyder nailed it.
The possibility of a serious crash and Depression is a hard quandary for climate-aware people. We don't want to suffer. We don't want our loved ones and neighbours to suffer. Yet if we keep going with this fossil-powered heat engine we call civilization, we WILL wreck the climate, if we haven't done it already. Do you think an economic crash may actually be the only real way to slash emissions quickly?
STUART SCOTT
Outside the official United Nations climate Press Conferences at Lima and Paris, we got the other voices, powerful voices, through a group I knew little about. It's called the "United Planet Faith & Science Initiative."
Is it reliable? Wait until you hear who's involved. Here are just a few of the many founding members: James Hansen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kerry Emmanuel, Katherine Hayhoe, Rabbi David Rosen, Swami Saraswati, Michael Mann, Reverend Sally Bingham, Michael Oppenheimer, the list goes on.
Often chairing high-powered press conferences in different cities, all recorded as You tube videos, is Stuart Scott. He's the Founder and Director of Strategic Planning for the "United Planet Faith & Science Initiative."
Stuart Scott
In the interview, Stewart recommends a series of maps from NCAR, the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. These 4 maps of the coming world show a widening band of deserts forming around both subtropical lands of the world. Like parts of Brazil. Like all of North Africa, of course, but also a new desert environment for Portugal, Spain, Southern Italy and Greece. Did I mention the mid-west of the United States? Where so much of the world's food is grown? Or another food producing region in China?
This is like the map of doom that I first saw in 2006. Dr. James Lovelock presented a similar map of Earth with wide belts of deserts in a speech to the Institution of Chemical Engineers November 28th, 2006. You can listen to or download that program again with this link.
Here is one link to the maps. The images are also at this address. Sadly, all the links to Lovelock's map of doom have disappeared over time. I can no longer find it on the Net. If you do, please let me know. You can always use the "Contact" button on my web site to reach me.
And of course, you can see these maps on Stuart's ClimateMatters TV YouTube, where the maps are shown and discussed at about the 16:30 time mark.
As Stuart Scott tells us, even relatively conservative international institutions, and the U.S. government say a huge portion of the current food-production land will become too hot, and especially too dry, to grow crops. That will happen as more billions of humans are added to the planet that does not yet adequately feed the current masses. Add in flooding of fertile lands near the sea, in places like India, Bangladesh, Africa, and South America - and you can see why Scott is so pessimistic about our ability to feed 10 billion people.
I won't go into the horrifying probability of hundreds of millions of climate migrants. That will make the current refugee crisis into Europe look like good times.
WHAT ABOUT CHINA?
We discuss the role of China. Dr. James Hansen has just been there. It sounds like Stuart Scott and Hansen agree that IF there is going to be a tipping point, where one nation takes real action to cut greenhouse gas emissions - it will not happen in a Western democracy. It is far more likely to happen in China, which is currently the world's number two (or number one) polluter of the atmosphere.
But China has a working central government with enough power to literally dictate rapid transition away from fossil fuels. Scott tells us that when China decided to outlaw plastic bags in retail and grocery stores, they hired 4500 inspectors to go into stores and fine anyone using plastic bags. Suddenly Chinese shoppers started bringing their own reusable bags. It was a quick revolution.
From what I've heard, and as Scott tells us, the top leadership in Beijing is very aware of the coming damage from climate change. That is why they concluded a separate agreement with the United States, on greenhouse gases, before the Paris climate talks.
China is already the world's largest producer, and user, of solar and wind energy. The country has also invested heavily in mass transit, including thousands of miles of high speed rail. Neither the United States or Canada has a single mile of high speed rail. North America seems stuck in a dark age, even as their oil-producing economies stagger and fall.
My one reservation is about China's decision to continue on a path of nuclear power. James Hansen is all behind this, as he talks about "Fourth Generation" commercial nuclear power plants which do not yet exist. Meanwhile I understand China is building at least 29 nuclear complexes. They will be "Third Generation" at best - one step better than the old GE reactors at Fukushima. But these are still reactors that can, and eventually will melt down somewhere, again. A large part of China could be devastated virtually forever. In my opinion, nothing is worth that risk.
It's a fruitful talk with Stuart Scott, on a wide range of topics, like the Arctic, geoengineering, abrupt climate shift, clathrates and more.
Stuart Scott's first action alert, where you can help during the month of January 2016 - is to get the Nobel Prize committee to create a prize for Sustainable Development. It's easy to add your voice, at this web site: http://np4sd.org/
Download or listen to this interview with Stuart Scott in CD Quality or Lo-Fi.
CLIMATE MATTERS TV SHOWS FROM THE PARIS COP21 CLIMATE TALKS
Stuart Scott and his organization created a whole series of programs at the Paris COP21 conference in December 2015. He uses a more relaxed for of presentation, almost like a TV talk show, except it often features top-tier climate scientists and real thinkers. Feel free to watch and share some of the half-hour ClimateMatters.TV shows taped at COP-21 in Paris.
James Hansen Speaking Truth to Power
Moral Obligation, Scientific Imperative (with climate-rapper)
Abrupt Change, Ecological & Economic (with climate-rapper)
Our Challenge to Feed Ourselves
Acceptance & Avoidance Among Evangelicals
What Lies Ahead?
Kiribati, Tuvalu, Miami Beach
May the Force be With You
Emissions Zero Global
COP-21: Conference of Peace
Our Common Home
100 WAYS TO EMPOWER GLOBAL WOMEN: BETSY TEUTSCH
In the media, all we see or hear are relatively wealthy people talking among themselves. Billions of global poor are missing. Many of them are women. Our guest Betsty Teutsch has collected Earth-friendly ideas and technology to help them. Her new book is "One Hundred Under One Hundred Dollars: One Hundred Ideas for Empowering Global Women".
Betsy Teutsch (center) at work.
Betsy is a gem with really good ideas. Strangely, although she was talking about affordable ways that the lives of impoverished women (and their kids) around the world could be improved - I kept thinking how very useful these same ideas are for women in over-developed countries to go more low-tech (and help save the planet).
Tonight, I'm getting a bit tired as I put this blog together. It's always so long and loaded that I wonder how readers make out! Here is the bio from Betsy's site:
"Betsy Teutsch is an artist, blogger, community organizer, and environmentalist who has enjoyed a successful career as an Judaica artist and entrepreneur. As Communications Director of GreenMicrofinance, she wrote about affordable, sustainable paths out of rural poverty. She has also served as a board member for the dynamic Shining Hope for Communities and the Kibera School for Girls, and founded three chapters of Dining For Women, a national network of giving circles meeting monthly to support of women’s grassroots poverty alleviation initiatives. A Fargo, ND, native, she now lives with her husband in Philadelphia, PA."
Find Betsy on Facebook here.
Listen to this Radio Ecoshock interview with Betsy Teutsch in CD Quality or Lo-Fi. Pass the links on to people you think should hear it.
THE SONGS IN THIS SHOW
In this program you hear a clip from the "Climate Change Deniers' Anthem" created by the comedy group Funny Or Die. Watch the whole video at funnyordie.com.
FINIAN MAKEPEACE "2060"
From Ithica New York, and more lately Venice Beach California, comes Finian Makepeace. As a duo with his brother (taken from four musical brothers in the family) - Finian made it to the Quarter Finals of the TV show "America's Got Talent". And he does have talent. Now Finian is recording with "The Makes". He is also the co-founder and Policy Director for the group "Kiss the Ground" - a non-profit dedicated to restoring soil around the world.
I like this song called "2060" a lot. It's well crafted and performed in a very moving way. I thank Finian for sending it along for broadcast on Radio Ecoshock. He has also performed this song at climate rallies. His heart is in it.
THE END
... of this show and this blog. But I've already lined up a deep Swedish thinker on climate and the crash, plus a scientific study which could literally take your breath away. That's next week on Radio Ecoshock.
My super-thanks to those listeners who donated to Radio Ecoshock during January. Frankly, I thought donations would die out this time of year - but not at all. With your help I bought a giant new hard drive. It was needed because each Radio Ecoshock show, with all it's supporting files, occupies two to three gigabytes of space. I don't want to compress the original files, as that reduces sound quality. After ten years of doing this show (and counting on my old hard drive all that time, hoping it won't die today) - I now have a 4 terabyte drive.
I had a pre-amplifier die. That amp brings my microphone up to levels guests can hear on the phone. Thanks to listener donations, I ordered and received a new tube amp, just like the old one.
Seriously, thank you for helping me do this program. If you haven't supported Radio Ecoshock yet, you can do so at this page.
I appreciate your willingness to go "through the dark portal" if that's where the truth can be found. Thanks for listening!
Alex Smith
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