Sunday, February 25, 2007

Climate Change and Anarchistic Capitalism

On February 2nd, three hundred government appointed delegates from 113 countries were unanimous in agreeing, unequivocally, that the earth is warming and humans are almost certainly to blame.

To get such a statement from so many countries with so many competing interests seems a miracle. But it happened; suggesting that the problem is likely far worse then they can say and maintain a consensus.

But here is what they didn't tell us:

Two years ago, climate scientists, including the researchers that contributed most to the Feb. 2nd report, got together in Exeter, in England, to discuss climate change. According to the publication, "New Scientist", "They identified a series of potential positive feedbacks and "tipping points" not included in current models of the earth's climate system that could accelerate global warming or sea level rise. These included the physical collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, rapid melting in Antarctica, a shut down of the gulf stream in the Atlantic, and the release of carbon dioxide and methane from the soil, the ocean bed and melting permafrost."

Ice sheets will fracture when they melt and this will accelerate the melting process.
The slowing of the Gulf Stream may have the most devastating consequences of all. In 2005, researchers at the UK's National Oceanography Centre reported that the Gulf Stream slowed by 30% from 1957 to 2004. The gulf stream is a climatic conveyor belt and its cessation will have devastating consequences causing massive and radical changes to the climate all over the world.
The Exeter sessions also warned of "carbon-cycle feedbacks" which will also increase the speed of global warming.

The report states that global warming contains "a deadly time lag" because 80% of the heat that is being trapped in contained in the oceans.

The summary is available at: http://www.ipcc.ch

It's not hard to imagine why those on the right have declared war on what the scientists are finding. The implications are devastating for global capitalism.

The days of wrapping commodities in cardboard, cellophane, and plastic will have to end. The days of advertising to sell goods that people don't need must come to an end. The days of throw away lighters, throw away clothes, and throw away paper must come to an end. Paper will have to give way to electronic information sharing that is powered by gravity or solar energy.

The future will look very different.

The capitalistic order of things must come to an end; the anarchy of modern capitalism cannot be sustained.

The scientists are at odds with the political right wing. The political right wing cannot swallow the truth that in the future we must abandon capitalism, we must abandon selfishness and greed, and we must abandon affluence:

http://leftlite.blogspot.com/2005_05_09_archive.html

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