27/11/07

As Climate Disasters Accelerate, the Poorest Are Hit Hardest

The number of natural disasters has quadrupled in the last 20 years. Dramatic weather events do not in themselves necessarily constitute disasters; that depends on the level of human vulnerability – the capacity to resist impacts. Poor people and countries are the most vulnerable.

An excerpt from “Climate Alarm: Disasters increase as climate change bites,” a new report published by Oxfam International.
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/
as-climate-disasters-accelerate-poorest.html

26/11/07

Australia: Aboriginal Communities Will Be Hardest Hit By Climate Change

“More than 100,000 people in remote Aboriginal communities across northern Australia face serious health risks from malaria, dengue fever and heat stress, as well as loss of food sources from floods, drought and more intense bushfires”

By Rosslyn Beeby

From The Canberra Times, November 26, 2007
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/
11/australia-aboriginal-communities-will.html

A New Blog on the Left

Add Life on the Left to your regular reading list …

Richard Fidler, a prominent Marxist writer, analyst and activist in Canada for many years, has launched a new blog, Life on the Left. His first post exposes Chile’s appalling assault on indigenous people.

The Mapuche, Chile’s largest indigenous people, are currently involved in an important struggle against government and private industrial projects that rob them of their ancestral lands, threatening their culture and their very existence as a people. Dozens of their leaders are now jailed on charge of “terrorism” as a result of protests in defence of their lands. Some have been on a hunger strike since October 10.
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-blog-on-left.html

23/11/07

How Can an Effective Climate Change Movement be Built?

Lessons from Australia’s “Walk Against Warming” actions

From Green Left Weekly, Nov. 16 2007

climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11
/how-can-climate-change-movement-be.html

by Kamala Emanuel

(Kamala Emanuel is a Socialist Alliance candidate for the Senate in New South Wales, in this week’s election in Australia)

November 11’s national Walk Against Warming was an important initiative for the climate change movement. It was smaller than the 100,000 people organizers had hoped for, but the fact that tens of thousands joined the biggest political demonstration of the election period confirms the opinion poll findings that climate change is a grave concern for large numbers of people.

19/11/07

Droughts, floods, hunger, malnutrition, disease, extinctions, fires, storms

climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/
11/droughts-floods-hunger-malnutrition.html

The IPCC Synthesis Report, published November 17, describes these as “some examples of projected regional impacts.” Bear in mind that IPCC reports are consistently conservative.
www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf

Quoting pages 10 and 11 …

Africa

• By 2020, between 75 and 250 million of people are projected to be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change;
   
• By 2020, in some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition;
   
• Towards the end of the 21st century, projected sea-level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas with large populations. The cost of adaptation could amount to at least 5-10% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP);
   
• By 2080, an increase of 5-8% of arid and semi-arid land in Africa is projected under a range of climate scenarios.

17/11/07

Ecosocialism: Where Anticapitalism and Ecology Intersect (Audio)
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/
ecosocialism-where-anticapitalism-and.html

A speech by Ian Angus, presented at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver, on Friday November 16, 2007

This was a very successful public meeting, organized by the Vancouver Socialist forum and co-sponsored by the New Socialist Group and the International Socialists. It was recorded by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock.

Conference Report: “From Climate Crisis to Climate Justice”
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/
conference-report-from-climate-crisis.html

A radical meeting on climate change in Toronto

By John Riddell

John Riddell is co-editor of Socialist Voice

NOVEMBER 17 — NOVEMBER 17 — Today the Toronto Climate Campaign organized a teach-in called “From Climate Crisis to Climate Justice,” a building action for the December 8 global day of environmental action. About 100 attended — mostly young, and a high proportion engaged in some wing of the environmental movement. The speakers represented a wide range of well rooted progressive movements, uncluding Justice for Migrant Workers (Chris Ramsaroop), Greenpeace (Shawn Patrick Stensil), the Indigenous Engironmental Coalition (Clayton Thomas-Muller), KAIROS (Dale Hildebrand), as well as the CAW and USWA.

IPCC: “Abrupt or Irreversible Climate Changes and Impacts”
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11
/abrupt-or-irreversible-climate-changes.html

The IPCC finalizes its Synthesis Report.

From Agence France Presse

The UN’s Nobel-winning panel on climate change on Friday completed a draft report that said the consequences of global warming could be far-reaching and irreversible.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) encapsulates a massive review of the global-warming issue, with the goal of guiding policymakers for the next five years.

IPCC delegates agreed on the draft summary after night-long negotiations, chief French delegate Marc Gillet told AFP.

Human activities “could lead to abrupt or irreversible climate changes and impacts,” the agreed text said.

The report will be officially adopted on Saturday, followed by a press conference attended by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, delegates aid.

16/11/07

“Climate Sceptics” Whine About Bias — But Where is the Evidence?

“If someone persistently claims to be a great football player, and yet fails to find the net when you put him in front of an open goal, you cannot do other than doubt his claim.”

By Richard Black
From BBC News news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7092614.stm

Of all the accusations made by the vociferous community of climate sceptics, surely the most damaging is that science itself is biased against them.

9/11/07

Paraguay: The Dark Side of the Soy Boom
“The economic interests of large landowners — most of them foreigners — and multinational corporations are destroying entire communities, felling forests, polluting streams and rivers, making children sick, causing miscarriages, killing campesinos and forcing them to abandon their land and their culture”
From Inter Press Service, Nov. 8, 2007
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/2007/11/
economic-interests-of-large-landowners.html

Comments, criticisms and suggestions are always welcome.
Ian Angus, Editor
Climate and Capitalism
climateandcapitalism.blogspot.com/
email: ecosocialism@gmail.com