The new IPCC report is declaring an additional 0.8-4.8 degrees C warming, this century. We all know the lower end of this range is a absurdly idealist hope...there is at least .8 degrees warming already in the pipeline from previous industrial activity. We know that there was no real stall in global warming over the last decade, and it is very dubious whether we understand enough about the complex and changing ocean-atmosphere system to be able to say with any authority whether the short-term warming will be delayed significantly, if at all. We also know that there are plausible, reputable studies that expect warming to be significantly greater this century than the IPCC model range -- from +6 degrees C all the way to +16-20 degrees C. After all, the CO2e burden in the atmosphere is 478ppm, currently. (The IPCC report notoriously doesnt figure in the full expected impact of several other greenhouse gases). Moreover, the climate destruction is not abating, not in the slightest. That is, of course, the context for the march. One action the march can take is to call for a 50% reduction in U.S. emissions by 2020; this is in line with the real climate budget, and is, at present, very under-represented as a necessary platform plank in a would-be national plan to deal with the climate. The march can also resist the growing opinion (particularly voiced in the Industrial West) that says it is too late for global warming mitigation, and the focus must shift to climate change adaptation. This is such a self-centered point of view. It is our societys ethical responsibility to take on great hardship if necessary, in order to lessen the forcing pressure placed on the climate system by our activities. Decreasing that pressure dramatically is doable; millions of people and indigenous species and ecosystems that stand no chance of adapting to such a rapidly shifting climate depend on us to do so. A third goal of the march can be to bring a very public conversation to the country about how we who are climate-sane will stop those who are climate-insane, and draw a “red-line” that the climate-insane will not be permitted to cross (of course, it is late for that... but still). How will strategic as well as symbolic civil resistance be carried out? How much is each participant willing to sacrifice to accomplish this? Who will take care of the possessions and the families of the arrested, of the disappeared? By normalizing and legitimizing the resistance to complete climate insanity, the march can build the base of support that successful actions of this scale require. Beyond symbolizing our resolve to properly triage this emergency, the march can highlight the holistic, cooperation-based future that must replace this failed era.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 19:19:36 +0000
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