PHM-Exch> PHM and climate change: a contribution for discussion (3)

[Claudio Schuftan]

from Dale Weston dweston1 at westnet.com.au

>  I agree on the importance of PHM being involved in discussions and
> actions on global warming on the basis that global warming is here and now;
> is already having an enormous impact on the lives of millions of vulnerable
> people;  is set to be the biggest contributor to global inequality and poor
> health; and, unless the warming trajectory is stopped within a decade, will
> lead to the collapse of civilisation.
>
> A couple additional points:
>
> 1.       To have an awareness campaign around what a just sharing of the
> remaining atmospheric commons would look like (i.e. in the wake of the
> high-consuming, industrially-developed societies having already used up more
> than their fair share of the atmospheric commons for dumping greenhouse
> gases, the question is then how the remaining atmospheric commons should be
> divided up - or should it be maintained in perpetuity for the security of
> future generations, the health of the planet, etc?
>
>           The potential implications of this are:
>
> i.       there is no further room for the rich industrialised nations and
> peoples to continue their current economic pathway or to continue to emit
> GHGs
>
> ii.      the concept of carbon ‘offsets’ is a furphy – just another
> profitable way for corporations to relieve people’s consciences
>
> iii.      the ‘bottom line’ for development must take into account carbon
> footprints and cap on consumption levels for non essential goods and
> services.
>
> 2.        Addressing historical ecological debt and atmospheric ecological
> debt requires a redistribution of wealth – between and within nations
>
> 3.       Emissions trading schemes (ETS), ie market mechanisms, will not
> solve the problem of global warming – too complex, too difficult to monitor,
> not equitable, not efficient, not sufficiently timely, at high risk of being
> controlled by such market institutions as stock exchanges, banks, etc. – the
> very institutions which nurtured the global financial crisis. Further ETSs
> amount to the privatisation of the atmospheric commons.  There is no
> evidence to date that any of the  carbon emissions trading schemes in
> existence work, but there is a growing body of evidence that they are open
> to large scale fraud, and have resulted in the transfer of billions to the
> largest polluters.
>
> 4.       One other point is that global warming is not an isolated issue –
> just the most urgent manifestation of an unsustainable political economy.  A
> real solution will not be found through the market or technology – perhaps
> the PHM can be one of the sites discussing what are the alternatives.
>
>  An excellent site to keep up to date with global warming issues is:
> www.carbonequity.info
>
>
>
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