from Dale Weston <a href="mailto:dweston1@westnet.com.au">dweston1@westnet.com.au</a><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">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.</span><span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">A couple additional points:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 48pt"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">1.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> T</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">o 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?</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 48pt"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">The potential implications of this are:</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 2in"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">i.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> there is no further room for the rich industrialised nations and peoples to continue their current economic pathway or to continue to emit GHGs</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 2in"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">ii.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">the concept of carbon ‘offsets’ is a furphy – just another profitable way for corporations to relieve people’s consciences</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 2in"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">iii.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">the ‘bottom line’ for development must take into account carbon footprints and cap on consumption levels for non essential goods and services.</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 48pt"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">2.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> Addressing historical ecological debt and atmospheric ecological debt requires a redistribution of wealth – between and within nations</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 48pt"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">3.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> E</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">missions 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.</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 48pt"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">4.</span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">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.</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e"> </span><span style="COLOR: #1c4a7e">An excellent site to keep up to date with global warming issues is: <a href="http://www.carbonequity.info/" target="_blank"><span style="COLOR: #0012ff">www.carbonequity.info</span></a></span><span></span></p>
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