The climate on steroids - we have turned up the dial to make weather events more extreme and more likely

"Human activity is changing the world's climates in unprecedented and sometimes irreversible ways says the 9 Aug 2021 IPCC report from a group of scientists whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments.  A landmark report and a code red for humanity.  It is no longer a warning about the future.  Scientists now say they are virtually certain that the rising incidence and intensity of dangerous heatwaves and other extreme weather events that we have seen in recent times, including this year, can be attributed to human-induced climate warming."

"The world will warm until the middle of the century whatever path we take."  As long as global temperatures are rising and currently they are doing that at a rate that has not been seen for at least 2,000 years and the world is warmer now than it has been in at least 125,000 years

"... these extremes are only getting worse.  ... the climate is changing so fast that there are more extreme and unprecedented extremes to come.

We need to halve emissions by 2030 and be at net zero by the middle of the century."

Dr Friedericke Otto - climate scientist

BBC 'Inside Science', 12 Aug 2021

This behaviour is the very kind that is worsening the climate emergency as we all burn up our finite fossil fuels as if they will never run out. And, it brings the disturbed climate patterns and extreme weather events that climate scientists have been reporting since 1988 "whose findings are endorsed by the world's governments." Yet no action from them in 30 years!

Emergency Resolution for LU to consider on 17 July 2021

As internationalists and socialists who are concerned for the future of humanity and, in fact, all of nature, we note:

This week

1. Abnormally and record high temperatures in western N America, with wildfires out of control.
2. Disturbed weather patterns and extreme weather events since Wednesday have killed over a hundred in western Europe, with a similar number missing.
3. Extreme weather events affect those of our number with health issues much more seriously than those who are fully fit.
4. Since 1988, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has consistently warned of such events from the burning of finite fossil fuels that is changing, dangerously the chemical composition of the atmosphere that allows life on earth.
5. Therefore, we appeal to the WMCA to act as though they are taking the climate emergency seriously by now moving to a rapid reduction of fossil fuel use that includes minimising fossil fuel travel and spending and, in every other way minimising our impact on ailing life support systems.

I've kept it short and simple!

Talk and then vote as to whether Mike should send this to Laura Shoaf, Interim Chief Executive of the WMCA?  If not, I'm happy enough to send it as coming from me, only - and from no-one else!

Popular HS2, Metro, Sprint extensions all worsen climate emergency and hasten disaster

Dear friends - photos to bring a smile at the very bottom of this email for light relief!

ALL WE HAVE IS WRITING, SPEAKING AND MAKING POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS!

Chris wants us to read, comment and promote the excellent FoE document on green jobs that says:

"There are over 500,000 young people aged 16-24 out of work, and numbers are expected to grow substantially with the end of the furlough scheme. This is a youth unemployment emergency."

TfWM/WMCA WANTS IT TOO

The FoE report is 94 pages long and I can only skim read parts.  It is wanting green apprenticeships.  This is exactly what Andy Street wants.  However, he sees building back better as building HS2 for £106 BILLION, Metro "bus on rails" trams over 150 miles, 8 lines and 380 tram stops for £15 BILLION to 2040 and a two class bus provision with Sprint as 1st Class for half a billion pounds and, if necessary, 2nd class regular buses after trams and Sprint.  For Andy, all this means green jobs for young and middle aged people.  I think he is wrong!

WHAT THEY WANT HAS MADE THINGS WORSE!

We have seen that for west Brum, Metro at £75 m/Km in 2020 (Scotland's new railway was £7 m/Km in 2015), has made public transport worse with a much slower and longer journey because of the permanent closure of the Five Ways underpass and "bus on rails" tram priority in Broad St.

This is ecocidal behaviour by us humans that is killing the planet and its life support systems that enable all life on earth as we know it, as of the year 2000.  Simply using finite fossil fuels is killing us all!  David Attenborough, Greta Thunberg and scientists from around the world in the major IPCC reports from its foundation in 1988 has been tellng us this ever since 1988.  In fact, Eunice Foote and John Tyndall since the 1850s!

YET, FOE, GREENPEACE, GREEN PARTY, CAMPAIGN FOR BETTER TRANSPORT, Transport for Quality of Life, Greener Transport Solutions - ALL WANT HS2,TRAMS, SPRINT TOO!

We have seen that for the Black Country, the 40 year old obsession with Metro "bus on rails" trams has led to the destruction or, part destruction, of five commuter railway lines and, one and a quarter mainline stations!  This is scandalous!  Yet, national green/environmental organisations - supposedly promoting more sustainable, less ecocidal behaviour by us humans - have tacitly agreed and often actively promoted HS2, light rail rapid transit ("bus on rails" trams) and Sprint two class bus provision.

Therefore, not surprisingly, in 25 years of writing in opposition to the destruction of our railway network for Metro "bus on rails" trams and for built development, I have had very, very little support even from the green movement!

Every £1 spent = fossil fuels burnt = greenhouse gases emitted = runaway greenhouse effect = same uninhabitable conditions as planet venus (look venus up on Wikipedia).  THIS IS DEADLY SERIOUS.

All we can do, now is limit our expenditure to projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions in the medium to long term with the green jobs that we all know are more sustainable than the jobs at any price idiocy that leads to HS2, road building, Metro and Sprint.

I began my adult life as a full-time volunteer in 1967, for 13 months, on £1 per week plus board and lodging.  I am ending my adult life on a perfectly adequate pension doing voluntary practical work on restoring Nature in my local green belt and in writing, texting, phoning - as here - to try and discourage the all pervasive concrete, brick and tarmac from destroying nature completely and, thus, ourselves and all life along with it.

Universal Basic Income is similar to the Furlough scheme.  Both are better than the jobs at any price ecocide.  I think, we want true green, right jobs built on a basic income for all to ensure sufficient, decent food, clothing and shelter paid for by the greedy wealthy (the top lot help out the bottom lot).  That discourages the HS2/Metro/Sprint type of jobs.  My basic income from 1967 to 1968 was £1 a week (by the end, raised to £1.50/week) plus board and lodging.  I used a bike, some parental help with transport getting to and from distant destinations on three occasions and, I had no savings but I survived!

A few email addresses to write to are here - never ever give up!:

 September 2019 A5 flyer

Women want gender equality. Yes, but not this ...

Don't be a fossil fool loving the boys' toys and wanting to be part of their preoccupation with warfare, arms manufacturing and war games; of grandiose, luxury, vanity trams; and, of the constant building, demolition and rebuilding of Centenary Sq and so many other buildings in Brum.

We men must take Attenborough, the Prince of Wales, the UN IPCC and our international obligations seriously and mend our ways to have any chance of mending the planet and its life support systems.

We men must take on the same caring, sharing, compassion and empathy that women do.

LEADERS GETTING THEIR PRIORITIES IN ORDER

LEADERS GETTING THEIR PRIORITIES IN ORDER

It does seem that nothing was done between December (start of the outbreak in Wuhan, China) and midnight on 16 March (start of lockdown) to plan, prepare and buy in products in case the virus arrived in the UK.

Similarly, when compared with the urgency and importance of responding to the climate crisis, virtually nothing was done from the foundation of the IPCC in 1988 to the present.  In 32 years, no response.  And still to this day.  Instead, the exact opposite was and is still being done:

1. with major carbon intensive infrastructure projects like High Status 2 train line for £106 billion of greenhouse gases to compete with internal UK plane flights - just stop them and use existing and unused intercity railway lines like the 120 Kms Black Country Railway that must be finished;
2. Work on the other 23 railway projects that need finishing, improving, modernising.
3. Midland Metro trams replacing buses and trains to make for more road and railway congestion and slower public transport journeys (more changes and more traffic lights);
4. Crossrail 2 for more travel and less working from home;
5. £15 billion to 2040 for West Midlands underground and overground tram projects.

All are concrete intensive, so carbon intensive, so very high greenhouse gas emissions.  Therefore, scrap them.  The Chancellor's economic package to help the economic lockdown/turndown/depression sufferers, is so colossal that that alone should cause them all to be scrapped immediately.

INSTEAD:

• The hundreds of billions would be better spent on basic income for all (the rich sharing their wealth with the less rich);
• fare free public transport for all (not intercity, however);
• working from home using broadband rolled out to remaining urban and all rural areas to discourage working in an office and to allow more shopping on line;
• fossil fuel rationing or carbon allowance for each individual in the UK.

What do you think, Bob?

Tim

The fool has said in his heart ...

... there is no over-consumption, no over-population and no runaway greenhouse effect! There is widespread complacency, scepticism, even denial over all three!

• The scientific evidence can't possibly be right! We've lived like this for 250 years burning up our finite fossil fuels and, in the process, our quality of life and our length of life have both improved. We have flourished, thanks to fossil fuel exploitation!
• 2,500 scientists from 130 countries on the United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change are plain wrong! I know best, so there!
• They can't possibly be right when their reports over the years have consistently maintained their conclusion that the major warming is due to human consumption and, hence, emissions of 200 greenhouse gases.
• It stands to reason, its obvious, that natural variations over the years in the world's climates and much solar activity are to blame for ice shelves disintegrating, glaciers retreating, and the many extreme weather events and disturbed weather patterns.
• What I think is right, so there! The scientists have got it wrong! I know best!

In fact, it is highly unlikely that, in the history of the earth, has it ever before seen such an enormous increase in greenhouse gases over such a very short time, relative to the geological time scale. It seems reasonable, therefore to assume that this will have a negative effect on life support systems. We sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Over habitation makes the planet uninhabitable.

We all live in the rich West so unsustainably; the more extravagantly you live, the more you are taking an unfair share of the earth's resources. Hence, we are all fools - and worse; we are stealing from the rest of the planet's population and our own descendants! Fools and thieves, no less!