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Montreal Summit: Bush Feels the Heat
by Michael G. Livingston / December 2005 issue of Socialist
Action newspaper
On the
eve of the Nov. 28 to Dec. 9 United Nations Climate Change Conference in
Montreal, the Bush administration was starting to feel the heat, both
literally and politically, for its position on global warming.
The
U.S. kept a low profile at the Montreal conference. The spokesman for the
United States
incessantly
repeated the Bush line that there is no proof that global warming is real.
Meanwhile,
the evidence for global warming continues to pile up as global temperatures
continue to rise. At this writing, as we approach the end of hurricane
season, a record-breaking 25th named storm is being tracked in the
mid-Atlantic.
In
yet another study reported in the Nov. 25 New York Times, ice core samples
taken from Antarctica show that the levels of three greenhouse gases
(carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) has not exceeded current
levels in the last 650,000 years. The study, which examined air trapped in
successively older ice samples, destroys claims that the current level of
greenhouse gases fall within the range of normal variability.
The
study further shows that there has been a tight relationship during the
last 650,000 years between air temperature and levels of greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere. The study is another nail in the coffin of global-warming
skeptics.
More
disturbing evidence of global warming did not make it into the national
print or electronic media. Studies
compiled at the University of Wisconsin in collaboration with the World
Health Organization show that global warming is changing the range,
frequency, and seasonality of infectious diseases. One example of this is
the spread of West Nile Virus in the U.S. Most of the examples, however,
occur in Africa, Latin America, and tropical areas of Asia, and are thus
almost invisible in the U.S. media.
The
University of Wisconsin research was covered by The Herald of Bradenton,
Fla., (Nov. 18, 2005) but ignored by most other newspapers. Given its
importance, it should have been front-page news across the U.S. But such
coverage would have raised difficult questions, not just for the Bush
administration but for large sectors of the U.S. capitalist class.
The
worse news of all comes not from the Antarctic or the University of
Wisconsin, but from Greenland. This past summer record amounts of Greenland’s
ice cap turned to water. The water has percolated down through the glaciers
that cover Greenland and are now acting
as
a kind of conveyor belt, speeding the movement of the glaciers toward the
sea, where they will break off, forming first icebergs, then melting.
The
research, published in the journal Geophysical Research and reported in the
British Independent (Nov, 20, 2005), warned that disappearance of the
Greenland ice cap will raise world sea levels by 20 feet, flooding London
and other coastal cities like Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, and
Boston and putting entire countries such as the Netherlands
and
Bangladesh under water.
Researchers
also warned that the influx of fresh water could slow down the Gulf Stream,
which moderates the climate of Britain and Ireland, and would cause
substantial loss of crops and animals.
Bush
and his administration are also starting to feel the heat politically. New
York state is set to follow California in adopting strict emission standards
to cut greenhouse gas emissions (The New York Times, Nov. 26, 2005). Other
states planning to adopt stricter standards include New Jersey, Maine,
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware,
Oregon,
and Washington.
The
California standards require a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions and a 40 percent increase in fuel efficiency (thus also
addressing the looming problem of declining oil supplies). The standards
are planned to being phased in between 2009 and 2016. Auto companies plan a
massive legal challenge to the new standards, which are also opposed
by
the Bush administration.
At
the same time that coastal states in the East and West are moving against
the Bush administration’s do-nothing policy on global warming, sectors of
the environmental movement are forming broad coalitions around global
warming and calling for demonstrations.
The
Climate Crisis Coalition (www.climatecrisiscoalition.org) organized a
demonstration
in
Montreal on Dec. 3. Reports indicate that from 15,000 to 25,000 people took
part.
Among
the demands of the Climate Crisis Coalition are ratification by the U.S. of
the Kyoto Protocol, support for clean, safe, non-nuclear energy, and an end
to subsidies for oil and coal corporations. An additional important demand is for a Just Transition for
workers, indigenous peoples, and others affected by the conversion to
alternative energies. (Information on the Just Transition can be found at
www.jtalliance.org and is also an important plank in the U.S. Labor Party
platform.)
The
Climate Crisis Coalition is also urging the formation of local coalitions.
Actions were carried out in Toronto and other cities in Canada, in over 25
U.S. states, and in 29 other countries to coincide with the demonstration
in Montreal.
In
2006 the coalition hopes to hold town meetings around the country on global
warming followed by a national demonstration later in the year. This
represents the first time the environmental movement has sought to mobilize
people in the streets around global warming and is a significant step
forward for the movement, which has been considered by some
environmentalists
to be in a state of crisis.
Can
the Bush administration resist efforts to protect the planet? The future is
not yet written and will depend upon what you, and many others, do. What is
certain is that Bush and Co. will resist any efforts to curtail the
unrestrained quest for profit by their capitalist lords, and will make no
concessions without a fight. That fight, like the future, is before us.
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