[Marxism] Cascading Climate Accelerators

[ehrbar <ehrbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

According to new studies, the albedo flip of the shrinking polar
icecap is accelerating the melting of the permafrost by the factor of
3.5, which will then release huge amonts of greenhouse gasses with
immediate world wide implications.  A summary of this study is at

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/jun/science/ee_seaice.html

and the study itself at

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2008GL033985.shtml

The next paragraph shows a dystopian scenario from the book "The
Crowded Greenhouse" by John Firor and Judith E. Jacobsen, Yale
University Press, 2002, p. 3/4.  I think a course of events similar
to the following looks increasingly likely:

> In the years 2010 and 2011, a sudden acceleration of global warming
> and the natural variability of the climate combined to produce a
> year with no winter in the United States.  In the summer, sixty days
> exceeded 90 degrees throughtout most of the country, and Washington,
> D.C., saw thirty days with temperatures over 100 degrees -- all
> while Congress was in session.  Serious droughts occurred in the
> midwestern and western United States, in northeastern Brazil, and
> elsewhere.  The U.S. wheat crop was small, and the corn crop failed
> completely.  The Mississippi River dried up. ... Four moderate-sized
> hurricanes came ashore ... [in] the United States. ... Similar
> storms plagued southern Japan and coastal China, as well as west
> coast of Mexico and Darwin, Australia.

The book continues that these dramatic events "galvanized the United
States into action".  That was written in 2002.  I'd like to propose
here that for us, the best hope for saving the planet for human
civilization is to mobilize millions, not only in the US but
everywhere, demanding drastic climate action when the next US
President takes office.  If the White House does not respond, these
millions must maintain their momentum for a series of co-ordinated
grassroots actions and specific demands addressed at their
governments.  What do you think about this?  What role should
Marxists/Socialists play in this?


Hans.





 




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