From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Mar 14 2004 - 02:09:57 GMT
All thread followers:
Ascmjk@aol.com wrote:
> I also don't really agree with the other sentiments of your post.
> Earth is not in trouble. This planet is four and a half billion years
> old. Earth has survived forces that are slightly more damaging than
> SUVs. I can name some of them: cometary impacts, volcanic eruptions,
> whole continents moving, violent upheavals too horrible to think of
> witnessing--Earth survived it all. Human beings are not God. Human
> beings can not control the weather. Ants have more of an impact on a
> person's front yard than we do on Earth's environment.
Leland replied:
That has to be the biggest load of tripe I've heard in a long time.
Excuse me, but we are wrecking the Earth. We are poisoning the air
faster than nature can clean it. We are poisoning the water supply
faster than nature can clean it. We are expanding into animals' habitats
and forcing them into extinction. We're overfishing. We're overbreeding.
It's not that what we are doing to the planet are things that it can't
deal with. The problem is the rate at which we are doing these things.
...There, that's my eco-rant of the moment. That ought to last me.
dmb says:
I'm with Leland here. Its amazing that anyone still doubts that humanity is
having a big impact on the enviroment. You're killing me over here. I'll let
the following news article serve as my "eco-rant".
Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
· Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war
· Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years
· Threat to the world is greater than terrorism
Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday February 22, 2004
The Observer
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe
costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The
Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas
as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict,
mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to
the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and
secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global
stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to
its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the
Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has
repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they
will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national
defence is a priority.
The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew
Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the
past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at
transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US
national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant
and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of
the California-based Global Business Network.
An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would
challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered
immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a
rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.
Last week the Bush administration came under heavy fire from a large body of
respected scientists who claimed that it cherry-picked science to suit its
policy agenda and suppressed studies that it did not like. Jeremy Symons, a
former whistleblower at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), said that
suppression of the report for four months was a further example of the White
House trying to bury the threat of climate change.
Senior climatologists, however, believe that their verdicts could prove the
catalyst in forcing Bush to accept climate change as a real and happening
phenomenon. They also hope it will convince the United States to sign up to
global treaties to reduce the rate of climatic change.
A group of eminent UK scientists recently visited the White House to voice
their fears over global warming, part of an intensifying drive to get the US
to treat the issue seriously. Sources have told The Observer that American
officials appeared extremely sensitive about the issue when faced with
complaints that America's public stance appeared increasingly out of touch.
One even alleged that the White House had written to complain about some of
the comments attributed to Professor Sir David King, Tony Blair's chief
scientific adviser, after he branded the President's position on the issue
as indefensible.
Among those scientists present at the White House talks were Professor John
Schellnhuber, former chief environmental adviser to the German government
and head of the UK's leading group of climate scientists at the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research. He said that the Pentagon's internal
fears should prove the 'tipping point' in persuading Bush to accept climatic
change.
Sir John Houghton, former chief executive of the Meteorological Office - and
the first senior figure to liken the threat of climate change to that of
terrorism - said: 'If the Pentagon is sending out that sort of message, then
this is an important document indeed.'
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire
warnings could no longer be ignored.
'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of
document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority
is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally
speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national
security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush
Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added
Watson.
'You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the
Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty
scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob
Gueterbock of Greenpeace.
Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher
population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water
and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the
planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought
widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations
that could soon be repeated.
Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate
change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It
is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to
point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.'
Randall added that it was already possibly too late to prevent a disaster
happening. 'We don't know exactly where we are in the process. It could
start tomorrow and we would not know for another five years,' he said.
'The consequences for some nations of the climate change are unbelievable.
It seems obvious that cutting the use of fossil fuels would be worthwhile.'
So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove
vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to
accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with
Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in
his campaign.
The fact that Marshall is behind its scathing findings will aid Kerry's
cause. Marshall, 82, is a Pentagon legend who heads a secretive think-tank
dedicated to weighing risks to national security called the Office of Net
Assessment. Dubbed 'Yoda' by Pentagon insiders who respect his vast
experience, he is credited with being behind the Department of Defence's
push on ballistic-missile defence.
Symons, who left the EPA in protest at political interference, said that the
suppression of the report was a further instance of the White House trying
to bury evidence of climate change. 'It is yet another example of why this
government should stop burying its head in the sand on this issue.'
Symons said the Bush administration's close links to high-powered energy and
oil companies was vital in understanding why climate change was received
sceptically in the Oval Office. 'This administration is ignoring the
evidence in order to placate a handful of companies,' he added.
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archives:
Aug '98 - Oct '02 - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Nov '02 Onward - http://www.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/summary.html
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sun Mar 14 2004 - 02:13:30 GMT