writes Farooque Chowdhury
 |
This handout photo taken on October 6 and released on October 8 by the 350.org shows the safe upper limit for carbon in the atmosphere—350ppm—in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Environment groups are gearing up for what they say will be the world’s biggest day of climate change action today, hoping their grassroots movement will inspire reluctant world leaders.
— AFP photo
Organisers of this initiative claim: ‘One Day on Earth is committed to nurturing a supportive, vibrant, tolerant, and creative community. We hope to be as open as possible and allow you to celebrate your personal perspectives freely. It is exciting and revolutionary to be able to share perspectives of such quality with people across the world in one place.’ They object to any ‘political’ contribution: ‘[Do not] proselytise your religion or political agenda through messages or comments to people you don’t know. They may find this offensive.’
On 10.10.10, citizens, students and many from other walks of life including documentary filmmakers will record human experience over a 24-hour period and ‘contribute their voice to the largest participatory media event in history.’ One Day on Earth, formed in 2008, is ‘creating an online community, shared archive, and film to show the diversity, conflict, tragedy, and triumph that occur in one day.’ Their plan is to ‘establish a community that not only watches, but participates.’
Dr Gideon Polya, who teaches science at a major Australian university and has published about 130 works in a five-decade scientific career, wrote (Countercurrents.org, October 8): ‘My personal contribution to the 10.10.10 event has been to put up more than 100 posters in Melbourne setting out the number of people dying avoidably each day from deprivation (60,000), the number of people expected to die daily on average in the 21st century if man-made climate change is not addressed (270,000) and what we can and must do to stop climate catastrophe.’
He has also sent a letter to Australian and other media that tells of climate catastrophe the planet is facing, and of pains of war, invasion, bombing, etc.
350.org, an independent, non-profit, international grassroots campaign that aims to mobilise a global climate movement united by a common call to action, is spreading an understanding of the science and a shared vision for a fair policy, we will ensure that the world creates bold and equitable solutions to the climate crisis. It says: ‘350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Scientists measure carbon dioxide in ‘parts per million’ (ppm), so 350ppm is the number humanity needs to get below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. To get there, we need a different kind of PPM — a “people powered movement” that is made of people like you in every corner of the planet.’
350.org states: ‘On 10.10.10, we will celebrate the biggest day of practical action to cut carbon that the world has ever seen. Together, in thousands of communities around the world, we will get to work on projects that will build our clean energy future. But we won’t stop there — we’ll be using the day to pressure our leaders to get to work themselves by passing strong climate policies promoting clean energy and reducing emission.’
Bill McKibben for the whole 350.org team wrote on October 8 (‘Crazy...In A Good Way’, Countercurrents): ‘When we first announced the Global Work Party’ he was worried as ‘It had been a discouraging year, with the failures in Copenhagen and in the US Congress, and the unwillingness of governments all over the world to take any sort of meaningful climate action.’ But now, he feels ‘I didn’t need to worry’ as ‘it’s clear that we’re on track to shoot past 7,000 events in 188 countries… [T]he entire planet is engaged… [T]his is the first issue that involves the entire planet.’
Dr James Lovelock FRS and Professor Kevin Anderson have recently estimated that fewer than one billion people will survive this century due to global warming – noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of about 10 billion people this century (a daily average of 270,000 avoidable deaths).
An Inter Press Service report by Bhuwan Sharma datelined Kathmandu, October 5, said: ‘Snow cover in the Himalayas is decreasing, crevasses are opening up in the glaciers, avalanches have been occurring frequently for the past two years. Small puddles of water even at an altitude of 8,000 meters were observed last year. Dhe, a village near the Tibet border, is now being dubbed as Nepal’s first “climate refugee village”. Efforts are now underway to resettle the entire village to a lower area. The sources of water there are drying up, the flora in and around the area are vanishing fast, which leave the villagers’ cattle herds and other grazing animals with little to eat.’
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made an error on the date of melting away of the Himalayan glaciers. The climate-change sceptics started hysterical propaganda capitalising the error. But the panel has clarified that while it had made an error on the date, it did not make a mistake about the melting away of the Himalayan glaciers.
Quoting Madan Shrestha of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, the IPS report said there was ‘scientific evidence to prove that climate change is causing the Himalayan glaciers to retreat.’ Shrestha, studying Nepal’s glaciers since 1974, was shocked to see a picture taken in October 2009 of the Yala glacier in Nepal: ‘The … glacier’s mass had decreased and there was a significant terminus retreat.’
There is no doubt that people depending on the Himalayan waters will be affected as glaciers there recede. People will have to pay with their life and livelihood. We in Bangladesh should be aware of it. The climate crisis should not miss our attention.
People around the world are taking steps. The Obama administration is going to put solar panels on the White House. President Nasheed of the Maldives has installed solar panels. The 10.10.10 reminds us to mobilise the masses on the issue.
Dr James Hansen, a top US climate scientist and head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Spaces Studies, was asked before the Copenhagen climate summit: ‘Is there any real chance of averting the climate crisis?’ He replied: ‘Absolutely. It is possible… The fraudulence of the Copenhagen approach… must be exposed. We must rebel against such politics as usual. …[C]limate is close to tipping points. It is a dead certainty that continued high emissions will create a chaotic dynamic situation for young people, with deteriorating climate conditions out of their control. Science … reveals what is needed to stabilise atmospheric composition and climate. Geophysical data … show that the problem is solvable, if we phase out global coal emissions within 20 years and prohibit emissions from unconventional fossil fuels such as tar sands and oil shale.’
10.10.10 calls for making this goal possible.
This editorial published at NewAge, one of the leading English dailies in Bangladesh, October 10, 2010
