[First published as Gideon Polya, “Millions join Global School Climate Strike – we are running out of time”, Countercurrents, 22 September 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/09/millions-join-global-school-climate-strike-we-are-running-out-of-time ].
Millions Join Global School Climate Strike – We Are Running Out Of Time
By Dr Gideon Polya
Millions of school children and supporting adults have joined Climate Strikes around the world that were inspired by the School Strike movement of Swedish teenager schoolchild Greta Thunberg and organized by local high school students. The School Climate Strike rallies had a stark message for effective climate change denialist neoliberal politicians – you are destroying our future, we are not going quietly, we’ll be voters in a few years, and we demand effective action on climate change now.
On Friday 20 September I joined 100,000 other people at the Climate Strike rally in the heart of Melbourne that was organized by local high school students. It was the biggest rally in Melbourne since the huge demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1970 and 1971 and the huge demonstration against the looming illegal invasion of Iraq back in 2003. My highly visible, 2-sided, black on white placard said NO COAL OR GAS / 300 ppm CO2 - as soon as possible we must stop fossil fuel exploitation and return atmospheric CO2 to the pre-Industrial Revolution level of about 300 ppm CO2 (from the present disastrous 410 ppm CO2) for a safe and sustainable planet for all peoples and all species.
According to the science-informed and pro-environment Guardian Australia: “Organisers of the school strike for climate claimed about 300,000 people attended dozens of rallies, including an estimated 100,000 in Melbourne and 80,000 in Sydney. The unprecedented climate crisis protests were likely the largest public demonstrations in Australia since the marches against the Iraq War in 2003” [1]. The Climate Strike thence spread westwards from Australia and the Pacific to Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Greta Thunberg tweeted: "The preliminary numbers say there are at least 3 million people in today's #ClimateStrike And that is before counting North and South America” [2]. The global School Climate Strike was timetabled to occur 3 days before the important UN Climate Change Summit in New York.
The demands of the US Youth Climate Coalition are (1) a Green New Deal (Transform our economy to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 and phase out all fossil fuel extraction through a just and equitable transition, creating millions of good jobs. A halt to all leasing and permitting for fossil fuel extraction, processing and infrastructure projects immediately), (2) respect Indigenous land and sovereignty (Honor the treaties protecting Indigenous lands, waters, and sovereignty by the immediate halt of all construction, leasing, and permitting for resource extraction, processing and infrastructure projects affecting or on Indigenous lands. Recognize the Rights of Nature into law to protect our sacred ecosystems and align human law with natural law to ban resource extraction in defense of our environment and people), (3) environmental justice (A transition that invests in prosperity for communities on the frontlines of poverty and pollution. Welcoming those displaced by the cumulative effects of the climate crisis, economic inequality, violence, and lack of opportunity), (4), protection and restoration of biodiversity (Protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans including a halt to all deforestation by 2030), and (5) implementation of sustainable agriculture (Investment in farmers and regenerative agriculture and an end to subsidies for industrial agriculture)[3, 4].
The Australian Climate Strikers had a more focussed agenda, demanding that the Federal Government to commit to: (1) No new coal, oil or gas projects, (2) 100 per cent renewable energy generation and exports by 2030, and (3) Funding for "a just transition and job creation for all fossil fuel industry workers and communities" [5]. The excellent and passionate speakers at the Melbourne Climate Strike rally included Indigenous speakers from Australia and the Pacific (the Earth is our Mother), schoolchildren (you are destroying our future), and trade unionists (no jobs on a dead planet and clean jobs for workers).
Set out below is a succinct summation of (1) the existential threat to Humanity and the Biosphere from man-made climate change, (2) the worst climate criminal nations, (3) urgent actions required to mitigate the threat, (4) 300 ppm CO2, Carbon Debt and intergenerational injustice, and (5) the last word - what the Melbourne children were saying on their placards.
(1) The existential threat to Humanity and the Biosphere from man-made climate change.
Given continued current high rates of carbon pollution the Paris Climate Change Agreement target of 1.5C will be reached within 10 years, and the resolute failure to act means that a catastrophic plus 2C is effectively inevitable (however we are obliged to do everything to make the future “less bad” for our children and future generations) [6 ]. The IPCC (2018): “B4.2. Global warming of 1.5°C is projected to shift the ranges of many marine species to higher latitudes as well as increase the amount of damage to many ecosystems. It is also expected to drive the loss of coastal resources, and reduce the productivity of fisheries and aquaculture (especially at low latitudes). The risks of climate-induced impacts are projected to be higher at 2°C than those at global warming of 1.5°C (high confidence). Coral reefs, for example, are projected to decline by a further 70–90% at 1.5°C (high confidence) with larger losses (>99%) at 2ºC (very high confidence). The risk of irreversible loss of many marine and coastal ecosystems increases with global warming, especially at 2°C or more (high confidence) ” [6, 7].
Humanity is existentially threatened by nuclear weapons and man-made climate change (and of course the universe ends for each of the 15 million people who die avoidably from deprivation each year in the soon to worsen Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust)[8, 9]. Low-lying Island Nations and major mega-delta countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and China are particularly threatened by global warming, attendant sea level rise and storm surges from more intense tropical and sub-tropical storms. While Island Nations beg the world to keep the temperature rise under 1.5C , it now appears that 1.5C will be reached in 10 years’ time, a catastrophic plus 2C is unavoidable on present trends, and continued carbon pollution and grossly insufficient national commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement imply a catastrophe with plus 3.2C by 2100 [7- 15].
Presently about 1 million people die annually from climate change but man-made climate change disproportionately impacts tropical and subtropical Developing Countries in which 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year [16]. Further, 7 million people die from air pollution each year from carbon fuel burning. About 10,000 Australians die from air pollution each year but it can be readily estimated that about 75,000 people die each year outside Australia from the effects of pollutants from the burning of Australia’s world-leading coal exports – carbon terrorism and climate terrorism indeed [17]. Expert predictions of a sustainable human population of only 0.5-1.0 billion by 2100 imply about 10 billion deaths in a worsening Climate Genocide this century if global warming is not requisitely addressed [9]. Eminent physicist Professor Stephen Hawking: “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” [14, 15].
Leading climate scientists and science-informed activists demand not merely a cessation of carbon pollution but “negative carbon emissions” i.e. a draw-down of atmospheric CO2 to safe a sustainable level of circa 300 parts per million CO2 (300 ppm CO2) [18- 23]. Some say that sensible caution from ignorance of potential consequences demands a return to the pre-Industrial Revolution level of 280 ppm CO2 [21], 320 ppm CO2 is required for sustainable coral reefs [22] and sustainable Arctic summer sea ice [23], and 350.org activists demand a return to less than 350 ppm CO2 [20] – rounding up or rounding down gives us a target of about 300 ppm CO2. However the atmospheric CO2 continues to remorselessly climb as measured by the US NOAA (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii – it reached 415 ppm CO2 in 2019 [24]. Fossil fuel burning generates global dimming sulphate aerosols in the atmosphere and it is predicted that requisite cessation of coal burning would initially result in a loss of sulphate aerosols and rapid warming to plus 2C [25].
CO2 is responsible for about 85% of greenhouse gas (GHG)-induced warming. However significant contributions to global warming are made by methane (CH4; from methanogenic livestock and anaerobic bacteria in swamps), nitrous oxide (N2O; from oxidation of agricultural nitrogen fertilizer), and various man-made gases (e.g. the potent GHGs CHF3, sulphur hexafluoride SF6 , and nitrogen trifluoride NF3 ) [26]. Of these other GHGs, methane (CH4) is the most important. While government agencies conveniently represent CH4 as having a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 21 relative to that of CO2 on a 100 year time frame, it is actually 105 on a 20 year time frame with aerosol impacts included [27]. Indeed taking this revised GWP and various sources of methanogenesis into account, the estimated annual man-made GHG pollution was increased from 42 Gt CO2-equivalent to 64 Gt CO2-equivalent [28].
Methane (CH4) (about 85% of natural gas) is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. Methane leaks (3.3% in the US based on the latest US EPA data and as high as 7.9% for methane from “fracking” coal seams; a 2.6 % leakage of CH4 yields the same greenhouse effect as burning the remaining 97.4% CH4). Using this information one can determine that gas burning for electricity can be much dirtier than coal burning greenhouse gas-wise (GHG-wise). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, gas leakage in the system means that gas burning for power can actually be worse GHG-wise than coal burning depending on the degree of systemic gas leakage. Gas is dirty energy and a coal-to-gas transition simply means long-term investment in another carbon fuel and delaying urgently required cessation of carbon fuel burning.
It gets much, much worse. The much-vaunted coal-to-gas transition is a huge threat to Humanity. Thus the 2014 IPCC Summary for Policymakers argues for a limitation of temperature rise to 2oC through limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution of the atmosphere to 450 ppm CO2 –equivalent, but hard evidence says that we had already reached 478 ppm CO2-equivalent by 2013, that we reached 500 ppm CO2-equivalent in 2018, that 2oC is dangerous and essentially inevitable, and that the world had used up its Carbon Budget for a 75% probability of avoiding 2oC in 2018 [29-31]. The German WBGU (2009) and the Australian Climate Commission (2013) have estimated that no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 can be emitted between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise [32, 33]. It has been estimated that 50 Gt (billion tonnes) CH4 in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is set to be released in coming decades [34]. This is equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes CO2-equivalent/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-equivalent or about nine (9) times more than the world’s terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution budget. We are doomed unless we can avoid this Arctic CH4 release from the Arctic Methane Bomb [35]. The animal extinction rate is now 100-1,000 times greater than normal, this giving rise to the term Anthropocene Era to describe Humanity’s disastrous impact on the Biosphere. The present projections are for continuing speciescide and ecocide moving the Earth towards omnicide and terracide [36-38].
(2) Climate racism, climate apartheid and the worst climate criminal nations.
War is the penultimate in racism and genocide is the worst expression of racism. The neoliberal One Percenters are conducting a terminal War on Terra for obscene private profit. The War on Terra is racist, pitting rich, resource-rich countries against the poor in a worsening climate racism and climate apartheid – a worsening Climate Genocide that may result in a mere 0.5 billion survivors in 2100 if requisite urgent action is not taken. It is important to identify the worst climate criminal nations and a reasonable measure based on “all men are created equal” is “annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution”.
Here are listed revised annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution for the worst countries, taking land use into account (in tonnes CO2-e per person per year; the world average being 63.80 billion tonnes CO2-e / 7.137 billion people in 2013 = 8.9 tonnes CO2-e per person per year): Belize (366.9), Guyana (203.1), Malaysia (126.0), Papua New Guinea (114.7), Qatar (101.8), Zambia (97.5), Antigua & Barbuda (85.6), United Arab Emirates (82.4), Panama (68.0), Botswana (64.9), Liberia (55.0), Indonesia (53.6), New Zealand (53.2), Australia (52.9; 116 if including its huge GHG-generating exports), Nicaragua (51.2), Canada (50.1), Equatorial Guinea (47.5), Venezuela (45.2), Brazil (43.4), Myanmar (41.9), Ireland (41.4), United States (41.0), Cambodia (40.5), Kuwait (37.3), Paraguay (37.2), Central African Republic (35.7) [39]. Thus rich, climate criminal Australia with 0.3% of the world’s population contributes 5% of world GHG pollution (exported GHG pollution included).
However “annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution” per se is a flawed measure of national culpability because it ignores rich countries outsourcing industrial pollution to China, and forest-rich or fossil fuel-rich but impoverished countries compelled to pollute to barely survive. A better measure of culpability is a “weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution score” obtained by multiplying the “annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution” for each country by the ratio of the “annual per capita GDP (nominal)” for each country to the world average $10,744): “Qatar (101.8 x 9.08 = 924.3), United Arab Emirates (82.4 x 4.09 = 337.0), Australia (52.9 x 5.80 = 306.8; if including its huge GHG-generating exports, 116 x 5.80 = 672.8), Luxembourg (23.6 x 10.85 = 256.1), Canada (50.1 x 4.67 = 234.0), New Zealand (53.2 x 4.11 = 218.7), United States (41.0 x 5.05 = 207.1), Ireland (41.4 x 4.99 = 206.6), Norway (20.1 x 9.05 = 181.9), Belize (366.9 x 0.450 = 165.1), Singapore (31.2 x 5.20 = 162.2), Denmark (27.8 x 5.70 = 158.5), Kuwait (37.3 x 4.06 = 151.4), Malaysia (126.0 x 1.02 = 128.5), Netherlands (24.9 x 4.85 = 120.8), Belgium (26.3 x 4.41 = 116.0), Antigua & Barbuda (85.6 x 1.28 = 109.6), Brunei (27.4 x 3.81 = 104.4), Finland (20.6 x 4.62 = 95.2), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (21.5 x 4.32 = 92.9) [40]. The rich, “White” Anglosphere countries are prominent in this list of climate criminal countries, with Australia ranking second (GHG exports included).
However there are other ways to assess climate criminality. Thus my own country ranks second after Qatar in terms of “weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution score” when one includes its exported GHG pollution [40]. However Australia is among world leaders in 15 areas relating to GHG pollution and hence climate criminality. As confirmed by the results of the recent Australian Federal election (that returned an anti-science, climate criminal Coalition Government) , a rich, greedy and anti-science Australia is mindlessly committed to coal and gas exploitation. Thanks to the homicidal greed of climate criminal countries such as Australia, the present plus 1.2C temperature rise is already devastating Island Nations, and a catastrophic plus 2C warming is now effectively unavoidable. Climate criminal Australia is among world leaders for the following 15 climate criminal activities or parameters: (1) annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution [39, 40], (2) live methanogenic livestock exports [28, 41-49], (3) natural gas exports [50-52], (4) recoverable shale gas reserves that can be accessed by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) [53], (5) coal exports [54-58], (6) land clearing, deforestation and ecocide [59, 60], (7) speciescide or species extinction [61], (8) coral reef destruction [22, 62-68], (9) whale killing and extinction threat through global warming impacting on krill stocks [69], (10) terminal carbon pollution budget exceedance [70-79], (11) per capita Carbon Debt [70-79], (12) ultimately GHG generating iron ore exports [80, 81], (13) climate change inaction [82], (14) climate genocide and approach towards omnicide and terracide [83-86], and (15) increasing GHG pollution despite Paris commitments to lower GHG pollution [87, 88].
(3) Urgent actions required to mitigate the climate change threat.
One of humanity’s greatest minds, the late Professor Stephen Hawking, has stated our predicament very succinctly “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” [14, 15]. “Take action now… to prevent further climate change” means cessation of net GHG pollution - now. Who are we to believe, eminent scientist Professor Stephen Hawking or failed advertising executive Scott “Scomo” Morrison, who as treasurer of climate criminal Australia notoriously brought a lump of coal into Parliament, idiotically declaring “This is coal. Don’t be afraid. don’t be scared” [89] , and who as an anti-science Pentecostal Christian re-elected as PM of Australia has repeatedly declared “I have always believed in miracles” . Scomo (aka Scum-o, Scam-o, Skim-o and Scheme-o) is representative of the politicians supported by the Stupid, Ignorant and Egregious Greedy (SIEG as in Dr Strangelove and “Sieg heil”) just over 50% of the Australian electorate (Australia has compulsory voting so we can quantitate the extent of the SIEG psychopathy). Hopefully the children, informed by their school and university teachers of the worsening Climate Emergency, will be able to convince their parents to behave decently and sensibly at the ballot box..
All the following negative and positive actions must be done ASAP.
There must be cessation of coal, gas, oil and other carbon fuel exploitation, destruction of old growth forests, land clearing, destruction of species (speciescide), destruction of ecosystems (ecocide) , acidification of the oceans, over-exploitation of water resources, over-exploitation of the Biosphere, the biofuel “food for fuel” obscenity, over-exploitation of arable land, methanogenic meat production, over-population, unnecessary economic growth, highway building, neoliberalism and deadly inequity. Several recent reports collectively endorsed by thousands of expert scientists have warned the world that time is running out to save Humanity and the Biosphere from further catastrophic climate change and further massive biodiversity loss. Massive harm has already occurred due to continuing carbon pollution, population growth and economic growth, and it is clear that zero growth in these areas is insufficient – there must be negative carbon pollution (atmospheric CO2 draw-down to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2), negative population growth (the population must decline by about 50%) and negative economic growth (economic degrowth by about 50% with the burden largely borne by rich countries of the global North) to halt and reverse this worsening disaster [90-92].
There must be rapid institution of re-afforestation, ecosystem restoration, soil carbon restoration, land recovery, salvation of endangered species, profound respect for land-respecting Indigenous cultures, 100% renewable energy, widespread adoption of vegetarian and vegan diets, public transport replacing private transport, population control policies, economic de-growth, atmospheric CO2 draw-down, free education at all levels, new working cultures, eco-socialism, and expertly-informed world economic government to assure a decent life for the global South. There must be social humanism (socialism, eco-socialism, the welfare state, the universal basic income) to maximize happiness, opportunity and dignity for everyone through evolving intra-national and international social contracts as an alternative to the presently dominant, destructive and terracidal neoliberalism that involves maximizing the right of the smart and advantaged to exploit human and natural resources for private profit [93, 94].
(4) 300 ppm CO2, Carbon Debt, international justice and intergenerational injustice.
All peoples have a common atmosphere and a common ocean. However the industrialized countries of the global North have disproportionately polluted the atmosphere and the ocean to achieve their dominance and disproportionate wealth. In contrast it is the Developing countries of the global South who are disproportionately impacted by man-made climate change that is largely not of their making. Atmospheric CO2 draw-down to 300 ppm CO2 is expensive (of the order of $200 per tonne of CO2 sequestered by various means ) [95-97] . The expertly determined, damage-related Carbon Price is also about $200 per tonne of CO2 [98]. The absence of a Carbon Price meant freedom to pollute for free for nearly 2 centuries and means that our children and future generations will have to pay for the enormous climate crimes of their forebears.
The Historical Carbon Debt (aka Historical Climate Debt) of a country can be measured by the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) it has introduced into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Thus the total Carbon Debt of the world (in Giga tonnes CO2-equivalent, Gt CO2-e) from 1751-2019 (including CO2 that has gone into the oceans) is about 346 Gt CO2-e (1750-2008) + 638 Gt CO2-e (2009-2019) = 984 Gt CO2-e. Assuming a damage-related Carbon Price of $200 per tonne CO2-equivalent, this corresponds to a Carbon Debt of $197 trillion, about two-thirds of the total wealth of the world ($317 trillion in 2018) and 2.3 times the world’s total annual GDP ($85 trillion in 2018). Using estimates from Professor James Hansen of national contributions to Historical Carbon Debt and assuming a damage-related Carbon Price of $200 per tonne CO2-e, the World has a Carbon Debt of $197 trillion that is increasing at US$8.4 trillion per year. By way of example, my own country, Australia, has a Carbon Debt (in US dollars) of $5.1 trillion that is increasing at $400 billion per year and at $40,000 per head per year for under-30 year old Australians [98-100].
When the young fully appreciate the enormous burden of Carbon Debt imposed on them by their forebears then there will be not 3 million but 30 million, and even 300 million, out in the streets. The grownups have failed – only the children can save the Planet through Climate Revolution now (non-violent of course) rejecting climate criminality, intergenerational inequity and intergenerational injustice [101-105].
(5) The last word - what the Melbourne schoolchildren were saying on their placards.
I noted the following messages on the placards of the Melbourne schoolchildren [my comments in square brackets] : “Act now or swim later”, “If not now, when? If not us, who?”, “Save our future”, “Get off this coal town road”, “Who gives a crap”, “Danger zone approaching”, “Capitalist greed is destroying kids’ future”, “No good very bad don’t do it”, “The future is not mine it’s their’s”, “This pale blue dot is all we’ve got”, “There is no Planet B”, “Don’t trust these fossil fools”, “Deforestation causes climate change”, “Some like it hot” [several], “Listen to the science”, “Do it 4 our grandkids”, “Hey Scomo your Jesus won’t save us”, “Stop climate meltdown”, “It’s getting hot Scott”, “Earth is our home it’s time to pay the mortgage”, “Chuck us your lighter Scomo”, “I’ll go back to school when you do”, “Burn fascists not forests” [not nice, violent], “We’re led by fossil fools obsessed with fossil fuels”, “Your mess is our future”,
“If you don’t act like grown ups we will”, “Our planet is dying and we won’t be ignored”, “Stop Adani” [many placards re this huge new Australian coal mine], “The power is yours”, “Give a shit”, “How good is coal” [re Scomo], “Your mess is our future”, “Baby boomers for climate change action” [adult guilt], “Stop denying our Earth is dying”, “We speak for the trees”, “Burn the rich not the planet” [not nice, violent], “If you’re not outraged you are not paying attention”, “Make Australia Greta against” [re Greta Thunberg; many life-size Greta heads], “Climates they are a-changin’,- take a stand”, “[Scomo] wanted for crimes against humanity, theft of children’s futures and destruction of the environment”, “Quit burning our future” [beginning of Spring but huge fires in drought-ravaged Queensland and New South Wales], “Can’t buy time and we’re running out”, “SOS [Earth image in the O]”, “Stop climate meltdown”, “Don’t leave it to us to clean up your mess”, “Quit burning our future”,
“Why do we elect psychopaths?”, “We’re on the wrong side of history”, “I’m sure the dinosaurs thought they had time too”, “Make history save our future”, “We are missing our lessons to teach you”, “Denial is not a policy”, “People B4 profits”, “If you don’t lead we will”, “We don’t have time for your shit” [re Scomo], “Climate change is bad”, “If we act there is still hope”, “Our future your choice”, “Ditch fossil fools”, “Tell the truth”, “Don’t flip flop on”, “How can we work when our beds are burning?”, “Shame Scomo”, “We’re on the wrong side of history”, “Stop making a world only for camels and cockroaches”, “Keep the earth clean it’s not Uranus”, “Act now or swim later”, “The climate is changing but politicians are not”, “The ultimate inconvenient truth – we must stop using fossil fuels and eating animals”, “Be a hoe but don’t fuck the earth”, “Make Earth cool again”, “We are Scomo-phobic”, “Don’t be a fossil fool”,
“You’ll die of old age we’ll die of climate change”, “We refuse to be another item on the list of endangered species”, “Climate change is violence”, “Make the Earth cool again”, “If you’re looking for a sign to change your habits this is it”, “Save the Planet, stop logging”, “Running out of time and patience”, “The Earth is hotter than my imaginary boyfriend”, “Climate change is worse than homework”, “No planet no us”, “Why should I clean my bedroom if the world’s a mess”, “Coming soon in 3D [burning planet image]”, “No profit on a dead planet”, “I hoped for a cooler death”, “I can’t save my ATAR [educational attainment score] so I may as well save the planet”, “Protect our Earth from climate shame”, “The climate is changing, why aren’t we?”, “Quit burning our future”, “Climate change today’s students are tomorrow’s voters”, “Vote one climate”, “[Dead tree image] no more air”, “So long and thanks for all the fish – oh wait the fish are all dead”
References
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[72]. “Carbon Debt, Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .
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[78]. Gideon Polya, “Inescapable $200-$250 trillion global Carbon Debt increasing by $16 trillion annually”, Countercurrents, 27 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/27/inescapable-200-250-trillion-global-carbon-debt-increasing-by-16-trillion-annually-gideon-polya/ .
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Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine ; Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .