2009-09-23 Older people & climate crisis
300.org Message To World – Act Urgently Over Climate Emergency And Climate Genocide
By Dr Gideon Polya
23 September, 2009
Countercurrents.org
[First published as Gideon Polya, “300.org Message To World – Act Urgently Over Climate Emergency And Climate Genocide”, Countercurrents, 12 September 2009: https://countercurrents.org/polya230909.htm ].
Google Search together the 3 words older, people and climate and you will get about 30 million results with top links on page 1 being to Melbourne-based Older People And Climate Change (OPACC) and the presently largely older person-based Yarra Valley Climate Action Group (YVCAG) of Melbourne. Number 1 is an article by a Melbourne scientist entitled “3 reasons why older people should care about climate change action” (while Australia is the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) polluter, decent Australians lead the world in climate activism).[1-3].
In short, older people are peculiarly threatened by the worsening climate emergency in three key areas that can be summarized by the "three Ds" of Devaluation (GDP growth to prevent devaluation of pensions, investments, superannuation and family support is only sustainable in a non-carbon, renewable energy-based economy), Death (older people are frailer and more susceptible to heat stress death because of a weakened brain signalling system) and Descendants (their descendants will hate them for what they have done to the planet)
Older people – and indeed all people - can help protect themselves, their descendants, Humanity and the Biosphere by (a) informing everyone they can about the worsening climate emergency; (b) supporting a safe CO2 level of 300 ppm , 100% renewable energy by 2020 and cutting carbon pollution 80% by 2020; and (c) taking personal and collective action, of which the key action is to withhold avoidable support from politicians, products, people, corporations, communities and countries disproportionately contributing to the worsening climate emergency and climate genocide.
Younger as well as older people are acutely threatened by man-made global warming. First World-imposed climate genocide due to unaddressed, man-made climate change is predicted to kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims (a Muslim Holocaust 500 times greater than the WW2 Jewish Holocaust or the “forgotten” WW2 Bengali Holocaust), 2 billion Indians, 1.4 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.6 billion Arabs, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis. [4].
Who are the climate criminals? You be the judge: the annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in tonnes CO2-e per person per year is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (World), 11 (UK), 11 (Europe), 23 (Canada), 27 (US), and 30 Australia (or 54 if its huge Exported GHG pollution is included). [5].
The prestigious UK Royal Society recently stated (July 2009): “The Earth’s atmospheric CO2 level must be returned to less than 350ppm to reverse this escalating ecological crisis and to 320ppm to ensure permanent planetary health. Actions to achieve this must be taken urgently. The commonly mooted best case target of 450ppm and a time frame reaching to 2050 will plunge the Earth into an environmental state that has not occurred in millions of years and from which there will be no recovery for coral reefs and for many other natural systems on which humanity depends.” [6].
The World must urgently take the advice of top climate scientists and analysts who are advocating “100% renewable energy by 2020”, “cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020” and a rapid return of atmospheric CO2 to about 300 ppm for a planet that is safe and sustainable for all peoples and species. [7, 8, 9].
If Humanity really wants to save itself and the Biosphere – including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu Wetlands, temperate and tropical Rainforests and Murray-Darling River System – then it must urgently apply Sanctions, Boycotts, Green Tariffs, Reparation Demands and International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions against racist, climate genocidal Apartheid Australia and other climate criminal countries.
[1]. Dr Gideon Polya, “3 reasons why older people should care about climate change action”, Open Forum, 10 August 2009: http://www.openforum.com.au/content/3-reasons-why-older-people-should-care-about-climate-change-action .
[2]. Older People And Climate Change (OPACC):
http://sites.google.com/site/olderpeopleandclimatechange/ .
[3]. Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, “Global warming dangers and solutions for older people”:
http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/
global-warming-dangers--solutions-for-older-people .
[4]. “Climate Disruption, Climate Emergency, Climate Genocide & Penultimate Bengali Holocaust through Sea Level Rise”: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/
climate-disruption-climate-emergency-climate-genocide-
penultimate-bengali-holocaust-through-sea-level-rise .
[5]. “Australia’s “5% off 2000 GHG pollution by 2020” endangers Australia, Humanity and the Biosphere”:
http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup
/australia-s-5-off-2000-ghg-pollution-by-2020-endangers-
australia-humanity-and-biosphere .
[6]. Royal Society Working Group, London, 6th July, 2009, “The Coral Reef Crisis: scientific justification for critical CO2 threshold levels of less than 350ppm”: http://www.carbonequity.info/PDFs/T
[7]. 100% renewable energy by 2020:
http://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .
[8]. Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020:
http://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ .
[9]. 300.org - return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm:
http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya
Convenor, 300.org,
Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria
September 2009