Gideon Polya, "Humanity Must Pledge Inescapable Dispossession And Custodial Retribution For Climate Criminals":
https://sites.google.com/site/punishclimatecriminals/2016-12-20 .
Originally published as Gideon Polya, “Humanity Must Pledge Inescapable Dispossession And Custodial Retribution For Climate Criminals”, Countercurrents, 20 December 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/12/20/humanity-must-pledge-inescapable-dispossession-and-custodial-retribution-for-climate-criminals/ .
Global domination by neoliberal One Percenter climate criminals has meant that a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise is now unavoidable and that the Paris ideal of no more than plus 1.5C will be exceeded in 4-10 years. The most effective collective action now for decent Humanity to mitigate inescapable climate catastrophe is to promise that all climate criminals will be brought to account and suffer inescapable dispossession and custodial punishment – this resolute, collective promise now will make a disastrous future less bad for future generations.
Future custodial punishment and dispossession of climate criminals will be small comfort to future generations suffering catastrophic climate change, but the resolute promise now of such inescapable punishment will have a significant impact now and make a catastrophic future “less bad” for our children, grandchildren and future generations.
The climate criminal political and corporate leaders together with their Mainstream journalist, politician and academic presstitute backers may well argue that (a) the dispossession and draconian custodial punishment of asserted climate criminals has no precedent, (b) today the whole world has a carbon economy, (c) everyone is burning carbon fuels, (d) the asserted climate crimes are simply crimes of degree, (e) carbon fuel burning per se is not illegal today , (f) such draconian punishment would require retrospective legislation , and (g) the punishment of pro-pollution advocates and commentators involves an attack on free speech. However these excuses for unpunished climate criminality are largely disingenuous and are demolished below.
1. Climate criminal mass murder must be exposed, prevented and punished.
Climate criminality and climate crimes are already deadly realities. Presently over 7 million people die avoidably (prematurely) each year due to climate change or the cumulative effects of carbon burning pollutants. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 7 million people die from the effects of air pollution each year [1]. The DARA 2012 Report commissioned by 20 countries states: “This report estimates that climate change causes 400,000 deaths on average each year today, mainly due to hunger and communicable diseases that affect children above all in developing countries. Our present carbon-intensive energy system and related activities cause an estimated 4.5 million deaths each year linked to air pollution , hazardous occupations and cancer… Continuing today’s patterns of carbon-intensive energy use is estimated, together with climate change, to cause 5 million deaths per year by 2030, close to 700,000 of which would be due to climate change. This implies that a combined climate-carbon crisis is estimated to claim 100 million lives between now and the end of the next decade. A significant share of the global population would be directly affected by inaction on climate change” [2, 3].
However UN Population Division data [4] enable one to calculate that 17 million people die avoidably (prematurely) each year (half of them children) due to poverty in the Developing World (minus China) [5]. The impoverished tropical and subtropical countries suffering this ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust are precisely those most susceptible to deadly risk from climate change [6]. Because climate change impacts global avoidable mortality in the Third World it is likely that the DARA estimate of 0.4 million climate change-related deaths each year is a considerable under-estimate. One can accordingly estimate that the annual deaths from climate change and air pollution total about 10 million.
It is estimated that 18,000 people died from non-state terrorism in 2013 (overwhelmingly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Syria) and 100,000 people died thus in the period 2000-2013 [6-11]. . The long-term accrual cost of the US War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan alone is about $6 trillion [12-14], the US presently prosecutes the War on Terror (the War on Non-state Terrorism) with Australia-targeted drone strikes in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and there have been 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or imposed deprivation (27 million) associated with US Alliance invasions of 20 countries since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity that killed about 3,000 people [15, 16].
Seen in this light, judicial arraignment and custodial punishment of climate criminals heavily responsible for circa 10 million deaths annually from climate change or carbon burning pollutants would seem to be a very modest and reasonable response to deadly state terrorism, corporate terrorism, climate terrorism and carbon terrorism [8-11]. However, as outlined below the climate emergency is set to become much worse - as many as 10 billion people will die avoidably (prematurely) this century (an average of 100 million annually) if man-made climate change is not requisitely addressed [17].
Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Deputy Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have estimated that only about 0.5 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming [18, 19]. Thus just before the 2009 Copenhagen summit, The Scotsman newspaper reported on Professor Kevin Anderson’s estimate of “only half a billion surviving”: "Current Met Office projections reveal that the lack of action in the intervening 17 years – in which emissions of climate changing gases such as carbon dioxide have soared – has set the world on a path towards potential 4C rises as early as 2060, and 6C rises by the end of the century. Anderson, who advises the government on climate change, said the consequences were 'terrifying'. 'For humanity it's a matter of life or death,' he said. 'We will not make all human beings extinct as a few people with the right sort of resources may put themselves in the right parts of the world and survive. But I think it's extremely unlikely that we wouldn't have mass death at 4C. If you have got a population of nine billion by 2050 and you hit 4C, 5C or 6C, you might have half a billion people surviving'" [18].
Dr James Lovelock FRS (top UK climate scientist, Fellow of the prestigious Royal Society, famous for his Gaia Hypothesis and atmospheric research): “If we can keep civilization alive through this century perhaps there is a chance that our descendants will one day serve Gaia and assist her in the fine-tuned self-regulation of the climate and composition of our planet. We have enjoyed 12,000 years of climate peace since the last shift from a glacial age to an interglacial one. Before long, we may face planet-wide devastation worse even than unrestricted nuclear war between superpowers. The climate war could kill nearly all of us and leave the few survivors living a Stone Age existence. But in several places in the world, including the U.K., we have a chance of surviving and even of living well. For that to be possible, we have to make our lifeboats seaworthy now ” [19].
Dr Clive Hamilton (Australian climate economist and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University) on human survival in “The Four Degrees World” (2010): “One way or another, humans will have to adapt to life in a hotter world. Many plausible scenarios suggest a sharp decline in the number of people that will survive in the long term. Some suggest a billion or a few hundred million will remain in a century or two, but one guess is as good as another. One thing is certain: the transition to a new stage of stability will be long and brutal, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable whose survival will be threatened with food shortages, extreme weather events and disease” [20].
Noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 according to the UN Population Division , these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including roughly twice the present population of particular mainly non-European groups, specifically 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis. [17].
Already 17 million people (about 8 million of them under-5 year old infants) die avoidably every year due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease – and man-made global warming is already clearly worsening this Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. However 10 billion avoidable deaths due to global warming this century yields an average annual avoidable death rate of 100 million per year. If there is no place to hide from extrajudicial killing for non-state terrorists responsible for 18,000 terrorism deaths per year and circa 200,000 such deaths this century, there should certainly be no place to hide from judicial arraignment and custodial punishment for state and corporate climate terrorists and carbon terrorists complicit in circa 10 million climate change or pollution deaths annually, 160 million such deaths since 2000 and a likely 10 billion such deaths this century.
In his 2005 Literature Nobel Prize Acceptance speech, the outstanding anti-racist Jewish British playwright Harold Pinter declared: “We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East'. How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal? One hundred thousand? More than enough, I would have thought. Therefore it is just that Bush and Blair be arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice” [21]. Decent people can likewise well ask “How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal in the War on the Planet? 10 million per year? 160 million since 2000? 10 billion this century? More than enough, I would have thought.
2. Precedent for warning and thence punishing mass murderers.
On 2 July 1944 American bombers attacked the Hungarian capital Budapest, destroying oil refineries and oil storage tanks of importance for the war effort of Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. However the American aircraft also dropped leaflets threatening punishment of all those responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp and their subsequent death by killing or deprivation. The Hungarian fascist leader Admiral Miklós Horthy demanded of the German occupiers of Hungary that such deportations be stopped and on 8 July 1944 the Nazi German leader Adolph Hitler acceded to Admiral Horthy’s request and stopped the deportations [22]. In October 1944 Horthy was arrested and removed to Bavaria by the Germans [23]. It has been variously estimated by Zionist British historian Professor Sir Martin Gilbert that 0.2 million or 0.4 million Jewish Hungarians perished in 1944-1945 out of a pre-war population of about 0.7 million [24, 25]. Concerning differential holocaust mortality estimates, one can legitimately compare controversial historian David Irving's estimate of 4 million Jews dying in WW2 due to violence (1 million) or imposed deprivation (3 million) or 67% of the upper estimate of 6 million Jewish deaths in Adolph Hitler’s WW2 Jewish Holocaust, with Professor Sir Martin Gilbert's estimate of 1.5 million Indians dying in Winston Churchill’s WW2 Bengali Holocaust (1942-1945 Bengal Famine), or 21% of the upper estimate of 7 million deaths by UK medical historian Dr Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine , University College London) [24-26]. After the war numerous German and Axis war criminals were arraigned, tried and punished for their involvement in the Jewish Holocaust and the more general WW2 European Holocaust of which it was a part (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed) [5]. History is written by the victors and Winston Churchill’s 6-volume work “The Second World War”, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature, contained no mention of the WW2 Bengali Holocaust or of Churchill’s rejection of the Joel Brand Plan to exchange 0.7 million Hungarian Jews for trucks, soap, coffee and tea [26].
Of course “thou shalt not kill” is a fundamental human prohibition and “thou shalt not kill children” even more fundamental and so obvious that it is not specifically codified in the Ten Commandments of the Holy Bible that underscore the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam [27]. Within human societies everyone knows that violent murder within an otherwise peaceful society will attract dire punishment. However collective societal morality is presently unable to address culpability for huge preventable death within society due to inequity, imposed deprivation and the consequent health gap [28]. Thus, for example, Indigenous Australian life expectancy is about 20 years less than for White Australians [29]. In the prosperous USA about 1.7 million people die preventably each year from causes ranging from adverse hospital events, obesity, smoking and drinking to homicide and suicide, this carnage being inescapably linked to the fiscal perversion of successive US administrations committing trillions of dollars to killing millions of Muslims abroad in the endless US War on Terror (US War on Muslims) rather than keeping millions of Americans alive at home [30, 31].
Societal moral blindness plumbs the depths of depravity when it comes to ignoring culpability for deaths of foreigners from violence or imposed deprivation. Thus the almost instantaneous nuclear incineration of 200,000 Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki that is unequivocally condemned by decent human beings is still widely justified in terms of military strategy and the mass murderers have been praised and honoured by US society. While these 2 nuclear atrocities were too public to hide, some sense of guilt has kept largely hidden Western-imposed war deaths from violence or imposed deprivation (history is written by the victor). Thus while the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million Jews killed) is rightly etched into global public perception, the WW2 European Holocaust of which it was a part (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed), the WW2 Chinese Holocaust (40 million Chinese killed under Japanese occupation, 1937-1945) and the WW2 Bengal Holocaust (6-7 million Indians starved to death by the British with Australian complicity) are variously largely to almost completely ignored [24- 26] . “Manufacturing consent” for horrendously deadly US imperialism by Mainstream media [32] has involved whitewashing the carnage e.g. 28% of the North Korean population killed by US bombing in the Korean war [33], 40 million Asian deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation post-1950 US Asian wars [25], 4.6 million Iraqi deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in the 1990-2011 Iraqi Genocide [12, 14], 5 million Afghan deaths from violence or war-imposed deprivation in the post-2001 Afghan Genocide [12, 13], 32 million Muslim deaths from violence (5 million) or imposed deprivation (27 million) in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity [15, 16].
However these horrendous war-related deaths are small in comparison with the ongoing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which 17 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation on Spaceship Earth with the rich, US-dominated First World in charge of the flight deck, noting that 1.5 billion have died thus since 1950, with this carnage including 0.9 billion infants and 0.6 billion Muslims [5]. Holocaust means the death of a huge number of people and genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War demand that an Occupier must supply its conquered subjects will life-sustaining requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” [5]. However there is a blurred distinction between US Alliance “occupation”(e.g. Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq in 2003-2011, Haiti) , US Alliance “free fire zones” for Australia-targeted drone attacks (Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), and US Alliance invasion of some 20 countries since 2001 . Indeed substantial US global hegemony makes it disproportionately complicit in the horrendous Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust [5].
As analysed by Edward Herman and David Peterson in “The Politics of Genocide”, in terms of perception by Western Mainstream media and the International Criminal Court, perpetration of “genocide” is confined to people the US doesn’t like (some Serbian, African and Asian leaders) [34, 35]. Western Mainstream media, politician and academic presstitutes are resolutely committed to genocide ignoring and holocaust ignoring, noting that holocaust ignoring is far, far worse than repugnant holocaust denial because at least the latter admits the possibility of refutation and public discussion. However the worsening climate genocide is a game changer as activists, scientists and politicians speak out about culpability for the deadly consequences of climate change and air pollution, as exampled below.
3. Scientists, activists and political leaders have issued warnings about deadly climate criminality.
As exampled below, some climate activists, scientists, leaders and human rights activists have variously spoken out about climate injustice, intergenerational injustice, intergenerational inequity, climate crime, climate genocide, the deadly consequences of unaddressed man-made climate change, and the need to punish climate criminals [36-44].
Rodne Galiche ( district manager in the Philippines for The Climate Reality Project, overseen in Asia by the Australian Conservation Foundation, based at a disaster relief centre on Romblon, one of the smaller Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines, one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, and which devastated parts of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, on November 8, 2013 where it killed 6,268 people) (2013): “Typhoon Haiyan speaks to us of climate inaction, injustice, apathy and irresponsibility. Enough with all the suffering, enough with this madness. When will they listen? When there will be no people to listen to? When our voices are buried with the rubble left by storm surges and strong winds? As help from different parts of the globe arrives, we are thankful for the sympathy - but what we need most is empathy. After global assistance has been delivered, states emitting large amount of carbon dioxide may still remain business as usual…Attorney Christina Barroga is exploring how to raise the recent cyclonic event at the International Criminal Court. You see, for us this a crime - a climate crime - and we will be seeking climate justice. With this catastrophic reality, human beings here in the Philippines have now become an endangered species” [45].
Dr Andrew Glikson (Australian Earth and Paleoclimate scientist) on looming climate catastrophe, climate genocide and “existential calamity for civilization and nature”(2016): “Little mention is made of the existential threats posed by the climate and nuclear issues in the context of the current elections in the US and Australia. According to the world’s climate research institutions and the bulk of the peer reviewed scientific literature, the Earth has now entered a critical stage at which amplifying feedback effects to global warming transcend points of no return. Manifestations of a shift in state of the climate include; current rise in CO2 at 3.3 parts per million per year, the fastest recorded for the last 65 million years; extreme rises in Arctic temperatures; a plethora of extreme weather events such as cyclones, floods and fires; demise of habitats such as the Great Barrier Reef where corals die due to high water temperatures and coral bleaching; and other developments. The extreme rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since the onset of the industrial age, and the corresponding rise in mean global temperatures as a direct result of the rise in carbon gases, pose an existential risk to the future of nature and civilization. The consequences of further burning of the vast carbon reserves buried in sediments and in permafrost and bogs can only result in a mass extinction of species which rivals that of the five great mass extinctions in Earth history… It follows that, where and when the majority of authoritative scientific institutions (NASA, NOAA, NSIDC, Hadley-Met, Tyndale, Potsdam, CSIRO, World Academy of Science, IPCC and so on), based on the bulk of the evidence, indicate beyond reasonable doubt that open-ended emissions of greenhouse gases inevitably lead to a major shift in the terrestrial climate, and thereby the demise of humans and of species, a toleration and/or condoning of continuing emissions by governments contravenes at the very least the spirit of international laws” [46].
Professor James Hansen (former Head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and adjunct professor at 100-Nobel-Laureate Columbia University’s Earth Institute) on his Briefing to the US Congress House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming and at the National Press Club (1 June 2008): “Today I testified to Congress about global warming, 20 years after my June 23, 1988 testimony, which alerted the public that global warming was underway. There are striking similarities between then and now, but one big difference. Again a wide gap has developed between what is understood about global warming by the relevant scientific community and what is known by policymakers and the public. Now, as then, frank assessment of scientific data yields conclusions that are shocking to the body politic. Now, as then, I can assert that these conclusions have a certainty exceeding 99 percent. The difference is that now we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed to defuse the global warming time bomb. The next president and Congress must define a course next year in which the United States exerts leadership commensurate with our responsibility for the present dangerous situation. Otherwise it will become impractical to constrain atmospheric carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas produced in burning fossil fuels, to a level that prevents the climate system from passing tipping points that lead to disastrous climate changes that spiral dynamically out of humanity’s control…Fossil fuel reservoirs are finite, which is the main reason that prices are rising. We must move beyond fossil fuels eventually. Solution of the climate problem requires that we move to carbon-free energy promptly. Special interests have blocked transition to our renewable energy future. Instead of moving heavily into renewable energies, fossil companies choose to spread doubt about global warming, as tobacco companies discredited the smoking-cancer link. Methods are sophisticated, including disguised funding to shape school textbook discussions. CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. If their campaigns continue and “succeed” in confusing the public, I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials. Conviction of ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal CEOs will be no consolation, if we pass on a runaway climate to our children. Humanity would be impoverished by ravages of continually shifting shorelines and intensification of regional climate extremes. Loss of countless species would leave a more desolate planet. If politicians remain at loggerheads, citizens must lead. We must demand a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants. We must block fossil fuel interests who aim to squeeze every last drop of oil from public lands, off-shore, and wilderness areas. Those last drops are no solution. They provide continued exorbitant profits for a short-sighted self-serving industry, but no alleviation of our addiction or long-term energy solution…A price on emissions that cause harm is essential. Yes, a carbon tax” [47, 48].
Naomi Klein (anti-racist Jewish Canadian writer, activist, columnist and author of “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies” (1999), “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” (2007) and “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate” ( 2014) (2015) :” Direct action. I’m in favour of direct action on climate change, too. I’m in favour of the people in the Bentley blockade, the people who have successfully stopped, so far, the Carmichael mine. I think direct action is great, especially when our politicians fail to act, but I’m referring to a different kind of direct action than your Prime Minister and I should say, you know, being a Canadian I live in a very large glass house. Our government rivals the Abbott Government in terms of climate criminality. We’re hoping to vote our government out soon, which might mean that Abbott will be quite isolated at the UN talks at the end of the year” [49].
Senator Christine Milne ( former Australian Greens Leader) declaring that Australian Coalition PM Tony Abbott is a climate criminal” (2013):."The Climate Change Authority was set up to de-politicise the process of setting greenhouse emission reduction targets. Everyone knows that a 5% emission reduction target is woefully inadequate. Shutting down the Climate Change Authority, ahead of its first report on fair and science based emission reduction targets for Australia, is cowardly and an attack on current and future generations. Tony Abbott is a climate criminal. Shooting the messenger does not alter the fact that Australia has to do a lot better than 5% in order to contribute fairly to the global challenge of constraining global warming to two degrees. In the context of global warming this action is a crime against humanity” [50].
Pope Francis on climate justice for future generations in his Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’” (2015): “The principle of the maximization of profits, frequently isolated from other considerations, reflects a misunderstanding of the very concept of the economy. As long as production is increased, little concern is given to whether it is at the cost of future resources or the health of the environment; as long as the clearing of a forest increases production, no one calculates the losses entailed in the desertification of the land, the harm done to biodiversity, or the increased pollution. In a word, businesses profit by calculating and paying only a fraction of the costs involved. ‘Yet only when the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations,’ [Benedict XVI] can those actions be considered ethical. An instrumental way of reasoning, which provides a purely static analysis of realities in the service of present needs, is at work whether resources are allocated by the market or by state central planning” [51].
Various organizations have likewise protested climate crimes and human rights violations against present and future generations:
350.org (US-origin major climate activist organization that seeks a mass mobilization-based radical transformation to return atmospheric CO2 to no more than 350 ppm CO2): “Freeze fossil fuel extraction to stop climate crimes… We are at a crossroads. We do not want to be compelled to survive in a world that has been made barely liveable for us… We are confident in our capacity to stop climate crimes. In the past, determined women and men have resisted and overcome the crimes of slavery, totalitarianism, colonialism or apartheid. They decided to fight for justice and solidarity and knew no one would do it for them. Climate change is a similar challenge, and we are nurturing a similar uprising. We are working to change everything… The situation today is precarious. We have, however, a unique opportunity to reinvigorate democracy, to dismantle the dominance of corporate political power, to transform radically our modes of production and consumption. Ending the era of fossil fuels is one important step towards the fair and sustainable society we need” [52].
2015 Suva Declaration on climate change by the Pacific Islands Development Forum (2015): "We, the Leaders of the Pacific Islands Development Forum following open, transparent and inclusive discussions with stakeholders undertaken during the Pacific Islands Development Forum Third Annual Summit held in Suva, Fiji between 2-4 September 2015 declare that we: 1. Are gravely distressed that climate change poses irreversible loss and damage to our people, societies, livelihoods, and natural environments creating existential threats to our very survival and other violations of human rights to entire Pacific Small Island Developing States; 2. Express profound concern that the scientific evidence unequivocally proves that the climate system is warming and that human influence on the climate system is clear, but appropriate responses are lacking… 10. Emphasize that scientific evidence indicates that limiting warming to well below 1.5⁰C above pre-industrial levels will significantly reduce impacts, risks, adaptation needs, as well as loss and damage, and that actions to this effect will not significantly impact on economies “ [53].
Bolivia’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) for the 2015 COP21 Paris Climate Change Conference (2015) stated "The capitalist system promotes consumerism, warmongering and commercialism, causing the destruction of Mother Earth and humanity. The capitalist system is a system of death. Hence, capitalism is leading humanity towards a horizon of destruction that sentences nature and life itself to death. In this regard, for a lasting solution to the climate crisis we must destroy capitalism" and further set out a 10-point plan: “1. Adoption of a new model of civilisation in the world without consumerism, war-mongering, and mercantilism, a world without capitalism; build and consolidate a world order of Living Well that defends and promotes the integral rights of our peoples, undertaking the path of harmony with nature and respect for life…7. Establishment of the International Court of Justice Climate and Mother Earth to enable countries to fulfil their international commitments to climate change in a context of respect for the rights of peoples and of Mother Earth” [54].
Bring Climate Criminals to Justice (BCCJ) (which exists to establish a legal process in the UK and abroad to facilitate the criminal prosecution of Government Ministers and key business leaders whose policies and activities contribute to the mass loss of life which Climate Change is already causing): “Bring Climate Criminals to Justice (BCCJ) “[aims] to establish a legal process in the UK and abroad to facilitate the criminal prosecution of Government Ministers and key business leaders whose policies and activities contribute to the mass loss of life which Climate Change is certain to now cause… [re Bangladesh] working with Bangladeshi political and environmental groups to seek the introduction of legislation to prosecute foreign nationals who have contributed to the Climate Change process that will result in the mass murder of Bangladeshi nationals. As the one nation expected to suffer the most this century (over 90 million people to be displaced by rising sea levels and more extreme weather events) with millions of people murdered by the key Climate Criminals, we are working to ensure the nation is the first to bring the main culprits to justice…[re UK environmental campaigns] Working to ensure UK environmental campaign groups re-focus campaigning, uniting to call for the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of the worst offenders…[re penalties upon prosecution and conviction] The penalties must be proportionate, reflecting the unprecedented scale of death and human misery the Climate Criminals will cause… Government Ministers and key business leaders have acted in common purpose with others in such a way that they know they will help to cause the mass killing of others. This crime is unique in its selfish, callous disregard for others and its devastating consequences. It is not manslaughter (killing through negligence) - it is murder. There was no intention to kill, but they knew with absolute certainty they would contribute to appalling loss of life” [55].
Climate Crime (website resource against climate crime and in support of the climate justice movement): “ This site is being developed as a resource for the use of the growing climate justice movement and as a record of the crime of all time. It is being developed out of respect to the most basic human rights human rights of today's most climate change vulnerable populations and of all future generations. This is a site that has to be developed for all today's children and for all generations after them. The case against today's world powers, and of course the climate denial campaign, must at least documented. Top world climate change expert James Hansen is right in implying that global climate change will be recognized as a crime against humanity. The sooner it is, the better for us all. If our civilization is challenged with the reality of what continuing to emit greenhouse gases - and at an increasing rate!- means, surely there would have to be a change of heart. World leaders and those leading institutions that are permitting this crime to continue must be held accountable for their inactions” [56].
Climate Genocide Act Now (2016): “Over ten years ago the Trade Union movement fought for the introduction of legislation to tackle the number of employees being killed at work. Employer’s groups worked hard to delay and undermine the legislation but the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was enacted. When they knew what was coming, directors decided they didn’t want to end up in prison and suffer heavy fines so they transformed safety procedures at work, saving lives on building sites, down tunnels, etc. The legislation was a success. We are working to bring forward a private member's Bill in 2017, “The Climate Genocide Bill”. Business leaders will fight this hard but we will win. We will enact legislation to criminalise those who kill others by expanding polluting activities and industries. The legislation will include provisions for the seizure of the proceeds of “climate crime” – those profits that are derived from industries that kill” [57].
Climate Justice Programme: “Climate change impacts are already affecting people and the planet. And the science shows it will get far, far worse. The biggest impacts will be on the lives and livelihoods of the poor and developing countries, especially small island states. The biggest culprits are the rich and the developed countries. Progress has been made: we have international agreements; more resources for scientific research, leading to stronger evidence; some policy advances; a change in industry rhetoric; and a certain increase in public awareness. But all this falls far short of what is needed. At the heart of the problem is the production and use of fossil fuel – particularly the emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Developed countries have now accepted legally-binding emissions targets in the Kyoto Protocol, but these are widely recognised to be seriously inadequate, and the US has opted out. As Klaus Töpfer says, there are laws in place now that can address this. And over the last few years, many kinds of legal action have been taken around the world to enforce the law to combat climate change. A range of national and international legal theories have been invoked by dozens of different organisations, communities and individuals, such as human rights law, constitutional law, emission control regulation, endangered species protection, freedom of information and international legal obligations. Judgments and administrative decisions have begun to come through” The Climate Justice Programme seeks to encourage enforcement of the law to combat climate change and on this website we aim to provide information and materials on the legal actions we are aware of, and on other aspects of climate change law” [58].
Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice: “We are movements and organizations engaged in many struggles for a new world - a world in which the needs, interests, rights and aspirations of peoples everywhere have priority over the profit of corporations and the excess of elites. In the years ahead, our solidarity and collective action is extremely crucial. Climate change is already having devastating impacts globally and is accelerating. The window for preventing the breach of tipping points and stopping climate catastrophe is rapidly closing. Climate change is more than multiplying the sufferings of people already burdened by the global injustices of hunger, dispossession and violation of human rights. It is a crisis that also threatens to wipe out vast populations and profoundly change life on Earth. We must act with clarity, cohesion and courage if we are to stabilize the Earth’s climate system and secure a just and sustainable world” [59].
In addition, many prominent scientists, leaders and humanitarians subscribe to the concepts of mass mortality associated with climate change, “Climate Genocide” or “Climate Holocaust” e.g.
Professor Kevin Anderson (Deputy Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK),
Mohamed Aslam (Minister of Housing and Environment, Maldives),
Nnimmo Bassey (prominent Nigerian environmentalist and chair of Friends of the Earth International),
James Brown (ecologist, and a Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico) ,
Lester Russel Brown (US environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute),
Fidel Castro (a primary leader of the Cuban Revolution, Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959-1976, President of Cuba, 1976-2008),
Hugo Chávez (former president of Venezuela and the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution),
Paul Connor (Australian university student who fasted for 44 days as part of the international Climate Justice Fast for Copenhagen COP15 action),
Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping from Sudan was the lead negotiator for the G77 (Developing World) countries at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15)),
Paul Ehrlich (Bing Professor of Population Studies, President of the Center for Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Stanford University, and author with his wife Anne Ehrlich of “The Population Bomb” in 1968),
Dr Andrew Glikson is a paleo-climate and earth scientist at the Australian National University, ANU),
Ellen Goodman (a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, columnist and author of many books),
Clive Hamilton (Australian climate economist and Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) and the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University) ,
Mohammad Rakibul Hasan ( professional photographer, independent journalist, short film maker and cinematographer based in Bangladesh),
Adam Hashian (connected with Lucis Lumen that is dedicated to advancing innovative technology) ,
Robert Hunziker (a US writer),
Dr James Lovelock, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) is one of the UK’s and the World’s most eminent climate scientists. He is famous for his Gaia Hypothesis
Fouad Mohadji ( Vice President of the Comoros),
Evo Morales (leader of leader of the Bolivian political party called the Movement for Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo) and socialist President of Bolivia),
Cory Morningstar ( Canadian writer, climate activist and human rights activist),
Agodo Shabella Patience ( Ugandan Lawyer, founder and Executive Director of Green Teso Initiative, a climate change Advocacy NGO based in Eastern Uganda),
Dr Gideon Polya (biochemist, academic, writer, artist, and climate change activist and Convenor of 300.org that demands that we must return the world's atmospheric CO2 concentration to 300 ppm for a safe and sustainable planet),
Pope Francis (former Argentinian bishop and now head of the Catholic Church),
Dr Atiq Rahman (Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS)),
Patali Champika Ranawaka (Sri Lanka Minister of Environment and Natural Resources),
Javier Sethness (California-based educator and libertarian socialist),
Pablo Solón Romero ( Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations), and
Ines Weizman (editor, “Architecture and the Paradox of Dissidence”) [17].
4. Free speech & how climate criminal media, journalists and commentators should be punished for complicity in climate genocide.
In 2016 numerous climate activists signed the following letter to US Federal Attorney General Lynch demanding investigation of ExxonMobil for alleged fraudulent public deception over climate change: “Dear Attorney General Lynch, As leaders of some of the nation’s environmental, indigenous peoples and civil rights groups, we’re writing to ask that you initiate a federal probe into the conduct of ExxonMobil. New revelations in the Los Angeles Times and the Pulitzer-prize-winning InsideClimate News strongly suggest that the corporation knew about the dangers of climate change even as it funded efforts at climate denial and systematically misled the public. Given the damage that has already occurred from climate change—particularly in the poorest communities of our nation and our planet—and that will certainly occur going forward, these revelations should be viewed with the utmost apprehension. They are reminiscent—though potentially much greater in scale—than similar revelations about the tobacco industry. These journalists have provided a remarkable roadmap to this corporation’s potential misconduct. We would ask that you follow that map wherever it may lead, employing all the tools at your disposal to uncover the truth. Signed…”, the numerous climate activist signatories notably including May Boeve and Bill McKibben ( Founders of 350.org), RL Miller (President of Climate Hawks Vote), David Yarnold (President of the Audubon Society) and James Hansen (Director, Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program, Earth Institute, 100-Nobel-Laureate Columbia University) [60].
This proposal by a wide range of climate activists is strictly focussed on the legal obligation of corporations to tell the truth to its existing shareholders, its potential shareholders and its customers, and was supported by Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The American Green Party presidential candidate Dr Jill Stein went further and vowed to prosecute Exxon for its lying: “As President, I will crack down on corporate criminals like Exxon. Their fraud about climate change has contributed to the deaths of millions worldwide and has caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damages, with far worse to come. I would support putting the death penalty on the table for Exxon as a corporate entity… As President, I will use all available tools to take action to reduce climate change, regardless of Congressional gridlock. This will include both Executive Orders and litigation” [61].
However the actual or effective climate change denialist Republicans and Murdoch media empire hacks have obfuscated this as an attack on free speech. Thus according to Fox News (June, 2016): “The Democratic Party's draft platform calls for the Justice Department to join several state prosecutors in investigating whether fossil fuel companies misled the public on global warming -- marking an escalation in a controversial campaign that critics liken to censorship. As first reported by Inside Climate News, the committee drafting the party platform inserted the measure last Friday. The measure called on “the Department of Justice to investigate alleged corporate fraud on the part of fossil fuel companies who have reportedly misled shareholders and the public on the scientific reality of climate change," according to the committee website… Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have called for probes into Exxon over whether they misled the public on climate change” [62].
Politicians who actually physically act to prevent requisite climate change action are condemned by their deadly deeds and deserve life imprisonment with hard labour. However otherwise disempowered Mainstream journalist, politician and academic presstitutes who contribute to climate change inaction merely by expression of opinion should be protected not just by the First Amendment guarantee of free speech in the US but also in general by the crucial importance of free speech for science, scholarship, societal risk management and indeed democracy. Accordingly, Mainstream journalist, politician and academic presstitutes who contribute to climate change denial and climate change inaction by free speech should suffer no financial or custodial punishment for their egregious misdeeds. However they should be subject to a no-cost, expertly-informed, judicial process of truth assessment and be punished simply by the consequent ignominy of being exposed as purveyors of egregiously anti-social falsehood.
5. Final comments.
Already about 10 million people perish annually from climate change or air pollution from carbon fuel burning [63] and unaddressed climate change may see 100 million people perishing thus each year and 10 billion people dying thus this century [39, 41, 42].
Basically we know what the problem is - man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution - and how to solve it. Fundamentally, as enunciated by 300.org, we need to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration to about 300 ppm for a safe planet for all peoples and all species. To achieve 300 ppm CO2 and a safe planet for all peoples and all species we must achieve the following: (1) Change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying; (2) Urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists; and (3) Rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils or safe storage, coupled with correspondingly rapid divestment from fossil fuels, placing the full human and environmental price on carbon pollution, and rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth [64-69].
Unfortunately, due to the globally dominant, neoliberal, One Percenter climate criminals, requisite action is not being taken. A catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise is now unavoidable and the Paris ideal of no more than plus 1.5C will be exceeded in 4-10 years [39-42]. The unavoidability of the plus 2C upper target was apparent to scientifically trained people at the time of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. The most effective collective action now for decent Humanity to mitigate inescapable climate catastrophe is to resolutely promise that all climate criminals will be brought to account and suffer inescapable dispossession and custodial punishment. The worst corporate offenders are fossil fuel exploiting companies. The simplest way of identifying the “bad guys” by country is through national “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” taking livestock and land use into account [70], although a fairer estimate involves weighting “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” by “per capita income” , this revealing that the rich Anglosphere countries (Australia, Canada, the US, New Zealand , Ireland and the UK ) are among the worst polluters [71].
This pledge of retribution for climate criminals can be enunciated in all kinds of ways e.g. draconian retribution, draconian punishment and nowhere to hide for state and corporate polluters, climate criminals, carbon criminals, climate terrorists and carbon terrorists. This collective promise made now by resolute Humanity will not avert catastrophe but will encourage last ditch action and thus make a disastrous future “less bad” for future generations.
References.
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[2]. DARA, “Climate Vulnerability Monitor. A guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet”, 2012, Executive Summary pp2-3: http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerability-monitor/climate-vulnerability-monitor-2012/ .
[3]. DARA report quoted by Reuters, ”100 mln to die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate”, 28 September 2012: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/climate-inaction-idINDEE88P05P20120926 .
[4]. UN Population Division: http://esa.un.org/wpp/unpp/p2k0data.asp .
[5]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, that includes a history of every country from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ .
[6]. Rebecca Leber, “Obama is right: climate change kills more people than terrorism”, New Republic, 12 February 2015: https://newrepublic.com/article/121032/map-climate-change-kills-more-people-worldwide-terrorism .
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[8]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ [state and corporate complicity in worsening climate genocide and 7 million annual air pollution deaths from carbon fuel burning].
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[13]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .
[14]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ .
[15]. Gideon Polya,“Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .
[16]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
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[20]. Clive Hamilton, page 204, “The Four Degree World”, Chapter 7 in “Requiem for a Species. Why we resist the truth about climate change”, Allen & Unwin, 2010.
[21]. Harold Pinter, “Art, Truth And Politics”, Countercurrents, 8 December, 2005: https://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm .
[22].”American bombers deluge Budapest, in more ways than one”, This day in history, 2 July 1944: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/american-bombers-deluge-budapest-in-more-ways-than-one .
[23]. “Miklós Horthy”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikl%C3%B3s_Horthy .
[24].Gideon Polya, “UK Zionist Historian Sir Martin Gilbert (1936-2015) Variously Ignored Or Minimized WW2 Bengali Holocaust”, Countercurrents, 19 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190215.htm .
[24]. “Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”, Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .
[25]. Madhusree Muckerjee (2010), “Churchill's Secret War. The British Empire and the ravaging of India during World War II” (Basic Books, New York, 2010).
[26]. Gideon Polya (2008), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008 edition that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ .
[27]. “Thou shalt not kill children”: http://thoushaltnotkillchildren.blogspot.com.au/ .
[28]. Professor Sir Michael Marmot, “Fair Australia: Social Justice and the Health Gap”, ABC 2016 Boyer Lectures: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/boyerlectures/2016-boyer-lectures/7802472 .
[29]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[30]. Gideon Polya , “West Ignores 11 Million Muslim War Deaths & 23 Million Preventable American Deaths Since US Government's False-flag 9-11 Atrocity”, Countercurrents, 9 September, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090915.htm .
[31]. Gideon Polya, “American Holocaust, Millions Of Untimely American Deaths And $40 Trillion Cost Of Israel To Americans”, 27 August, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270813.htm .
[32]. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, “Manufacturing Consent”, Pantheon, New York, 2002.
[33]. Michel Chossudovsky, “Know the facts: North Korea lost closed to 30% of its population as a result of US bombings in the 1950s”, Global Research, 27 November 2010: http://www.globalresearch.ca/know-the-facts-north-korea-lost-close-to-30-of-its-population-as-a-result-of-us-bombings-in-the-1950s/22131 .
[34]. Edward Herman and David Peterson. The Politics of Genocide”, Monthly Review Press, New York, 2010.
[35]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “The Politics Of Genocide” By Edward Herman And David Peterson”, Countercurrents, 05 December, 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya051211.htm .
[36]. “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .
[38]. “Stop climate crime”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-climate-crime .
[39]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .
[40]. “Methane Bomb Threat”: https://sites.google.com/site/methanebombthreat/ .
[41]. “Nuclear weapons ban , end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .
[42]. "Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming .
[43]. "Climate Revolution Now": https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-revolution .
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[46]. Andrew Glikson, “The climate Titanic and the melting icebergs”, Countercurrents, 30 June 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/2016/06/30/the-climate-titanic-and-the-melting-icebergs/ .
[47]. James Hansen, “Twenty years later: tipping points near on global warming”, Huffington Post, 1 June 2008: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-james-hansen/twenty-years-later-tippin_b_108766.html .
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[51]. Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’”, Section 195, 2015: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html .
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[57].“Climate Genocide Act Now”, Facebook, 15 April 2016: https://www.facebook.com/ClimateGenocideAct/ .
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[61]. Jill Stein, “Stein: Exxon deserves the death penalty for climate change fraud”, Jill 2016, 26 October 2016: http://www.jill2016.com/stein_exxon_deserves_the_death_penalty_for_climate_change_fraud .
[62]. “Democratic draft platform seeks DOJ probe of fossil fuel companies”, FoxNews, 29 June 2016: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/06/29/democratic-draft-platform-seeks-doj-probe-fossil-fuel-companies.html .
[63]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[64]. “Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ .
[65]. “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .
[66]. “Divest from fossil fuels”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/divest-from-fossil-fuels .
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[68].300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .
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[70]. Gideon Polya, “Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .
[71]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm
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/ .