As the climate change summit meeting moves forward in Copenhagen, it is increasingly clear that more than just the environment is at stake. The global environmental crisis is at the heart of practically all the problems now confronting us, including the need to create a global economic model grounded in the public good.
It is directly linked to security issues and to increasingly dangerous ethnic and international conflicts; to mass migrations and displacements of people, which are already destabilizing politics and economics; to growing poverty and social inequality; to the water crisis and energy and food shortages.
Excuses and pretexts for not taking action on the environment, and assertions that there are more important problems, are simply no longer credible. If we fail on this problem, we’ll fail on all the others.
That’s Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, is founding president of Green Cross International and head of the Climate Change Task Force (CCTF), in the NYTimes.com. Here’s more:
Saving our planet should be a task shared by governments, the business and scientific communities, and civil society. Each stakeholder in this noble cause has a role to play. The main burden of responsibility, however, lies with governments and their institutions.
Governments can set firm standards and norms that are indispensable to fighting climate change. Only the state is capable of mobilizing the resources and incentives to implement cutting-edge technologies. Only the state can help those who are the most vulnerable to climate change…..
The latest scientific research on climate change is extremely disturbing. We have a real emergency. Yet the gap between science and policy keeps widening, as does the gap between the negotiations and the urgency of the issue.
Science indicates that the global temperature increase should be limited to 1 or 2 degrees Celsius. World leaders endorsed this view at the G-8 meeting in Italy in July. Even with that limit, major destruction, including the disappearance of most of the world’s coral reefs, is likely.
Yet policy compromises agreed to by negotiators involved in the Copenhagen talks virtually guarantee a temperature increase of around 4 degrees Celsius — well into the catastrophic risk range.
Why is this happening? For several reasons, including the inertia of the existing economic model, one based on hyperprofits and excessive consumption; political and business leaders’ failure to think long term; and concern that reducing carbon emissions will undercut economic growth. Those who don’t want any change are exploiting that concern.
As the global financial crisis has made abundantly clear, efforts to make the world sustainable for present and future generations do not undermine the economy. The culprit is something quite different: reckless pursuit of profit at any price, blind faith in the “invisible hand of the market,” and government inaction.
What’s needed is a search for new engines of growth and incentives to economic development. Transitioning to a low-carbon, low-waste economy will create qualitatively new, green industries, technologies and jobs.
A low-carbon economy is just part of a new economic model, one the world needs as badly as the air we breathe.
Overnight changes to the economic model that has prevailed for a half century are not realistic. The transition to a new model requires a shift in values.
The global economy must be reoriented toward the public good. It must emphasize issues like a sustainable environment, healthcare, education, culture, equal opportunities and social cohesion — including reducing the glaring gaps between wealth and poverty.
Society needs this, and not just as a moral imperative. The economic efficiency of emphasizing the public good is enormous, even though economists have not yet learned how to measure it. We need an intellectual breakthrough if we are to build a new economic model.
We also need a moral realignment of the business community. Companies and their C.E.O.s tend to define their positions on environmental issues according to the short-term or at best medium-term bottom line. Socially and environmentally responsible business is still the exception rather than the rule. Change is needed in the entire system of taxes, subsidies and incentives.
Civil society must also play a larger role. It must become not just a stakeholder but a full participant in making decisions that will shape the environment and the economy for decades to come.
In Copenhagen, we will closely watch the political leaders. More than 60 heads of state will take a personal leadership test there. We have seen how easy it would be to fail. The weeks and months ahead offer them a chance to show that they can truly lead.
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Any bets on how long till the “AGW = commie conspiracy” comments start, notwithstanding that this mas was the one who ended Soviet commmunism?
Deutsche Welle , Germany’s international radio voice, recently carried some interviews intended to cast some light on the Russian understanding of climate change which are available on the podcast “In Russian Arctic, global warming threatens traditional way of life”, subtitled “Russian scientists have doubts…”
quotes:
Pavel Makarevich, a biologist studying the Arctic at the Marine Biological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “What we are dealing with is not a global warming of the atmosphere or of the oceans.”
Deutsche Welle author Koerkamp: “This view appears to have the support of a growing number of Russian scientists. Some even predict a temporary cooling of temperatures towards the middle of this century, a phenomenon known as a “Little Ice Age.”
Long time member of Russia’s Northern Fleet, Nikolai Babich, who claims no one has studied the Arctic in the detail he has: “The natural processes we have seen during the past decade are mainly the result of the sun’s activity. They show a slight increase in temperature, and as a result, Arctic ice has receded.”
Babich: “The Arctic is already cooling, not warming.”
The Deutsche Welle report concluded: “And the Russian government is attentively listening to those scientists who, like Babich, are predicting a cold spell.”
The Deutsche Welle report concluded: “And the Russian government is attentively listening to those scientists who, like Babich, are predicting a cold spell.”
This does not surprise me, since Russia’s new-found prosperity rests largely on exploitation of its fossil-fuel resources.
This article is dead on. The U.S. and other developed countries need to take the reigns and build the new green economy. We are seeing some of the worst financial stress since the great depression which leaves us with an opportunity to redesign the economic landscape in way that is sustainable for both our wallets and the world. There are already tons of companies who are embracing this model. The website http://www.greencollareconomy.com, for instance, has a directory of thousands of companies who are using collaborative methods to creating green products and services while also creating jobs. The environmental movement is not some leftist talking point- it is an opportunity that the U.S. needs to embrace if it wants to continue as a global economic and political leader. I encourage readers to visit http://www.greencollareconomy.com and learn more about how green is good for business.
Gorbachev we want you back!
You shold be president of the NEW Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic (Russian SFSR)!
Down with Vladimir Putin!
…or as someones call he, Ras-Putin(after the evil Tsarist adviser Rasputin) or Tsar-Putin…
NOTE 1: USSR was a federation of the Russian SFSR + all the other 14 Soviet Socialist Republics-SSRs (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakstan were the biggest)
NOTE 2: I greatly admire Gorbachev. He was a true, sincere Socialist, and as such, he realized that Stalinism was a dead end, that tranformed any hint of Socialism gained after the 1917 Revolution into an avid State-Capitalistic system , were worker’s conditions were far worse than in Western Capitalist countries.
But before any improvement, he must defeat the Burocrats that has established themselves as the dominant class during more than 50 years of Stalinism. That class was a sort of an “Aristocratic Burguoesie”, called despectively the “Nomenklatura” that flourished under the tiranny of Stalin and consolidated after his death(someone has compared Stalin to the Tsar Peter the Great and this class to his Court Aristocrats). That class were “Communist” Party cadres(note the quotes around “communist”), State high funcionaries, Military officers and KGB members(Putin was one time the chief of KGB, so he behaves as a tipical Nomenklatura guy).
These people lived surrounded by luxury and millionary State subsidies, while common people, i.e, workers, made long files for a piece of bread.
But it was a task two big for a single man(think how Obama is fighting now the Republicans, now imagine Obama treating to bring down them after a 50-year-uninterrupted Absolute Republican Power). As it wasn’t enought, there were the Western Countries that wanted to destroy the USSR (actually a new Reformed USSR would be the US worst nighmare, as it will regain the Revolutionary Force that was suppressed by decades of Stalinist rule).
So in 1991, the Nomenklatura planned a coup to Gorbachev. It nearly succeed, but the Russian SFSR President, Borin Yelstin, stopped the coup by a massive People’s movilization. Gorbachev was restored in office, but Yelstin had other plans. He betrayed Gorbachev, declaring the Russian “independence” from the USSR. With this act, he de-facto dissolved the Soviet Union. Gorbachev, now President of a phantom state, resigned from CPSU and USSR Presidency.
Yeltin inmediately announced the dissolution of the USSR, outlawed the CPSU and replaced the Red Flag with the Old Tsarist Flag. In the following years, all was privatized to … guess who!
The Old Nomenklatura members, that straightforwardly morphed from “communist” funtionaries to Big-Business Oligarchs. Russian economy collapsed and the Mafia flourished under the weak Yelstin rule. Finally, a Big One of those Oligarchs(think of him as the Biggest Shark) become president … Vladimir Putin.
NOTE 3: USSR COLLAPSE WAS ALSO A MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER.
Soviet Agricole farms, or Kolchoz, were dissolved and peasants left alone in the middle of the soil. So those peasants, abandoned by the new Russian State, returned to the old “burn-and -crop” system.
Since 1992, every spring thousands of hectares of pastures are burned to fertilize the soil before the growing crop season. So hundred of tons of Black Carbon(BC) and Organic Carbon(OC) are sent to the air. Then winds send that huge plumes of DARK Smoke across thousands of kilometers, reaching the Arctic were form a thick “Arctic Haze” that strongly warms the air.
JR et al., if you look at Arctic Temperature Anomaly timeseries, you see two “turning points”
1)mid-1970s: Western European countries began reducing its SO2 emissions. The trend of cooling(-0,7°C between 1945 and 1975)then reversed, as the SULFATE content of the Arctic Haze dropped.
2)Early 1009s: USSR COLLAPSED. Huge plumes of BLACK CARBON filled the Arctic Skyes, so the Arctic Haze became a BC+OC one. THEN THE WARMING TREND SKY-ROCKETED … until now we are at nearly ICE FREE SUMMERS, as more than 70% of Summer Sea Ice is ALREADY GONE.
Gorbachev, the world had really a very big loss when you were overtrown!
GO BACK, RUSSIA AND THE WORLD NEED YOU, AGAIN!
Correction:
I said: “2)Early 1009s: USSR COLLAPSED.”
I want to say: “2)Early 1990s: USSR COLLAPSED.”
Gorbachev should have stated that a few top dogs, across the world, have been planning the “Climate Disaster” and other events since 1942 in order to estabalish a world government. They have exploited not only people and resources, but they have also made fortunes (and will make more) when the world’s wealth is in the hands of a few. To understand how they have manipulated everyone, every country, every politician, every institution, every industry, every sector and so on, examine who controls the banking system. For example, right now
Who Controls World Banking?
Mervyn King(Jewish) – Governor, Bank of England
Jean-Pierre Roth(Jewish) – Chairman, Governing Board, Swiss National Bank
Jean-Claude Trichet(Jewish) – President, European Central Bank
Mark Carney(Jewish) – Governor, Bank of Canada
Benjamin Bernanke(Jewish) – Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Donald Kohn(Jewish) – Vice Chairman, Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System
Robert B. Zoellick(Jewish) – President, The World Bank
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (Jewish) – Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
John Lipsky(Jewish) – First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
It’s over. Nothing’s going to help. The perenial Arctic sea ice is so thin you can’t even walk on it. The whole thing broke up into pieces as research scientists started to descend on it. The old, multi-year ice which was so thick and resistant to melt is gone. Any new snow that falls this winter will have nothing to build on. No summer sea ice= the winter Arctic sea ice will disappear soon afterwards. It’s over. They won. The world lost.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FORMER STALINIST
Please share this link with those who might be interested.
http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/mybook2.html
P.S. The book is waiting for a reviewer