johnadams.org.uk

As part of our Climate Change Week at work, I watched An Inconvenient Truth, a film that follows Al Gore as he delivers his lecture about climate change around the world.

This mashup from Malcolm Daniel is a great 4-minute summary of the film:

Two things particularly struck me:

Firstly, Gore presents evidence from Antarctic ice cores, showing the atmospheric CO₂ levels over the last 650,000 years. Recently, certain climate-change sceptics have tried to throw doubt on the nature of the human-induced global warming by citing cyclical events through the Pleistocene glaciation. This graph indeed shows such cyclical events with glaciations interspersed with interglacials.

See also 600,000 year graph.

However, look at present-day CO₂ levels, at 380ppm, much higher than the historical maxima of around 280-290ppm. We are not in a cyclical interglacial, but in completely new territory.

The second thing that struck me was the fact that we have the technology, right now, to solve the problem (or at least to mitigate the worst effects). We don’t need mirrors in the sky, we need simple measures, but taken by everyone. These include energy-efficient appliances, industry and transport; renewables; and even carbon sequestration. With these, we can reduce our CO₂ emissions to 1970 levels!

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists have moved their Doomsday Clock from 7 minutes to midnight to 5 minutes to midnight. The clock conveys how close the scientists believe that humanity is to catastrophic destruction by various means - nuclear weapons, human-induced climate change, developments in the life sciences.

The change of the clock from 7 to 5 minutes reflects increased nuclear proliferation (North Korea, Iran) but also the increased risk from catastrophic climate change.

Previous lows were in 1953 (2 minutes) during the start of the Cold War atomic weapons race and in 1984 (3 minutes) during Reagan’s term in office.

The highest ever was 17 minutes in 1991, just after the signing of the SALT treaty (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) at the end of the Cold War. Proliferation since then has led to a steady decline in the time.

In the words of Private Fraser from Dad’s Army:

“We’re dooomed”

Bono was the keynote speaker at the USA 54th National Prayer Breakfast this morning. (A very strange event indeed, particularly to Europeans who think that the US has a separate church and state.)

Bono said some challenging and inspiring things:

On faith:

…religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land… and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash… in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment…

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

On justice:

And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice.

Let me repeat that: It’s not about charity, it’s about justice.

And that’s too bad.

Because you’re good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can’t afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

6,500 Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drugstore. This is not about charity, this is about Justice and Equality.

And he challenged the US to increase aid to 1% of national income:

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing…. Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional one percent of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is one percent?

One percent is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

One percent is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. One percent is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. One percent is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. One percent is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This one percent is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

One percent is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism towards Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away
from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

Read his full remarks. Inspiring.

A few interesting online articles today, expressing hope that 2005 will be the year when the world moves closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals:

• Bono and Bill Gates(!!) argue for a better deal for the poor of the world.
• Gordon Brown argues for a new Marshall Plan for Africa.

30,000 people die every day, just because they are poor. That means the equivalent of an Asian Tsunami disaster every five days.

It is possible to get involved: visit makepovertyhistory.org to find out how…