Temperatures rise and science helps industry and ecology

This small collection of articles on the patterns of discussion about climate change raises questions about capitalists who knew and did not act and ecosocialists who aim high for social and economic justice yet have difficulty engaging the people who they claim will most benefit from their approach.

Mitigate coastal erosion

This seemingly stalling initiatives are set against a background of temperature evidence that is not cool.

https://www.this-is-italy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Europe-Temperatues-map.jpg

The CBC Day 6 interview of Nathaniel Rich, who wrote a New York Times Magazine cover story, "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change." The article traces the efforts of scientists and politicians to tackle climate change between 1979 and 1989. The work of Humble Oil and Exxon scientists was in recognition that there's going to be policy coming down the line on this, and if the oil industry is going to be part of that conversation, it needs to have a strong understanding of the science.

They had a whole carbon dioxide program, as did the American Petroleum Institute, in the early 'Eighties. By 1984, you have the head of Exxon's research division sponsoring a symposium held by James Hansen, the NASA scientist, and he's talking about how Exxon is going... away from fossil fuels to renewable energy and how Exxon has all of these programs set up to do that. They dropped that shortly thereafter. And when they take it up again in '88, there's sort of different people involved. It's more of the business side that starts to get involved and they begin to formulate what will ultimately become a much vaster effort to propagate this denialism campaign.

The Magical Earth web site has collected data that shows the highest officially (not anecdotally) recorded temperature in all European countries.

The highest officially recorded temperature in the world is 56.7 °C (134.1 °F), which occurred on 10 July 1913 in Furnace Creek, California, USA. Other continents also have some really hot places: 55.0 °C in Africa (Tunisia), 53–54 °C in Asia, 50.7 °C in Australia, and 48.9 °C in South America (Argentina). In comparison, the climate in Europe is fairly mild. The highest temperature was recorded in Athens, Greece, on 10 July 1977, with a measly 48.0 °C. This European map below shows the highest officially (not anecdotally) recorded temperature in all European countries…

System Change not Climate Change, an anti-capitalist, ecosocialist network advocates for workers’ power and sustainability; for a society that is free, just, and equitable; that fosters human creativity and productivity while healing the rifts generated by capitalism among people and between human society and the earth’s ecology. The battle against climate change may need a new system to redistribute wealth.

In order to address the environmental crisis, workers will need to create a new system that redistributes wealth and restructure the economy so it prioritizes people and the planet over profit. The scale of this task is such that workers will need to socialize the energy sector and expand renewable energy, expand mass transit, plan production and agriculture within ecological cycles, reduce the workweek with no loss in pay, and defund the US military and much more.

Neither the neo-liberalism that has dominated our economy in the 21st century nor the ideas of socialism from the 19th century seem to fit a problem of raising money to mitigate the effects of the floods, storms, fires, and coastal erosion that comes with rising temperature.

Global News on extreme weather August 2018

Action will need to be based on science, known to industry and independent ecologists, and political cooperation that puts the planet before populism.

References
(2018, August 10). 'Losing Earth': Do we have a collective moral responsibility to fight .... Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-402-saudi-trolls-vs-canada-alex-jones-s-precarious-empire-losing-earth-pampered-poultry-and-more-1.4777781/losing-earth-do-we-have-a-collective-moral-responsibility-to-fight-climate-change-1.4777798

(2018, August 4). The Highest heatwave Temperatures in Europe (map) | This is Italy. Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.this-is-italy.com/the-highest-heatwave-temperatures-in-europe-map/

(n.d.). Working-class power | System Change Not Climate Change. Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://systemchangenotclimatechange.org/workingclass