To misquote Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
“Water, water, every where,
Nor any… orange confetti to see!”
The Climate Crisis hits Europe
Leaving Coleridge’s sublime poetry aside, there was certainly no orange confetti on display in the recent floods which have hit – to mention but 2 places in Europe – the Midlands and Zaragosa (Spain). These floods – coming after recent ‘record-breaking’ heatwaves, prolonged droughts and crop failures in several places in Europe –
show that everyone (not just those in the Global South) is now on the Climate Crisis frontline.
The first week of July has provided plenty of evidence of that – at least for those “looking up.” For those who still doubt we’re heading towards a Climate-Breakdown precipice, here are some recent news reports to read – and some short videos to watch:
For the Midlands: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66146820
As a result of the floods in the Midlands, the ‘Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival’ at Moseley Hall had to be cancelled – along with Severn Trent’s ‘Big Boost for Brum’ jobs’ fair. And a word of warning: no orange confetti was involved!
For Spain: Here are some reports about the floods in Zaragosa:
Yet again – not a single petal of orange confetti on view!
Rightwing ‘snowflakes’?
Bizarrely—or maybe not!—many of the UK’s news media outlets seem to have been more concerned with covering the temporary ‘disruption’ caused by Just Stop Oil climate activists paying brief visits to sporting events than these climate news items. This is particularly true of rightwing ‘news’ outlets, in particular GB News, the mouthpiece for and promoter of ‘creeping fascism’. This organisation seemed to have been particularly outraged by one person throwing HEALTH ALERT: The rest of this sentence may cause distress! confetti at, shock horror, a wedding! And this wedding, we should remember, was of a man who was considerably responsible for imposing austerity, which, leaving aside foodbanks and rough sleeping, resulted in 120,000+ austerity-related deaths.
This may seem unlikely, but have their constant waging of a ‘Culture War’ – against the ‘evils’ of ‘wokism’ and leftwing ‘snowflakes’ – actually rubbed off on the right? Has even Farage become a rightwing ‘snowflake’, trembling at the ‘disruptive’ sight of confetti at a wedding? Or… was it all faux outrage, based on the principle of ‘throwing a dead cat on the table’, designed to distract us from the really serious disruption being caused by their capitalist mates?
Capitalism’s metabolic rift
Certainly, a lot of distraction is going to be increasingly needed, as the capitalist ‘System’ – in its relentless pursuit of short-term profits -drives the planet to irreversible tipping points in the Earth System. Apart from the risk of the current and undeniable Climate Crisis turning into Climate Breakdown, because of the global heating caused by CO2 emissions, there’s also growing evidence of a real Ecological Crisis. This is graphically shown by the chart below:
If those predictions by climate experts worry you – and, remember, previous climate predictions have proved to be too conservative! – please note that the worst-case scenario ‘only’ assumes an increase in the average global temperature of just over 3C.
Unfortunately, those who have been “looking up” for sometime will recall that, in 2017, the investment campaign group Share Action revealed that oil giants Shell and BP were assessing the ‘resilience’ of their businesses against climate models in which global temperatures hot up by between 3°C and 5°C by the middle of this century!
Be under no illusion: a temperature rise of 5°C would be catastrophic for the planet. For those not certain what a 5C hotter world would be like, here’s what Mark Lynas (Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency) outlined in 2020:
• Global food crisis
• Amazon rainforests collapse
• Much of China & India uninhabitable
• Mountain glaciers gone
• Mass wipe-out of life
• Humans reduced to polar refugees
But don’t panic: climate scientist Kevin Anderson (see below) is’ only’ warning that, by continuing on our current carbon path, the temperature rise by the end of this century could be as ‘low’ as 3-4°C! However, just in case you were wondering, there is no historical precedent – in human history – for an average global temperature 3-4C hotter than it already is!
For quite some time, it’s been clear that Marx’s judgement – that capitalism creates a fatal ‘metabolic rift’ between humans and the rest of the natural world – was spot-on. We all need to remember that we are part of, and depend on, that natural world.
While the ultimate solution to these dangers is a ‘System Change’ to ecosocialism, right now we need to push for bold and rapid policy changes – from governments and from COP28.
One way to build the movement needed to force those changes is to help build the international campaign to plan a series of climate actions in September, just before COP28:
https://fightfossilfuels.net/press-release
Art (45) Book Review (98) Books (106) Capitalism (63) China (71) Climate Emergency (97) Conservative Government (88) Conservative Party (42) COVID-19 (42) Economics (36) EcoSocialism (43) Elections (62) Fascism (51) Film (46) Film Review (58) France (54) Gaza (49) Imperialism (95) Israel (93) Italy (39) Keir Starmer (42) Labour Party (97) Long Read (38) Marxism (44) Marxist Theory (31) Palestine (118) pandemic (76) Protest (132) Russia (320) Solidarity (122) Statement (39) Trade Unionism (128) Ukraine (320) United States of America (112) War (342)
Latest Articles
- ‘The scenes of the Nakba are repeating’: Rafah in panic as Israeli invasion beginsWith Israeli forces entering Gaza’s southernmost city, Palestinians describe their hardships and fears in the Strip’s last vanishing refuge. By Ruwaida Kamal Amer and Mahmoud Mushtaha
- Political repression backfires, and pro‑Palestinian campus protests grow across the U.S.In this article, Sharon Smith argues that the recent crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. colleges and universities has backfired, leading to a growing anti-imperialist movement on campuses not seen in decades.
- No Borders, no nations, no deportationsTerry Conway urges activists to unite in mass action and solidarity to protect asylum seekers fleeing the destruction of capitalism, in the face of the British government’s escalating cruelty towards them.
- From civil war to active support for Gaza in YemenSince 7 October, Yemen’s Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks in the Red Sea against ships believed to be linked to Israel. Thus, on 19 November, they seized a merchant ship belonging to an Israeli businessman, the “Galaxy Leader,” with its 25 crew members. By Édouard Soulier.
- UK University Campuses Erupt in Pro‑Palestine ProtestsIn a wave of pro-Palestine activism, students at numerous UK universities have established encampments on their campuses since late April, demanding divestment from companies involved in human rights violations and sparking debates about free speech and the right to protest. Anti*Capitalist Resistance reports.