The latest news from scientists monitoring the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the global atmosphere shows that 2011 marked yet another increase pushing the global climate ever closer to a potentially catastrophic shift in weather patterns.
According to the United Nations World Meteorological Organization the concentrations of the primary gas, carbon dioxide, has now reached 390.9 parts per million, a 140 percent increase over the pre-industrial standard of 280 ppm, with concentrations growing at 2 ppm per year.
Scientists agree that concentrations at this level are contributing to noticeable changes in weather patterns. This year saw a record heat wave in the U.S. in which temperatures reached 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Nebraska; an expanding drought that has engulfed 60 percent of the mainland U.S. severely damaging grain production; and monster hurricane Sandy which caused huge damages and extensive loss of life.
The WHO report was echoed by the European Environment Agency which reported that the last decade was the warmest on record in Europe, which suffered its own severe heat waves, droughts and floods, causing extensive loss of life—over 30,000 Europeans died in a 2003 heat wave, as well as crop damage and record low water flows in the Danube and Rhine rivers.
Gro Brundtland, the leader of the Brundtland Commission, which in 1972 initiated the call for action on global climate change, recently warned, “We can no longer assume that our collective actions will not trigger tipping points, as environmental thresholds are breached, risking irreversible damage to both ecosystems and human communities.”
The probability of reaching these “tipping points”, which have long been known to scientists but are rarely discussed in public, are increasing as global concentrations of greenhouse gases increase, which are projected to cause catastrophic changes in the global climate system unless immediate steps are taken to reign in global emissions.
These latest reports confirm what many climate activists have feared as their attempts at pressuring capitalist dominated governments and international organizations have led to no meaningful change. Rather than addressing the threats posed by rising greenhouse gases, these same capitalist governments are shamelessly attempting to profit from the crisis by generating carbon trading markets and jockeying for oil and mineral extraction rights in an increasingly ice-free Arctic.
After the failure of the June Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to articulate any meaningful action on climate change policies, it should be clear that nothing can or will be done without changing the political and economic system that created the crisis. As Executive Director Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace International declared following Rio +20, “We didn’t get the Future we Want [the ‘Future we Want’ was the theme of the Conference] in Rio, because we do not have the leaders we need. The leaders of the most powerful countries supported Business as Usual, shamefully putting private profit ahead of people and the planet.
“The ‘Future we Want’ was never going to be decided in Rio. It is being decided, each and every day in capitols and boardrooms around the world. That is where we need to turn our attention. Rio+20 was a failure of epic proportions, we must now work together to form a movement to tackle the inequity, ecological and economic crises being forced on our children. The only outcome of this Summit is justifiable anger, an anger that we must turn into action.”
