Writing in March this year the leading climate scientist Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research stated ”to not exceed 1.5°C of warming requires 11% year-on-year cuts in emissions, falling to nearer 5% for 2°C. However, these global average rates ignore the core concept of equity, central to all UN climate negotiations, which gives “developing country parties” slightly more time to decarbonise. Include equity and most “developed” nations need to reach zero CO2 emissions between 2030 and 2035, with developing nations following suit up to a decade later. Any delay will shrink these timelines still further. What we witnessed at COP28 was another COP-OUT. Within our own media coverage we witnessed a spat between one of the so called elders and the chief trailblazer for the fossil fuel industry. No one mentioned the massive elephant in the room. The world’s media simply forgot to mention – The Military Industrial Complex. It is as if it doesn’t matter and yet we are drowning in the wastes it produces and wanton death it causes.
What this writer is witnessing is the time-honoured fashion of a conformity with the capitalist system. Keeping their systems in place while at the same time limiting any real growth in most of the world. The vast majority of attendees at COP are the mainstream moderate environmentalists, particularly those from the wealthier countries. They believe that a reformed capitalism can solve the problem. Recently, I read the lyrics of that all so apt song from Louise Harris “ We tried.” In it, she sings “The world Is changing all the time and you know it ain’t right.” Later, she laments “But I can’t work out Why? So take Me where the bluebirds sing while we lose everything. There’s too much poisoning, fly me where the birds still fly ‘Cause smoke fills up our sky ‘Cause we ran out of time. Oh well. We TRIED” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2XV20G85Tg
This writer doesn’t want to say that we tried. I want a revolution and by that I mean a change of the basics of society. It may frighten people, but it will at least warn them that there is something to be frightened about. Let 2024 be a clarion call for Revolutionaries across the globe to blow smoke up the arses of the capitalist system. Let’s do it for us all, Rally Comrades, and create a new system for which we can enjoy before it is too late. I plead, I beg, let’s do it, let’s do it for those that come next. Don’t sit on your chair being a keyboard warrior.
Paul Doran Dublin
