Critique Of CEDA’s  “Economics Of Climate Change” – Neoliberalism Dooms Planet

Global-Warming

The highly influential but neoliberal Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) has published a detailed analysis entitled The Economics of Climate Change. However this report ignores a veritable Herd of Elephants in the Room apparent to science-informed climate change analysts, ignores the acute, existential  seriousness of the worsening climate emergency, and absurdly argues for effective Business As Usual (BAU) now to enable  a better  positioning for climate mitigation or climate adaptation in the future.

To get to the essence of the matter, the Executive Summary of the CEDA Report concludes: “The changes necessary to avert climate change will be difficult and expensive, but particularly so for Australia which is a relatively unusual industrialised energy exporter. If Australia is to make the necessary adjustments, and preserve the wellbeing of its citizens, it needs to spend its national resources effectively… To maximise the value of Australia’s option portfolio, the Emissions Reduction Fund should focus on energy efficiency improvements, given their relative cost to deliver emission reductions, to meet Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets while also using the insights of the options analysis to spend funds on means to maximise emissions reductions over the longer term…  This approach would not be technologically neutral. Instead it would focus on trying to capture as much of the potential positive NPV [Net Present Value] of each low greenhouse gas emission technology. While this may result in greenhouse gas emissions being marginally higher in the short term, Australia would be spending funds to maximise their long-term reduction” [1, 2].

This considered position of the CEDA Report – “greenhouse gas emissions [GHG] being marginally higher in the short term, [so] Australia would be spending funds to maximise their long-term reduction” is similar to  the position of controversial Danish mathematician Bjorn Lomborg (adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School,  President of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and author of  “The Skeptical Environmentalist”) , who  argues for adaptation to short-term temperature rises, against cutting  carbon emissions in the short-term, and for favouring  spending money from the  current Carbon Economy on research and development for longer-term environmental solutions [3, 4]. Lomborg’s thesis is rejected by climate scientists  and biologists who are alarmed by the worsening climate emergency, and academic outrage forced the Australian Federal Government under newly installed PM  Malcolm Turnbull to withdraw the offer by his formerly climate change denialist  predecessor PM Tony “climate change is crap” Abbott of a $4 million Federal Government subsidy to establish a university-based research centre headed by Lomborg [5].

The Lomborg and CEDA position of delaying serious climate action is incorrect and dangerously so (if not for rich Europeans). Thus the 2010 Open Letter signed by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel Laureates, stated: “Delay is not an option” [6]. The Synthesis Report of the March 2009 Copenhagen Scientific Climate Change Conference (2,500 delegates) stated  : “Inaction is inexcusable”. [7].

In short, an estimated 0.4 million people die annually from climate change [8, 9],   man-made climate change negatively impacts the 17 million people who die avoidably from deprivation each year [10], and  7 million people die annually from air pollution (mostly from carbon fuel burning) , this including10,000 Australians and 75,000 people who die globally each year from the  pollutants from the burning  of Australia’s  world-leading coal exports [11].  The global political consensus at the Paris Climate Change Conference was for  avoiding a catastrophic plus 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise (relative to 1900) and possibly even a plus 1.5C temperature rise – yet a catastrophic plus 2C is now essentially unavoidable [12-14] and in February 2016 the world average surface temperature rose to plus 1.4C (relative to 1900) , noting that another plus 0.5C is implicit in the over 90% of the extra heat that has gone into the oceans [16]. Thus, for example, Professor Michael Mann (Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University): “Adding the figures together, we can estimate February 2016 as being around 1.95°C warmer than the 1750 pre-industrial level for the northern hemisphere, and 1.65°C warmer than the beginning of the twentieth century for the planet as a whole. It emphasises the point I have made previously that we have no carbon budget left for the 1.5°C target and the opportunity for holding to 2°C is rapidly fading unless the world starts cutting emissions hard right now” [17]. Dr Stefan Rahmstorf, from Germany’s Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research commented: “We are in a kind of climate emergency now” [17]. Arctic summer sea ice may disappear in several years [18] and the catastrophic melting  of the West Antarctic  Ice Shelf is apparently irreversible on a century  time frame [13, 15]. The predicted  release  of  9 billion tonnes  of methane (CH4) from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf in coming decades is equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes  CO2-equivalent/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-e or about nine (9) times more than the world’s terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution budget that cannot be exceeded if we are to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise [13, 15]. The worsening Climate Genocide is estimated to kill 10 billion people this century if man-made climate change is not requisitely  addressed [19].

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in its own words “is a respected independent national organisation with an engaged cross-sector membership. For more than 50 years, CEDA has been delivering leading thinking, informed discourse and rigorous research on the issues that matter. Currently, 700 of Australia’s leading businesses, organisations and academic institutions from around the country work with CEDA” [2]. One cannot doubt that CEDA is a very influential with the right-wing, corporatist, neoliberal  Establishment running Australia.

CEDA has 4 eminent patrons from the business world  (they have all been awarded the  prestigious AC, or Companion of the Order of Australia for “Eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large” [2]. However it should be noted in the present context that one of these patrons, Maurice Newman AC, former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Council, the ABC (Australia’s equivalent to the UK  BBC) and the Australian Stock Exchange, and former Chancellor of Macquarie University (Sydney), has made extraordinary climate change denialist claims that have been publicly refuted by the  Australian Bureau of Meteorology at a Senate hearing [20].

CEDA’s Board of Governors includes 31 eminent Australians including  several scientists ( I have published a scientific paper with one of them) , a former state premier, several former prime  ministers, a Nobel Laureate medical scientist, numerous academics and many corporate leaders. However this eminent group and indeed the “700 of Australia’s leading businesses, organisations and academic institutions from around the country work[ing] with CEDA” are soiled by the presence on the Board of Governors of former Liberal Party-National Party Coalition Prime Minister John Howard [2] who remains unrepentant  for leading Australia into the illegal and war criminal invasion of Iraq that was based on false claims and was associated with 2.7 million Iraqi deaths  from violence (1.5 million)  or from war-imposed deprivation (1.2 million), 5-6 million refugees, 0.8 million under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to gross US Alliance and Australian violation of the Geneva Convention) , and the generation of ISIS in Iraq [21, 22]. Indeed in 2004 John Valder, former president of the Australian Liberal Party, demanded that Liberal PM John Howard be tried and punished for war crimes [23].

CEDA’s Board of Directors has 13 variously eminent “business and policy leaders” and provides “strategic advice”. The CEDA Council on Economic Policy has 28 variously eminent members, “comprising some of Australia’s best and brightest policy minds, [and] guides CEDA’s research agenda” according to CEDA. Indeed I have personally met and variously had dealings with a number of people from CEDA’s Boards or leadership group.  However on my count CEDA’s Boards contain only 3 scientists  (a plant molecular biologist, a Nobel Prize-winning medical  scientist and a physicist business leader who are members of the Board of Governors) and zero (0) climate scientists or ecologists. Yet the world economy is science-based and the world is facing a worsening climate emergency that threatens the very existence of much of Humanity and the Biosphere. Indeed, rhetoric aside,  the politician members of the CEDA Board of Governors – whether a PM, state premier, state or federal MP or Minister – have been  effective climate change denialist  through climate change inaction when they were in power in fossil fuel-based, climate criminal Australia.

Neoliberalism and capitalism have failed as most cogently exampled by effective climate change denialist  climate change inaction that led eminent climate economist  Professor Lord Nicholas Stern to critically observe a decade ago that “The science tells us that GHG emissions are an externality; in other words, our emissions affect the lives of others. When people do not pay for the consequences of their actions we have market failure. This is the greatest market failure the world has seen” [24]. Moral leader and scientifically-trained  Pope Francis in his 2016 encyclical “Laudatus si’” has similarly  declared:   ““Once more, we need to reject a magical conception of the market, which would suggest that problems can be solved simply by an increase in the profits of companies or individuals. Is it realistic to hope that those who are obsessed with maximising profits will stop to reflect on the environmental damage which they will leave behind for future generations? Where profits alone count, there can be no thinking about the rhythms of nature, its phases of decay and regeneration, or the complexity of ecosystems which may be gravely upset by human intervention. The strategy of buying and selling “carbon credits” can lead to a new form of speculation, which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors… The principle of the maximization of profits, frequently isolated from other considerations, reflects a misunderstanding of the very concept of the economy. As long as production is increased, little concern is given to whether it is at the cost of future resources or the health of the environment; as long as the clearing of a forest increases production, no one calculates the losses entailed in the desertification of the land, the harm done to biodiversity, or the increased pollution. In a word, businesses profit by calculating and paying only a fraction of the costs involved. ‘Yet only when the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations,’ [Benedict XVI] can those actions be considered ethical” [25-27].

Fundamentally, the CEDA report “Economics of climate change” suffers from ignoring key matters germane to the topic. In any public debate ignoring key matters is far, far worse than making incorrect or arguable assertions because the latter at least permit the possibility  of refutation and public discussion.

Accordingly  I have succinctly set out below numerous Elephant in the Room  matters essentially ignored by the CEDA report – the headlines below include many key binomial terms that are utterly ignored by the neoliberal, corporatist CEDA Report.

Neoliberalism, Social Humanism (Socialism, Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Welfare State. Fundamental to any economic analysis is the economic model used. The CEDA Report opts for Neoliberalism but greed-driven Neoliberalism, currently the dominant economic philosophy globally,  has driven Humanity to the edge – a catastrophic 2 degree Centigrade  temperature  rise is now essentially inevitable, 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year, 7 million people die annually from air pollution, and as many as 10 billion people will die this century if man-made climate change is not requisitely addressed. We can only save Humanity and the Biosphere through implacable zero tolerance  for deadly Neoliberalism and remorseless neoliberals. Neoliberalism seeks to maximize the freedom of the smart and advantaged to exploit the human and natural resources of the world to maximize private profit, with an utterly dishonest claim of  “trickle down” benefits for the less smart and less advantaged. In contrast, Social Humanism (aka Socialism, Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, the Welfare State) involves sustainably maximizing human happiness, opportunity and dignity through evolving national and international social contracts for the betterment of all people and the irreplaceable Biosphere (biodiversity) on which they depend [28, 29]. Indeed neoliberalism kills – thus each year 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease on Spaceship Earth with inhumane and remorselessly greedy First World One Percenter neoliberals in charge of the flight deck [10, 30]. However,  even in the rich Anglosphere countries of  Australia, Canada, UK  and the US where avoidable death (avoidable mortality, excess death, excess mortality) on a global comparative scale is almost zero, one can identify hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths annually from major killers such as  such as adverse hospital outcomes, smoking, obesity, air pollution and alcohol down to relatively minor killers such as homicide and illicit drugs (and the vanishingly tiny terrorism-related deaths). Annual preventable deaths from such causes  in Australia, Canada, the UK and  the US  total , 85,000, 100,000, 150,000 and 1.7 million, respectively  [30-35].

Climate Economics, Climate Economists, Polluter-Pays Principle .   The economic stance of Climate  Economists will depend upon the moral stance  adopted, whether greed-driven, laissez faire, freedom-to-pollute-for-free Neoliberalism and Corporatism on the one hand or the Polluter-pays Principle adopted by climate economist Sir Nicholas Stern (former World Bank Chief Economist) [24], science-trained Pope Francis [25-27] or leading climate scientist  Professor James Hansen [36] of NASA and 85-Nobel-Laureate MIT .  The BAU policies advocated by Bjorn Lomborg and the CEDA Report  would only envisage a “tinkering at the edges” Polluter-Pays that does not interfere with economic growth  via the Neoliberal model whereas, as stated by Pope Francis,  the human and environmental cost of pollution must be “fully borne” by the polluters [25-27]. The damage-related Cost of Pollution (Carbon Price, Carbon Debt) has been estimated by Dr Chris Hope (from the Judge Business School of 90-Nobel Laureate Cambridge University) at $200 per tonne CO2-equivalent [37].

Carbon Price, Historical Carbon Debt, Carbon Debt (Climate Debt), Per Capita Government Debt Plus Carbon Debt. The Historical Carbon Debt (aka Historical Climate Debt) of a country can be measured by the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) it has introduced into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century. Thus the total Carbon Debt of the world from 1751-2016 is about 1,850 billion tonnes CO2. Assuming a damage-related Carbon Price of $200 per tonne CO2-equivalent,   this corresponds  to a Carbon Debt of $370 trillion, similar to the total wealth of the world and 4.5 times the world’s total annual GDP. Using estimates from Professor James Hansen  of national contributions to Historical  Carbon Debt and assuming a damage-related Carbon Price in USD of  $200 per tonne CO2-e,  the World has a Carbon Debt of US$370 trillion that is increasing at US$13 trillion per year,  and Australia has a Carbon Debt of US$7.5 trillion (A$10 trillion) that is increasing at US$400 billion (A$533 billion) per year and at US $40,000 (A$53,000) per head per year for under-30 year old Australians [38].

The pro-One Percenter Eurozone and IMF demand timely repayment of Greece’s Government Debt but conveniently ignore the huge Carbon Debt of major industrialized  countries like Germany that measures huge and deadly global environmental damage. The “Per Capita Government Debt Plus Carbon Debt” is much greater for Germany than for Greece, which should insist with indebted Developing Countries that Carbon Debt is also put on the repayment and global action discussion table [39].

Carbon Credit (Climate Credit), Carbon Pollution Budget, Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget. Setting aside the huge Historical Carbon Debt (largely run up by Western nations),   the Carbon Credit (aka Climate Credit) of a country can be measured by the amount of GHG it can generate as its “fair share” of the 600 billion tonnes of CO2 the World is permitted to generate between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 if it is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise (EU policy) [38]. Climate criminal Australia used up its “fair share” of this Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget in 2011 and has subsequently been stealing the entitlement of other countries (notably very poor countries). The CEDA Report and most Mainstream Australian journalists, politicians and academics ignore the fundamental  notion of a Carbon Pollution Budget that has been advanced by the WBGU (that advises the German Government on climate change and other such major changes) and the expert Australian Climate Commission (now the privately-funded Climate Council after cessation of its funding by the effective climate change denialist  Abbott Coalition Government). If one properly takes  the contribution of methanogenic livestock into account,  World’s Carbon Debt is increasing by 64 billion tonnes CO2-equivalent each year [40].

Effective Climate Change Denialism, Climate Change Action, Climate Change Inaction, Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas  Pollution, Income Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas  Pollution.  Climate Change Action means decreasing GHG pollution and not increasing GHG pollution. However the CEDA Report advocates policies that , in its own words, “may result in greenhouse gas emissions being marginally higher in the short term” . Climate Change Inaction amounts to Effective Climate Change Denialism. Australia is a World leader in annual per capita Domestic GHG pollution. Thus here  are revised estimates of annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution for the worst and best countries (in tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year), the world average being 63.80 billion tonnes CO2-e / 7.137 billion people in 2013 = 8.9 tonnes CO2-e per person per year: Belize (366.9), Guyana (203.1), Malaysia (126.0), Papua New Guinea (114.7), Qatar (101.8), Zambia (97.5), Antigua & Barbuda (85.6), United Arab Emirates (82.4), Panama (68.0), Botswana (64.9), Liberia (55.0), Indonesia (53.6), New Zealand (53.2), Australia (52.9; 116 if including its huge GHG-generating  exports)… Bangladesh (2.7), Egypt (2.6), Niue (2.6), Pakistan (2.5), Morocco (2.5), Djibouti (2.4), St Vincent & Grenadines (2.4), Armenia (2.3), Maldives (2.1), India (2.1), Cook Islands (2.1), Vietnam (1.9), São Tomé and Príncipe (1.9), Comoros (1.6), Solomon Islands (1.4), Kiribati (1.2), Tuvalu (1.2) [41].

However “Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution” per se is a flawed measure of national culpability for relative GHG pollution because it ignores rich countries outsourcing  industrial pollution to China, and impoverished countries compelled to pollute in order to barely survive.  A better measure of culpability is weighted annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution taking relative per capita income into account, these scores revealing that the worst polluters on this basis  include  the rich Anglosphere countries of  the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland: Qatar (924.3), United Arab Emirates (337.0), Australia (306.8; 672.8 if including its huge GHG-generating  exports), Luxembourg (256.1), Canada (234.0), New Zealand (218.7), United States (207.1), Ireland (206.6)… Pakistan (0.32), São Tomé and Príncipe ( 0.32), India (0.31), Bangladesh (0.27), Solomon Islands (0.25), Afghanistan (0.22), Ethiopia (0.21), Kiribati (0.18), Niger (0.16), Burundi (0.14), The Gambia (0.12), Comoros (0.12) [42].

Climate Genocide, Biofuel Genocide, Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust. These key terms are of course also missing from the CEDA Report – Neoliberalism is about maximizing the freedom of the  One Percenters to  impose on the Ninetynine Percenters i.e. making such impositions  perfectly legal even if such impositions  involve genocide, noting that genocide is defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. By way of example, the post-1990 Iraqi Genocide (4.7 million deaths from violence, 1.7 million, or from  imposed deprivation, 2.9 million, and refugees totalling 5-6 million) [21, 22] is seen by experts from the Left to the Right to be about oil. Thus Professor Noam Chomsky from 85-Nobel-Laureate MIT has stated (2009) that “There is basically no significant change in the fundamental traditional conception that if we can control Middle East energy resources, then we can control the world” [43] and Alan Greenspan (who served as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for almost two decades) has stated (2007) “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq  war is largely about oil” [44]. Similarly, the Syrian Genocide (0.5 million killed violently, a comparable number killed by war-imposed deprivation, and 12 million refugees) evidently derives from the implacable desire of the US Alliance – the US, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, and Turkey – to remove the secular Assad regime to permit a “Sunni” gas pipeline from Qatar to the Mediterranean and thence to Europe so as to compete with Russian gas [45].  The Afghan Holocaust and Afghan Genocide (5.6 million war-related deaths from violence, 1.4 million, or war-imposed deprivation,  4.2 million [46] is to do with a Central Asian gas pipeline to  a US-dominated  Indian Ocean. The Libyan Genocide (0.1 million killed, a comparable number dead from deprivation and 1 million refugees) was  about fossil fuel resources and involved destruction of  Africa’s most prosperous country by the France-UK-US (FUKUS) Coalition [22]. The US-backed Saudi Coalition’s Yemeni Genocide (0.2 million deaths from derivation, a likely comparable number of violent deaths and 2.4 million refugees) is about Sunni control of the Red Sea  carbon fuel resource route [22].

Leading climate scientists  Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis and atmospheric gas composition measurement ) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Deputy Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have estimated that only about 0.5 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming.  This translates  to about 10 billion climate-related deaths in the 21st century or an average of 100 million such deaths per year [19], noting that already 17 million people die avoidably each year on Spaceship Earth with the neoliberal One Percenters in charge of the flight deck [10]. A significant economic component of the Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust is the mandated use of biofuel for transport that can be described as a Biofuel Genocide [47]. While most biofuel makes no climate mitigation sense (biofuels are typically are associated with a huge Carbon Debt) [48, 49], biofuel makes economic sense from a neoliberal perspective – however  this deadly “food for fuel”  obscenity drives up food prices in a hungry world in which deprivation already kills 17 million people annually [10].

As UK or US lackeys Australians  have invaded 85 countries and about 30 of these atrocities  have been associated with genocide [50, 51]. By way of comparison,  the  British have invaded 193 countries, France 82, the US 70 (50 after WW2), Germany 39, Japan 30, Russia 25, Canada 25,  Apartheid Israel 12 and China 2  [10, 50-56]. While Mainstream journalists, politicians and academics presstitutes would have us believe that wars are about “freedom”, “liberty”, “democracy” etc, the fundamental reality is that wars are about resource. Thus the  serial invader, war criminal and climate criminal  US has military bases in 74 countries and presently subverts every country on earth – the US  has 4.3% of the World’s population but consumes about 25% of World resources.

Of particular interest in an “Economics of climate change” context is the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (Bengal Famine) in which the British with Australian complicity deliberately starved 6-7 million Indian to deaths in 1942-1945 for strategic reasons (Australia was complicit by withholding food for starving India from its huge wartime grain stocks) [10, 57-59]. This atrocity has been almost completely whitewashed from British and Australian history, but 20 years ago in an Open Letter tabled in the Australian Senate I warned that this catastrophe would be revisited on Bengal due to climate change, and inundation due to increased sea levels and increased energy of tropical hurricanes [57]. Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen (who lived through the Bengali Holocaust) has analysed famines such as the recurrent Bengal Famines as due to abrogation of “entitlement” for food under a mercilessly capitalist regime – thus in North Eastern India in WW2 when the price of the rice staple rose 4-fold (for a variety of reasons) those who could not afford to buy food simply starved to death. Worsening Climate Genocide and Biofuel Genocide threaten a Third World equivalent of the Bengali Holocaust but on a vastly greater global scale [57].

Climate Crime, Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS),   ICJ Litigation, ICC Prosecution, Green Tariffs, Climate Blowback. Climate economist Professor Ross Garnaut raised the spectre of international reaction if Australia did not act to reduce its disproportionately high contribution  to GHG pollution. As summarized above, Bangladesh’s annual per capita GHG pollution in “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” is 2.7 as compared to a 20-fold higher 52.9 for Australia (and a 43-fold higher 116 if Australia’s huge exported GHG pollution is considered) [41]. Australia used up its “fair share” of the World’s Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget in 2011[60]  and its bipartisan policy of unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports means that Australia will exceed the whole World’s Terminal Carbon Pollution Budget by a factor of three (3) [61]. In 2015 a climate criminal Australia ranked 61st (below Saudi Arabia on 62) in the German Climate Change Performance Index [62]. Australia is one of the very worst climate criminal nations [42, 63] and inevitably Australia’s Climate Crimes will invite Climate Blowback through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS),   International Court of Justice (ICJ) Litigations, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutions, and  Green Tariffs [42].

Coal-To-Gas Transition , Gas Is Dirty Energy, Nuclear Is Dirty Energy, Carbon Economy, CCS Infeasible. The CEDA Report explores “cleaner” alternatives to coal-based power but manages to ignore some Elephant in the Room realities.  Thus methane (CH4) (about 85% of natural gas)  is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. Methane leaks (3.3% in the US based on the latest US EPA data and as high as 7.9% for methane from “fracking” coal seams; a 2.6 % leakage of CH4 yields the same greenhouse effect as burning the remaining 97.4% CH4). Using this information one can determine that gas burning for electricity can be much dirtier than coal burning greenhouse gas-wise (GHG-wise). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, gas leakage in the system means that gas burning for power can actually be  worse GHG-wise than coal burning. Gas Is Not Clean Energy and may indeed not even be clean-er than coal.  The Coal-To-Gas Transition (as is happening the US) is bad because (a)  gas burning for power can actually be  worse GHG-wise than coal burning, and (b) it installs expensive gas burning plants for decades [64-66].

The conventional, fission-based nuclear option is flawed because (a) it is expensive, (b) it generates dangerous, long-lived waste, (c)  it is associated with major human rights and security issues, (d) it is based on limited, non-renewable  uranium and thorium ore resources, and (e)  the overall nuclear cycle (from mining and processing uranium ores to ultimate waste storage and plant decommissioning) involves major GHG pollution in a Carbon Economy (thus as high grade uranium ores are used up, the overall nuclear cycle for a nuclear plant  operation based on low-grade ores can be as dirty GHG-wise as a combined cycle gas-fired power plant [67]. Even former  nuclear power  proponent Dr James Lovelock FRS concedes that the nuclear option is now too expensive and too late. Climate scientist Professor Barry Brook advocates fast breeder nuclear reactors that would make highly  efficient use of existing uranium resources but key arguments against this are that (a) it is expensive, (b) too late , and (c) would generate a plutonium economy necessitating draconian and deadly  constraints on human rights to prevent  theft and terrifying abusive use of plutonium [68].

The CEDA Report  talks of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology  permitting continued coal-based power but this is (a) presently  commercially infeasible, and (b) even if  it were to become commercially feasible it would still involve significant GHG pollution.  Indeed the Americans have massively moved away from coal-based power to gas-based power, on the basis that gas burning per se generates much less CO2 per MWh  of electric energy than coal burning (noting that depending  upon the degree of systemic leakage, gas burning for power can actually be  worse GHG-wise than coal burning) [64].

300 ppm CO2, 350 ppm CO2, 405 ppm CO2, 300.org, 350.org, Negative GHG Emissions, CO2   Drawdown, Biochar. The CEDA Report ignores the fundamental reality that cessation of GHG pollution is merely one key step  and what is actually required for a safe planet for all species and all peoples is a return to circa 300 parts per million CO2 (300 ppm CO2), the pre-Industrial Revolution atmospheric CO2 not having exceeded 280 ppm CO2 for about 1 million years [66]. 350.org advocates a return to less  than 350 ppm CO2 whereas 300.org, informed by the latest science, advocates a return to about 300 ppm CO2. CO2 Drawdown will take a long time because the maximum annual Drawdown via  sequestering photosynthetically-generated cellulosic waste (or via Biochar generated by the anaerobic pyrolysis  of cellulosic waste) is 12 billion tonnes of Carbon (44 billion tonnes of CO2) whereas the post-1750 CO2 to be removed is 370 billion tonnes Carbon (1,358 billion tonnes CO2) (of which much has gone into the ocean).  Assuming zero GHG pollution, it would take over 30 years to get back to 300 ppm CO2. Further, the current price of thermal coal is about $60 (US) per tonne or about $18 per tonne CO2 generated on combustion (assuming 90% of the coal is combusted to yield CO2). In contrast, the cheapest cost of biochar is the 2.7-4.1-fold greater  US$49 to US$74 per tonne CO2 (based on US mid-West straw) as compared to the 12.3-32.4-fold greater US$222 to US$584 per tonne CO2 in the UK [65, 69, 70]. It makes no economic sense in a just society to dig up coal and burn it for profit X, leaving future generations to spend 3X-30X to return the resultant CO2 to the hole left in the ground as Biochar (carbon). However from a neoliberal perspective  it makes perfect sense to dig up coal, and burn it at great profit while being permitted to leave the full cost of addressing the consequent  CO2 pollution to future generations (see Intergenerational Injustice and Intergenerational Inequity below).

Remorseless greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is leaving a polluted and devastated planet for future generations. It has similarly been estimated  that for  every $1 received by climate criminal corporations for thermal coal, future generations will inescapably have to pay $1 to $14 for removal of the subsequently generated CO2 depending on location and technology e.g. $1 – $4 for Carbon Capture and Sequestration  (CCS); $2.2- $4.4 through mineral carbonation; $4.4 for Accelerated Weathering of Limestone; (AWL) and $2-$14 for Biochar [70]. Young people must revolt (peacefully, of course), oppose this mounting Carbon Debt, and insist  “Keep it in the ground”.

Emissions Trading Scheme, ETS, Carbon Tax, True Cost Of Pollution. The CEDA Report discusses the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) approach to putting a price on carbon pollution. However what the CEDA Report does not do is make clear how flawed and indeed fraudulent the ETS approach is. The ETS (or Cap and Trade) approach is empirically unsuccessful, is accordingly counterproductive, admits the possibility of evil  market manipulation, and is quite fraudulent in that it involves a country like Australia selling licences to pollute all countries on earth. Numerous climate economists and climate activists have argued cogently that what is needed is a transparent Carbon Tax that reflects the True Cost Of Pollution [71].  Thus, for example, the Ontario Government commissioned a report that found that the true cost of coal burning-based electricity was 4-5 times greater than the highly subsidized market price [72].  Pope Francis has demanded that “the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them” [25-27].

Ecocide, Speciescide, Omnicide, Terracide, Biodiversity, Land Use, Land Clearing, Environmental Vandalism, Deforestation, Methanogenic Livestock. Methanogenic Land Use. Missing from the CEDA Report and largely missing from public discussion in Australia is the huge issue of massive GHG pollution through destructive Land Use, Deforestation and  Methanogenic Livestock production. After over 2 centuries of massive Environmental  Vandalism involving  Land Clearing, Deforestation, Ecocide, and Speciescide through ecosystem destruction and introduction  of feral animal and plant pests, Australia  is  a world leader in  Climate Change Inaction,  Per Capita GHG pollution, Environmental Vandalism, Ecocide, and Speciescide. Deforestation continues in South Eastern Australian forests that are the best forest carbon sinks in the World.  The coral of Australia’s iconic  Great Barrier Reef is dying on a massive scale due to ocean warming, ocean acidification,  turbidity from dredging and run-off, and fertilizer from agriculture but the climate criminal Australian Government has successfully sought to blunt international responses from the UN.

World Bank analysts have carefully re-evaluated the contribution of livestock production to world annual GHG pollution and found that the world’s annual total rose from 41.76 billion tonnes CO2-equivalent (CO2-e) as estimated by the Food and Agricultural  Organisation  (FAO) to 63.80 billion tonnes CO2-e, with livestock production contributing  over 51% of the higher figure [40]. Taking Methanogenic Land Use into account lifts Australia’s annual per capita GHG pollution in tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year from 25 to 53 (and to 116 when taking Australia’s huge Exported GHG pollution into account) [41]. Science-informed and self-interested farmers should be allied with the Greens in demanding selective mitigation of GHG pollution from fossil fuel burning but Methanogenic Land Use is effectively ignored in public discussion in look-the-other-way Australia. Even the otherwise laudable Greens have baulked at the apparent political impossibility of achieving  cessation of Australia’s cultural icon of Methanogenic Livestock production and at the political suicide implicit in suggesting it.

Dr Andrew Balmford (of 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge) and his colleagues have estimated that the annual global value of nature’s services  is about $40 trillion per year and “that the overall benefit:cost ratio of an effective global program for the conservation of remaining wild nature is at least 100:1” [73]. In vain Australia conservationists advance the utilitarian argument that tourism linked to the irreplaceable  Great Barrier Reef is worth $5 billion annually, and accounts for close to 70,000 jobs but the destruction of this wonder of nature continues apace, with 93% of the coral reefs being now subject to severe to light bleaching due to global warming [74].  Dr J.E.N. Veron and other top coral scientists (2009):  “Temperature-induced mass coral bleaching causing mortality on a wide geographic scale started when atmospheric CO2 levels exceeded 320 ppm. When CO2 levels reached 340 ppm, sporadic but highly destructive mass bleaching occurred in most reefs world-wide, often associated with El Niño events. Recovery was dependent on the vulnerability of individual reef areas and on the reef’s previous history and resilience. At today’s level of 387 ppm [405 ppm in 2016], allowing a lag-time of 10 years for sea temperatures to respond, most reefs world-wide are committed to an irreversible decline” [75]. Dr Veron has stated (2009): “The safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide for coral reefs is ~320 ppm [and] sets the safe limit for a healthy planet during a time of abrupt greenhouse-driven climate change” [76].

Neoliberalism-dominated Australia is committed by Climate Change Inaction and disproportionate  per capita GHG pollution  to massive,  irreversible Biodiversity Loss, Ecocide (destruction of ecosystems), Speciescide (destruction of species) , Omnicide (destruction of most species), Terracide (destruction of most of the Biosphere) and worsening Climate Genocide that may destroy most of Humanity. Australia’s disproportionately high  Annual Per Capita GHG Pollution obliges it to rapidly cease fossil fuel burning and methanogenic livestock production [77] but the CEDA Report envisages GHG pollution actually increasing in the (relative) short term.

Adaptation, Geo-engineering. The CEDA Report considers Adaptation to climate change and gives the example of increasing albedo (e.g. by painting roofs white to reflect solar radiation).   However Adaptation to dangerous climate change via Geo-Engineering represents a massive threat   to Humanity because (a) it  encourages delay in climate change action (as exampled by the delay espoused by the CEDA Report) and (b) Geo-Engineering may have extremely  dangerous consequences.  Thus Humanity has already engaged in massive Geo-Engineering by increasing atmospheric CO2 (with a consequent   increase in global temperature with dangerous consequences),  by massive deforestation, by warming-induced release of methane (CH4)  from the Arctic tundra and the Arctic Ocean seabed, and by hugely decreasing  the albedo of the Arctic Ocean (Arctic summer sea ice may actually disappear in several years) [18].   Thus, for example, burning coal can generate sulphur dioxide (SO2) that can form global dimming sulphate aerosols in the upper atmosphere – however cessation of coal burning would cause loss of this global dimming effect and cause a rapid spike in global temperature. Indeed, it is seriously suggested by proponents of Geo-Engineering that injection of SO2 into the upper  atmosphere might be needed to halt global warming due to excessive atmospheric GHGs, but such a program is predicted to have different effects in different parts of the world and cessation of such an ongoing  program (e.g. for political, economic  or war reasons) would cause  a rapid increase in  global temperature with horrendous consequences [78].

Major Geo-engineering propositions include iron-rich fertilizing of  the ocean to promote algal growth and hence photosynthetic fixation of CO2 (but with massive ecosystem disturbance); increasing albedo by painting surfaces white or changing vegetation (the latter with ecosystem change);  and generation of global dimming sulphate aerosols in the upper atmosphere by release of SO2 (a much fancied but extremely dangerous asserted solution). A benign, but ultimately  necessary Geo-engineering approach involves CO2 Drawdown through re-afforestation, sequestration of cellulosic waste,  sequestration of biochar generated from the anaerobic pyrolysis of cellulosic materials, Accelerated Weathering of Limestone (AWL, bicarbonate generation from limestone and CO2), or mineral carbonation. However,   these CO2 Drawdown steps while necessary are very slow and  very  expensive, with these downsides arguing for keeping coal in the ground in the first place [70].  Support for dangerous Geo-engineering paradoxically comes both from huge corporations seeking to turn a profit from man-made global warming and from some climate activists who have concluded that Humanity is simply not prepared to cease GHG pollution and return atmospheric CO2 to a safe and sustainable level [78].

Rational Risk Management, Science, Spin, Climate Lying, Polya’s 3 Laws of Economics. Rational risk management, that is crucial for societal safety, successively involves (a) accurate data, (b) scientific analysis, this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk. Unfortunately,  this rational risk management protocol is typically perverted at the individual,  family and local level,   or at the level of the family of nations by (a) lying, ignoring, denial, self-deception, spin, obfuscation, intimidation and censorship, (b) anti-science spin, this involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) blame and shame that is counterproductive because  it blocks reportage crucial for rational risk management and in the worst cases leads to war [79]. Of course ignoring is far , far worse than explicit falsehood because that latter at least admits the possibility of refutation and public debate. As  outlined above, the CEDA Report mirrors look-the-other-way Australia in  ignoring a veritable Herd of Elephants in the Room in relation to “The Economics of Climate Change”. The bottom line reality is that Australia has high prosperity based on massive GHG pollution through coal, gas,  iron ore and meat exports  and  a heavily carbon burning-based domestic economy. The consensus  Australian position is that it will continue to massively and disproportionately pollute the Earth’s ocean and atmosphere  until the World forces it to stop – the only dissent against this terracidal and indeed genocidally racist greed comes from the Greens and the Socialists whose electoral support unfortunately is  presently only about 10% and 1%, respectively, in look-the-other-way Australia.

This consensus national lying by omission and self-deception of a climate criminal Australia is well described by Polya’s 3 Laws of Economics that mirror the 3 Laws of Thermodynamics of science and are (1) Price minus COP (Cost of Production) equals profit; (2) Deception about COP strives to a maximum; and (3) No work, price or profit on a dead planet (the 3 Laws of Thermodynamics are (1) the energy of a closed system remains constant, (2) entropy – disorder (lack of information)  – strives to a maximum, and (3) zero motion at absolute zero) [80]. These fundamental laws help  expose the failure of neoliberal capitalism in relation to wealth inequality, massive tax evasion by multinational corporations, horrendous avoidable deaths from poverty and disproportionately  high GHG pollution culminating in general ecocide, speciescide, climate genocide, omnicide and terracide. Polya’s Second Law of Economics explains why we are doomed by neoliberal economics  – ignoring, deceit, lying by omission, lying by commission, and disinformation subvert rational risk management  but are remorselessly entrenched  because they are profitable.  Economics in general is about what society does  to keep going, but economists argue that non-economists are not qualified to expertly discuss economics. The extraordinary  deficiencies of the CEDA Report illustrate the shortcomings of non-scientist economists discussing the  scientific matter of man-made climate change.

Climate Change Action, Cessation Of GHG Pollution,  Cut Carbon Emissions, “100% Renewable Energy By 2020”. Basically we know what the problem is (man-made GHG pollution) and how to solve it. To return to a safe planet for all peoples and all species we must achieve the following:(1) change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying; (2) urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm CO2 as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists; and (3) a rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power but 4-5-fold cheaper when the human and environmental cost of carbon fuel burning is taken into account) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth [66].

Unfortunately Mainstream Australia and the CEDA Report ignore the need for negative CO2 emissions  to draw down atmospheric CO2 to circa 300 ppm CO2, and ignore the true cost of fossil fuel burning -based  and other  carbon burning-based energy taking the human and environmental cost into account. Ignoring the Elephants on the Room will not make them go away. Numerous scientists and science-informed climate activists recognize the need to reduce atmospheric CO2 to circa 300 ppm CO2 [81, 82]. “100% Renewable Energy By 2020” has been adopted by numerous countries, states, cities and corporations who, unlike the CEDA Report,  recognize the need t rapidly Cut Carbon Emissions [83, 84].

Here are 3 estimates for short-term generation of circa 100% renewable energy for Australia: (1) The Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) plan for 100% renewable stationary energy for Australia by 2020 (Zero Carbon Australia by 2020, ZCA 2020) involves 40% wind energy, 60% concentrated solar thermal (CST) with molten salts energy storage for 24/7 baseload power, biomass and hydroelectric backup (for days of no wind and low sunshine) and a HV DC and HC AC national power grid. The BZE scheme was costed at $370 billion over 10 years, with roughly half spent on CST, one quarter on wind and one quarter on the national electricity grid.  (2) Seligman scheme. A scheme for 100% renewable energy for Australia has been set out by top electrical engineer Professor Peter Seligman (a major player in development of the bionic ear). Professor Seligman’s scheme involves wind, solar thermal, other energy sources, hydrological energy storage (in dams on the Nullabor Plain in Southern Australia), an HV AC and HV DC electricity transmission grid and a cost over 20 years of $253 billion. (3) Wind power. Ignoring cost-increasing energy storage and transmission grid costs and cost-decreasing economies of scale for a 2- to 10-fold size increase, here are 2 similar cost estimates for installation of wind power for 80% of Australia’s projected 325,000 GWh of annual electrical energy by 2020: (1) 90,000 MW capacity, 260,000 GWh/year, $200 billion/10 years (10-fold scale-up from GL Garrad Hassan) and (2) 96,000 MW, 260,000 GWh/year, $144 billion (2-fold scale up from BZE ) [66, 85. 86].

Annual Wealth Tax, Carbon Tax, Carbon Economy,  Carbon Tax. To reiterate the view of eminent climate economist Sir Nicholas Stern: “The science tells us that GHG emissions are an externality; in other words, our emissions affect the lives of others. When people do not pay for the consequences of their actions we have market failure. This is the greatest market failure the world has seen” [24].  A Carbon Tax should be applied to recover the damage-related cost of annual carbon pollution. Unfortunately the climate criminal One Percenters ensure that a just Carbon Tax is not being applied or,  if applied,  is derisory. Thus the legislated Carbon Price of the EU ETS is about $10 per tonne CO2-equivalent as compared to the estimate of $200 per tonne CO2-equivalent  for the actual damage-related Carbon Price [37]. However an Annual Wealth Tax represents an  alternative kind of Carbon Tax because it is applied to wealth accumulated in a Carbon Economy.

The average adult net wealth in Australia in 2014 was US$431,000 [87] ,  in 2015 the adult Australian population was 18.297 million [88], and  the current exchange rate is about 1 A$ = 0.75 US$. Accordingly,  the net wealth of Australia (excluding children) is US$0.431 million per adult x 18.297 million adults = US$7.89 trillion which corresponds to US$7.89 trillion x 1 A$/ 0.75USD = A$ 10.52 trillion. According  to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2014): “The top 20% of households when ranked by their level of wealth, owned 62% of total [net] household wealth in 2013–2014. By comparison, the bottom 20% of households, owned less than 1% of all [net] household wealth” [89]. Thus the net wealth of the top 20% is 0.62 x A$ 10.52 trillion = A$6.52 trillion or A$6,520 billion and a 1% annual wealth tax on the top 20% of households would yield  A$65.2 billion each year – enough to pay for 100% renewable energy for Australia in 6 years [90].

Democracy, Kleptocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy, Dollarocracy, Effective Free Speech. The above cogent analysis is provided for free by a modestly prosperous Australian scientist   but will have effectively almost zero readership in Australia –  I have limited free speech in Australia and almost zero Effective Free Speech. In contrast, the CEDA Report will have found a huge audience in the  political and corporate Establishment that runs Australia and Australia media – and that despite (and indeed because of)  the CEDA Report ignoring a veritable Herd of Elephants in the Room in relation  to the economics of climate change. Like Democracy in other neoliberalism-dominated Western countries, Democracy in Australia has become  Kleptocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy, Corporatocracy, and Dollarocracy in which Big Money purchases people, parties, policies, public perception or reality, political power and hence more profit [91-95]

Intergenerational Injustice, Intergenerational Inequity, Climate Crime, Climate Injustice,  Climate Emergency, Climate Revolution, Methane Bomb Threat. The present dominant One Percent is destroying the Biosphere for short-term profit and hence robbing future generations of a Biodiversity that is priceless. Assuming a damage-related Carbon Price in USD of  $200 per tonne CO2-e,  the World has a Carbon Debt of US$370 trillion that is increasing at US$13 trillion per year,  and Australia has a Carbon Debt of US$7.5 trillion (A$10 trillion) that is increasing at US$400 billion (A$533 billion) per year and at US $40,000 (A$53,000) per head per year for under-30 year old Australians. Whereas personal or corporate  debt can be expunged by bankruptcy and government debt can be ameliorated by printing  money, Carbon Debt is inescapable e.g.  if sea walls are not built, coastal cities will drown, if buildings are not reinforced they will be swept away by super-hurricanes.

In the absence of effective climate action, decent people around the world must respond by  zero tolerance  for deadly Neoliberalism and remorseless Neoliberals,  and by Boycotts , Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against all people, politicians, parties, companies,  corporations and countries complicit in the worsening Climate Emergency and neoliberal-led Terracide.  In Australia there is bipartisan agreement for unlimited GHG exports between the ruling Liberal Party-National Party Coalition and the Labor Opposition  (collectively known as the Lib-Labs) but Labor is more progressive about renewable energy than  the Coalition. Decent, science-informed Australians who care for their children and future generations   will utterly reject the climate criminal Lib-Labs, vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last [30, 96-99].

Unperceived by the neoliberal CEDA Report, Ecocide, Speciescide, Carbon Debt, worsening Climate Genocide, looming Terracide,  Climate Crime, Climate Injustice,  Intergenerational Inequity and Intergenerational Injustice are being foisted on future generations by the neoliberal One Percent.  Science–informed citizens and particularly young  people and future generations will respond by (hopefully peaceful) Climate Revolution and by exacting Wealth Taxes  to ensure that the human and environmental cost of neoliberalism is “fully borne” by the perpetrators. However time is running out,  with an existential  Methane Bomb Threat emerging in the steadily   warming Arctic  [100].

References.

[1]. Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), “The Economics of Climate Change”, June 2014: http://adminpanel.ceda.com.au/FOLDERS/Service/Files/Documents/22090~Economics-of-Climate-Change.pdf .

[2]. Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA): http://www.ceda.com.au/about .

[3]. “Bjorn Lomborg”,Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B8rn_Lomborg .

[4]. Bjorn Lomborg , “The Skeptical Environmentalist” .

[5]. Francis Keany and Sara Phillips, “Bjorn Lomborg: Government with draws $4 million funding offer for controversial  research centre” ”, ABC News, 22 October 2015: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-21/govt-withdraws-funding-from-lomborg-centre/6873238 .

[6]. 2010 Open Letter by 255 members of the US National Academy of Sciences, “Open Letter: climate change and the integrity of science”, Guardian, 6 May 2010: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/06/climate-science-open-letter  .

[7]. Synthesis Report of the March 2009 Copenhagen Scientific Climate Change Conference: http://climatecongress.ku.dk/pdf/synthesisreport .

[8]. DARA, “Climate Vulnerability Monitor. A guide to the cold calculus of a hot planet”, 2012, Executive Summary pp2-3: http://daraint.org/climate-vulnerability-monitor/climate-vulnerability-monitor-2012/ .

[9]. DARA report quoted by Reuters, ”100 mln to die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate”, 28 September 2012: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/climate-inaction-idINDEE88P05P20120926 .

[10]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, a book that includes  an avoidable mortality-related history of every country from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal  on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/  .

[11]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .

[12]. World Health Organization (WHO), “7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution”: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/ .

[13]. “Are we doomed?”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/are-we-doomed .

[14]. “Nuclear weapons ban , end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .

[15]. “Too late to avoid global warming catastrophe”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/too-late-to-avoid-global-warming .

[16]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm

[17]. David Spratt, “Mind-blowing February 2016 temperature spike a “climate emergency” says scientist , as extreme events hit Vietnam, Fiji and Zimbabwe”, Climate Code Red, 14 March 2016: http://www.climatecodered.org/2016/03/mind-blowing-february-2016-temperature.html .

[18]. Robin McKie, :“Next year or the year after,  the Arctic will be free of ice”. Scientist Peter Wadhams believes the summer ice cover at the north pole is about to disappear, triggering even more rapid global warming”, Guardian, 21 August 2016: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/21/arctic-will-be-ice-free-in-summer-next-year .

[19]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .

[20]. Lisa Cox, “Bureau of Meteorology rejects Maurice Newman’s climate claims”, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 May 2105: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bureau-of-meteorology-rejects-maurice-newmans-climate-claims-20150525-gh90md.html .

[21]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/

[22]. “Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .

[23]. “Howard is a war criminal, says former colleague”, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 July 2004: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/18/1090089035899.html .

[24]. Sir Nicholas Stern, quoted in “Climate change: “the greatest market failure the word has seen””,   New Economist, 30 Oc0tber 2006: http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/10/stern_review_2.html  .

[25].  Pope Francis, “Laudato si”: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html .

[26]. Gideon Polya, “Green Left Pope Francis Demands Climate Action “Without Delay” To Prevent Climate “Catastrophe””, Countercurrents, 10 August, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya100815.htm .

[27]. Gideon Polya, “Western Mainstream Media Censor Green Left Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si’” Message For Urgent Action On Climate Change”,  Countercurrents, 20 August, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya200815.htm .

[28]. Brian Ellis, “Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics” , Routledge , UK , 2012.

[29]. Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Social Humanism. A New Metaphysics” By Brian Ellis –  Last Chance To Save Planet?”,  Countercurrents, 19 August, 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya190812.htm .

[30]. Gideon Polya, “Save Humanity And The Biosphere Through Zero Tolerance  For Deadly Neoliberalism And Remorseless Neoliberals”, Countercurrents,  13 May, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya130516.htm .

[31]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism –  Zero Australian Terrorism Deaths, 1 Million Preventable Australian Deaths & 10 Million Muslims Killed By US Alliance Since 9-11”,  Countercurrents, 23 September, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .

[32]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-Zionist, Pro-war, Pro-Opium, War Criminal  Canadian Government Defames Iran & Cuts Diplomatic Links”,  Countercurrents, 10 September, 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya100912.htm .

[33]. Gideon Polya, “UK Terror Hysteria exposed – Empirical Annual Probability of UK Terrorism Death 1 in 16 million”,  Countercurrents, 16 September, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya160914.htm .

[34]. Gideon Polya, “West Ignores 11 Million Muslim War Deaths & 23 Million Preventable American Deaths Since US Government’s False-flag 9-11 Atrocity”, Countercurrents, 9 September, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya090915.htm

[35]. Gideon Polya, “Corporate terrorism is state sanctioned, kills  over 30 million people annually and dooms humanity by lying”, State crime and non-state terrorism: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/corporate-terrorism .

[36]. James Hansen, “ It’s Possible To Avert The Climate Crisis ”, Countercurrents, 29 November 2009: https://countercurrents.org/hansen291109.htm .

[37]. Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/media/assets/wp1109.pdf .

[38]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .

[39]. Gideon Polya, “Germany’s Per Capita Government  Debt Plus Carbon Debt Greatly Exceeds Greece’s”, Countercurrents, 8 July, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya080715.htm .

[40]. Robert Goodland and Jeff Anfang. “Livestock and climate change. What if the key actors in climate change are … cows, pigs and chickens?”, World Watch, November/December 2009: http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf .

[41]. Gideon Polya, “ Revised Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution For All Countries – What Is Your Country Doing?”, Countercurrents, 6 January, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya060116.htm .

[42]. Gideon Polya, “Exposing And Thence Punishing Worst Polluter Nations Via Weighted Annual Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Pollution Scores”, Countercurrents, 19 March, 2016: https://countercurrents.org/polya190316.htm

[43]. Noam Chomsky quoted in Sherwood Ross, “Chomsky: Iraq invasion “major crime” designed to control Middle East oil”, The Public Record, 3 November 2009:  http://pubrecord.org/nation/5953/chomsky-invasion-major-crime/ .

[44]. Peter Beaumont and Joanna Walters, “Greenspan admits Iraq was about oil, as deaths put at 1.2m”, The Observer, 16 September 2007: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/sep/16/iraq.iraqtimeline .

[45]. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, “Syria: another pipeline war”, Ecowatch, 25 February 2016: http://www.ecowatch.com/syria-another-pipeline-war-1882180532.html .

[46]. “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ .

[47]. “Biofuel Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/ .

[48].  Joseph Fargione et al: “Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt”, Science 29 February 2008, Vol. 319. no. 5867, pp. 1235 – 1238: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1152747  .

[49].   Timothy Searchinger et al: “Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change”, Science 29 February 2008, Vol. 319. no. 5867, pp. 1238 – 1240: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1151861  .

[50]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm .

[51]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Cambridge History Of Australia” Ignores  Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides”,  Countercurrents, 14 October, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya141013.htm .

[52]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .

[53]. Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries:  Make  26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .

[54]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm  .

[55]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .

[56].  “State crime and non-state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/  .

[57]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History”, now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .

[58].  Gideon Polya, “ Bengal Famine. How Australia & UK killed 6-7 million Indians in WW2”, MWC News, 27 September 2011: http://mwcnews.net/focus/editorial/13742-bengal-famine.html .

[59]. “Bengali Holocaust (WW2 Bengal Famine) writings of Gideon Polya”, Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/bengali-holocaust .

[60]. Gideon Polya, “Country By Country Analysis Of Years Left Until Science-demanded Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions”, Countercurrents, 11 June 2011: https://countercurrents.org/polya110611.htm .

[61]. Gideon Polya, “Australia ‘s Huge Coal, Gas & Iron Ore Exports Threaten Planet”, Countercurrents, 15 May 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya150512.htm .

[62]. German Climate Watch Index 2015: https://germanwatch.org/en/download/10407.pdf .

[63]. Gideon Polya, “25 Ways World-Leading Climate Criminal Australia Threatens Planet And Invites Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS)”, Countercurrents, 6 June, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya060615.htm . 

[64]. “Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/ .

[65]. Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness Testimony To Stop Gas-Fired Power Plant Installation”, Countercurrents,  14 June, 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm .

[66]. “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .

[67]. Mark Diesendorf, “Behind Howard’s dangerous nuclear push”, Green Left Weekly: https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/34973 .

[68]. Gideon Polya, “Rational risk management, science & denial”:  http://rationalriskmanagement.blogspot.com.au/2008/02/risk-management-science-denial.html .

[69]. Simon Shackley, Jim Hammond, John Gaunt and Rodrigo Ibarrollo, “The feasibility and costs of biochar deployment in the UK ”, Carbon Management, 2(3), 335-356 (2011):  http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/sshackle/CostsBiochar.pdf .

[70]. Gideon Polya, “Intergenerational Theft – For Every $1 For Coal Today Future Generations Will Pay $1-$14 To Sequester CO2”, Countercurrents, 8 April, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya080415.htm .

[71]. “Science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed NOT Carbon Trading”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading/ .

[72]. Gideon Polya, “Australian carbon burning-related deaths and carbon burning subsidies => minimum Carbon Price of A$562 per tonne carbon (C) or A$152 per tonne CO2-e ”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group: http://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning .

[73]. Andrew Balmford et al, “Economic reasons for conserving wild nature”, Science, 9 August 2002:  http://www.envirosecurity.org/conference/working/ReasonsConservWildNature.pdf .

[74].  Chris Mooney, “”And then we wept”: scientists say 93 percent of Great Barrier Reef now bleached”, Washington Post, 20 April 2016: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/04/20/and-then-we-wept-scientists-say-93-percent-of-the-great-barrier-reef-now-bleached/ .

[75]. J.E.N. Veron, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, T.M. Lenton, J.M. Lough, D.O. Obura, P. Pearce-Kelly, C.R.C. Sheppard, M. Spalding, M.G. Stafford-Smith and A.D. Rogers, “The coral reef crisis: the critical importance of <350 ppm CO2”, Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 58, (10), October 2009, 1428-1436: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V6N-4X9NKG7-3&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1072337698&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=6858c5ff7172f9355068393496a5b35d .

[76]. David Spratt, ““Saving the Reef”; the triumph  of politics over science”, Climate Code Red, 30 May 2016: http://www.climatecodered.org/2016/05/saving-reef-triumph-of-politics-over.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClimateCodeRed+%28climate+code+red%29  .

[77]. Gideon Polya, “Worsening climate emergency and record CO2 emissions demand vegetarian diet for all to help save planet”, Countercurrents, 20 June 2016: https://countercurrents.org/2016/06/20/worsening-climate-emergency-and-record-co2-emissions-demand-vegetarian-diet-for-all-to-help-save-planet/ .

[78]. Clive Hamilton, “Earth Masters. Playing God with the climate”, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2013.

[79]. “Gideon Polya”: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home .

[80].  Gideon Polya. “Polya’s 3 Laws Of Economics Expose Deadly, Dishonest  And Terminal Neoliberal Capitalism”, Countercurrents, 17 October, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya171015.htm .

[81]. 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .

[82]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org—return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .

[83]. “Cut carbon emissions 80% by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/cutcarbonemissions80by2020/ .

[84]. “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .

[85]. Beyond Zero Emissions Zero (BZE), Zero Carbon Australia by 2020 Report (BZE ZCA2020 Report), 2010: http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/about/bze-brand .

[86]. Peter Seligman, “Australian sustainable energy – by the numbers”, Melbourne Energy Institute, University of Melbourne , 2010: http://energy.unimelb.edu.au/ozsebtn/.

[87]. Credit Suisse, “Global Wealth Report 2014”: https://publications.credit-suisse.com/tasks/render/file/?fileID=60931FDE-A2D2-F568-B041B58C5EA591A4  ,

[88]. World Population Division 201 Revision: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/DataQuery/ .

[89]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Income and wealth distribution”, 2014: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/6523.0~2013-14~Main%20Features~Income%20and%20Wealth%20Distribution~6 ).

[90]. “1% ON 1%: one percent annual wealth tax on One Percenters”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/1-on-1 .

[91]. “Mainstream media lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/home .

[92]. “Mainstream media censorship”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/home .

[93]. “Boycott Murdoch media”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottmurdochmedia/

[94]. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, “Manufacturing consent. The political economy of the mass media”, Pantheon, New York, 1998, 2002.

[95]. Gideon Polya, “Boycott Murdoch Media To Save Planet”,  Countercurrents, 18 July, 2011: https://countercurrents.org/polya180711A.htm  .

[96]. “Divest from fossil fuels”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/divest-from-fossil-fuels .

[97]. “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .

[98].“Stop climate crime”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-climate-crime .

[99]. Gideon Polya, “Terracidal Climate Change Inaction”, Countercurrents, 6 April, 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya060414.htm .

[100]. “Methane Bomb Threat”: https://sites.google.com/site/methanebombthreat/.

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript

) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/  ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine  ;  Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home  ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .

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