Home

Follow Countercurrents on Twitter 

Why Subscribe ?

Popularise CC

Join News Letter

Editor's Picks

Press Releases

Action Alert

Feed Burner

Read CC In Your
Own Language

Bradley Manning

India Burning

Mumbai Terror

Financial Crisis

Iraq

AfPak War

Peak Oil

Globalisation

Localism

Alternative Energy

Climate Change

US Imperialism

US Elections

Palestine

Latin America

Communalism

Gender/Feminism

Dalit

Humanrights

Economy

India-pakistan

Kashmir

Environment

Book Review

Gujarat Pogrom

Kandhamal Violence

WSF

Arts/Culture

India Elections

Archives

Links

Submission Policy

About CC

Disclaimer

Fair Use Notice

Contact Us

Search Our Archive

Subscribe To Our
News Letter



Our Site

Web

Name: E-mail:

 

Printer Friendly Version

To Save Planet Stop Canada-US Keystone XL Pipeline

By Dr Gideon Polya

23 August, 2011
Countercurrents.org

Britons, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and other Europeans have been variously urged by successive lying governments to back the invasion of Afghanistan to save us from terrorism (5.0 million war-related deaths), 12 years of sanctions and thence invasion of Iraq (4.6 million sanctions- and war- related deaths) and most recently the bombing intervention in the Libyan civil war to prevent alleged hypothetical “massacres of civilians” (thousands of civilian deaths, and destruction of much of the Libyan army, navy and air force). In contrast, Westerners and indeed all Humanity are now asked by a peaceful, science-informed pro-Humanity organization, 350.org, to merely sign a petition to help prevent the destruction this century of all but about 0.5 billion human beings who will survive this century of worsening climate genocide due to unaddressed, man-made climate change.

Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have recently estimated that only about 0.5 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming – noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis (see “Climate genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ ).

Science-informed 300.org (that urges a return of atmospheric CO2 concentration to about 300 ppm from the present 394 ppm: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm) endorses the plea by 350.org (that urges a return of atmospheric CO2 to at least 350 ppm) for people to Sign the Petition against the planet-threatening Keystone XL oil pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to Illinois, USA. Exploitation of these deposits means “game over” for the Planet.

350.org: states: "Sign the Petition against the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Albert to Illinois: “It's time to take a stand against the Keystone XL pipeline, a dangerous and destructive project that would pump over one million barrels of dirty "tar sands" oil from Canada to the USA every day. The oil in the Keystone pipeline could poison drinking water, threaten the communities it runs through, and wreck the climate. But there's good news: the Keystone XL pipeline cannot be built without a "presidential permit" from the Obama Administration. Let's turn up the pressure to make sure President Obama rejects the pipeline (for details of the petition see: http://act.350.org/sign/tar-sands/?akid=1200.345738.ImZkao&rd=1&t=3 ).

According to Dr James Hansen (eminent US climate scientist and head, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies): “An overwhelming objection is that exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize the climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts. The tar sands are estimated (e.g., see IPCC Fourth Assessment Report) to contain at least 400 GtC (equivalent to about 200 ppm CO2). Easily available reserves of conventional oil and gas are enough to take atmospheric CO2 well above 400 ppm, which is unsafe for life on earth. However, if emissions from coal are phased out over the next few decades and if unconventional fossil fuels including tar sands are left in the ground, it is conceivable to stabilize earth's climate. Phasing out emissions from coal is itself an enormous challenge. However, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it is essentially game over. There is no practical way to capture the CO2 emitted while burning oil, which is used principally in vehicles” (see James Hansen, “Speaking Out Against the Canada-U.S. Tar Sands Pipeline ”, The Huffington Post, 5 June 2011: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dr-james-hansen/tar-sands_b_871362.html ).

Note that 400 GtC is equivalent to 400 x 44/12 = 1,467 Gt CO2. Yet the WBGU (the German Advisory Council on Climate Change), that advises the German Government, in 2009 reported that for a 75% chance of avoiding a disastrous 2C temperature rise the world must emit no more than 600 Gt CO2 between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 (see WBGU, “Solving the climate dilemma: the budget approach”: http://www.wbgu.de/fileadmin/templates/dateien/veroeffentlichungen
/sondergutachten/sn2009/wbgu_sn2009_en.pdf
) .

Australia has already by August 2011 used up its “fair share” of this terminal global CO2 pollution budget but other countries are badly running out of time. Thus countries that have less than 5 years relative to 2010 to get to zero GHG pollution include the following: Belize (0.8 years), Qatar (1.3), Guyana (1.4), Malaysia (1.9), United Arab Emirates (2.0), Kuwait (2.4), Papua New Guinea (2.5), Brunei (2.8), Australia (2.8; 1.1 if including its huge GHG Exports), Antigua & Barbuda (2.8), Zambia (2.9), Canada (3.0), Bahrain (3.0), United States (3.1), Trinidad & Tobago (3.3), Luxembourg (3.4), Panama (3.7), New Zealand (3.7), Estonia (4.0), Botswana (4.1), Ireland (4.3), Saudi Arabia (4.4), Venezuela (4.6), Indonesia (4.8), Equatorial Guinea (5.0), Belgium (5.0). (see “Shocking analysis by country of years left to zero emissions”, Green Blog, 1 August 2011: http://www.green-blog.org/2011/08/01/shocking-analysis-by-country-of-years-left-to-zero-emissions/ ).

Please tell everyone you can to sign this petition to stop the terracidal Keystone XL Pipeline and help save the Planet.

Dr Gideon Polya currently teaches science students at a major Australian university. 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 recently 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/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) 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 just 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.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). 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/ .


 



 


Comments are not moderated. Please be responsible and civil in your postings and stay within the topic discussed in the article too. If you find inappropriate comments, just Flag (Report) them and they will move into moderation que.