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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/27/britain-betrayed-heathrow-humanity-survival
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| Version 4 | Version 5 |
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| Wake up, Britain. We’ve been betrayed over Heathrow | Wake up, Britain. We’ve been betrayed over Heathrow |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| Some things are, to use Caroline Lucas’s word, “unforgivable”. The decision by MPs to put commercial interests ahead of the needs of our planet when it came to vote on the third runway at Heathrow represents a final, catastrophic betrayal. I had just finished a 14-day hunger strike, along with other Vote No Heathrow campaigners, to try to get across our objection to the idea. We are committed. Boris Johnson – supposedly an avowed critic of the plan – couldn’t even be bothered to turn up. | Some things are, to use Caroline Lucas’s word, “unforgivable”. The decision by MPs to put commercial interests ahead of the needs of our planet when it came to vote on the third runway at Heathrow represents a final, catastrophic betrayal. I had just finished a 14-day hunger strike, along with other Vote No Heathrow campaigners, to try to get across our objection to the idea. We are committed. Boris Johnson – supposedly an avowed critic of the plan – couldn’t even be bothered to turn up. |
| UK environment policies in tatters, warn green groups | UK environment policies in tatters, warn green groups |
| For 30 years scientists have been making clear the catastrophic and inevitable consequences of climate change. CO2 emissions are altering our planet, and it will lead to humanity’s destruction unless we do something about it. It’s real, it’s happening – our politicians must face facts. At present temperatures have risen 1.2C. Another 0.6C of warming is locked in from already emitted carbon which has yet to increase temperatures. The arctic will likely be ice-free in the summer within the next decade and ice-free all the year round within 10 years after that. The resultant dark earth and water that will replace the reflective ice and snow will create an estimated additional half a degree of warming. These precise numbers are important, because death is not linear but binary. At a certain point you cross from life to death. So where is the line? Two degrees is the answer. As we pass this point, it is no longer possible to grow grains at scale in the centre of Russia and North America, where temperatures will increase twice as fast as the global average. Millions will starve, tens of millions of climate refugees will be heading in our direction, and the world economic system will collapse. We are hurtling towards this moment of truth. | For 30 years scientists have been making clear the catastrophic and inevitable consequences of climate change. CO2 emissions are altering our planet, and it will lead to humanity’s destruction unless we do something about it. It’s real, it’s happening – our politicians must face facts. At present temperatures have risen 1.2C. Another 0.6C of warming is locked in from already emitted carbon which has yet to increase temperatures. The arctic will likely be ice-free in the summer within the next decade and ice-free all the year round within 10 years after that. The resultant dark earth and water that will replace the reflective ice and snow will create an estimated additional half a degree of warming. These precise numbers are important, because death is not linear but binary. At a certain point you cross from life to death. So where is the line? Two degrees is the answer. As we pass this point, it is no longer possible to grow grains at scale in the centre of Russia and North America, where temperatures will increase twice as fast as the global average. Millions will starve, tens of millions of climate refugees will be heading in our direction, and the world economic system will collapse. We are hurtling towards this moment of truth. |
| We were told by scientists not so long ago that we should not go over 350 parts per million of C02 in the atmosphere. We are now on 403.3 parts per million. Only a few years ago it was increasing by 2ppm a year. Now it is 3ppm. The rate is increasing exponentially. Never before in its four billion-year history has the Earth experienced such a massive rate of increase. The level of 450ppm is the equivalent of a 2C increase in temperature. We are set to pass this in about 10 years’ time – a blink in geological time. Shortly afterwards we are set to pass 500ppm, after which, in the words of Professor Peter Ward, “all bets are off”. | We were told by scientists not so long ago that we should not go over 350 parts per million of C02 in the atmosphere. We are now on 403.3 parts per million. Only a few years ago it was increasing by 2ppm a year. Now it is 3ppm. The rate is increasing exponentially. Never before in its four billion-year history has the Earth experienced such a massive rate of increase. The level of 450ppm is the equivalent of a 2C increase in temperature. We are set to pass this in about 10 years’ time – a blink in geological time. Shortly afterwards we are set to pass 500ppm, after which, in the words of Professor Peter Ward, “all bets are off”. |
| He can say that because the science is now done on the fundamentally unstable dynamics of the Earth’s geophysical system. CO2 release brings on rapid mass extinction. It has happened 15 times in the geological record. The gas warms the Earth and melts the ice caps. The resultant loss of temperature difference between the poles and the equator leads to loss of wind and ocean currents. The seas become stagnant. They stop producing oxygen and emit hydrogen sulphide instead. The latter is a poisonous gas, and kills all living creatures at 200ppm in the atmosphere. | He can say that because the science is now done on the fundamentally unstable dynamics of the Earth’s geophysical system. CO2 release brings on rapid mass extinction. It has happened 15 times in the geological record. The gas warms the Earth and melts the ice caps. The resultant loss of temperature difference between the poles and the equator leads to loss of wind and ocean currents. The seas become stagnant. They stop producing oxygen and emit hydrogen sulphide instead. The latter is a poisonous gas, and kills all living creatures at 200ppm in the atmosphere. |
| Scientists have been telling politicians this information for three decades. It is clearly laid out in thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers. Continue to emit CO2 poison, and the world will become toxic. There is no planet B. | Scientists have been telling politicians this information for three decades. It is clearly laid out in thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers. Continue to emit CO2 poison, and the world will become toxic. There is no planet B. |
| In such circumstances have a right and indeed the duty to rebel | In such circumstances have a right and indeed the duty to rebel |
| When the British public wake up to the fact that all that they cherish and love will soon be destroyed, they will turn on the politicians that allowed this to happen. In the meantime some of us have been working for some time on saving our society. We are preparing to rebel. The Heathrow vote demonstrates that our political system is in the grip of short-term commercial interest, even though it will lead to devastating results. It cannot be reformed from within. John Locke, our greatest political philosopher, laid down a clear response – in such circumstances citizens have a right and indeed the duty to rebel. We have done it before in our history and we are going to do it again. | When the British public wake up to the fact that all that they cherish and love will soon be destroyed, they will turn on the politicians that allowed this to happen. In the meantime some of us have been working for some time on saving our society. We are preparing to rebel. The Heathrow vote demonstrates that our political system is in the grip of short-term commercial interest, even though it will lead to devastating results. It cannot be reformed from within. John Locke, our greatest political philosopher, laid down a clear response – in such circumstances citizens have a right and indeed the duty to rebel. We have done it before in our history and we are going to do it again. |
| • Rising Up is coordinating a rebellion against the UK government for this November | • Rising Up is coordinating a rebellion against the UK government for this November |
| • Roger Hallam is a PhD researcher on effective radical campaign design at King’s College London | • Roger Hallam is a PhD researcher on effective radical campaign design at King’s College London |
| Heathrow third runway | Heathrow third runway |
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