MIM Notes 228                   February 15, 2001

Latest evidence supports Global Climate Change: Bush keeps head in 
sand, world on path toward environmental destruction

by an HC

The third study conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on 
Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations was released in 
January, further strengthening scientific evidence of humyn-made 
climate change. Meanwhile, President Bush represents a faction of 
ideologues which even other bourgeois commentators refer to as 
"Panglossian" -- that is, Bush ignores any possibility of disaster 
from global warming in this, "the best of all possible worlds."

The latest IPCC report is not drastically different from the 
previous one, but new methods and more recent data have been 
incorporated. One significant change in the report is that the 
projected increase in global temperatures between 1990 and 2100 
rose from 1 to 3.5 degrees Celsius to the current estimate of 1.4 
to 5.8 degrees Celsius. The report concludes that the 1990s were 
the warmest decade ever recorded directly by instruments, and that 
1998 was the warmest year. The data also shows a sea level rise of 
.1 to .2 meters in the 20th century. The IPCC has made the 
assertion in this report that most of the changes are likely due 
to the release of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide, by 
humyns.(1)

While giving lip service to climate change as an important issue, 
Bush believes that more evidence must be gathered before action is 
taken. This is a common trick of anti-science sophists -- we are 
either zero or 100% certain of something. If Mr. Jones smokes, it 
either will or will not give him cancer, these people argue; we 
can't say that there is a certain probability Mr. Jones will get 
cancer or that if 1,000,000 Joneses smoked, then 10,000 of them 
would get cancer.

In real life, however, science deals with percentages, 
probabilities, and partial knowledge. Richard Benedick, author of 
ITAL Ozone Diplomacy END, quite correctly observed that, "The 
world may not have the luxury of early warning signals before an 
irreversible collapse occurs in some other segment of the planet's 
ecosystem."(2) We won't always be able to afford to know every 
last scientific detail before acting.

Most people in the imperialist countries know to buy insurance for 
accidents. Yet there is no such thing as an interstellar insurance 
company that will help us out if we blow the Earth's environment. 
Once it becomes unlivable, that may be the end for the species. 
Under capitalism, businesspeople take risks with our environment 
every day for their profits. Under socialism, such risks will be 
minimized and only done in the interest of the people, not the 
wealth of individuals. The competition dynamic in which the 
environment is damaged while capitalists are busy fighting for 
market control will not exist.

Bush and his ilk prefer to ignore the mounting evidence and 
growing probability that capitalism will make the earth unlivable 
for ITAL homo sapiens END -- instead they cling to capitalist 
dogma like there is a "right" to profit (see article on page 5) 
and neoliberal platitudes about the so-called free market. 

Of course the rhetoric about the free market gets ignored when 
monopoly capitalist profits are on the line. The United $tates 
gives $25 billion a year in federal subsidies for domestic fossil 
fuel extraction, while estimates as high as $150 billion include 
money for projects such as the Gulf War to secure foreign oil 
supplies. But when it comes to the environment, Bush proposes that 
"market-driven technologies" will solve environmental problems, 
i.e. don't look for $175 billion in subsidies for environmental 
clean up or alternative fuels research any time soon.

Bush follows in the footsteps of his predecessors in opposing the 
Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The United 
$tates led the most recent international meeting on the agreement 
to a dead end last November as reported in MIM Notes 224. Bush has 
made a strong stance saying that the United $tates will not bear 
the brunt of the responsibility for reducing emissions while the 
Third World is not subject to the agreement.(3) This is in light 
of the fact that the United $tates is responsible for the bulk of 
the emissions, while the Third World will be the ones to suffer 
the most from climate change.(5)

The United $tates accounts for over 25% of greenhouse gas 
emissions, but only 4% of the worlds population. Clinton and Gore 
didn't move to rectify this situation -- they sabotaged the Kyoto 
agreement -- and neither will Bush. He has encouraged increased 
energy production to help solve shortages in California, ignoring 
plans for conservation. He has been battling from day one to open 
up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for drilling of 
oil, which will allow current Amerikan consumption levels to 
continue, while damaging the local ecosystems on top of that. And 
in a candid moment in L.A. addressing a man complaining of the two 
slow buses he must ride back and forth to work everyday, Bush 
replied, "My hope is that you will be able to find good enough 
work, so you'll be able to afford a car." (4) Evidently better 
public transport will not be part of Bush's environmental strategy 
either -- he'd rather tempt people with the petty-bourgeois dreams 
of Amerikan car culture.

The Bush clique's open adherence to capitalist dogma in the face 
of science only makes it clear that the imperialists are willing 
to wager some short term profits for a handful of people against 
the long-term product of the entire humyn species. The current 
economic system does not promote the environmental conservation 
necessary for the preservation of humyn life. The unwillingness of 
Bush and the rest of Amerika to deal with the destruction caused 
by their consumption puts another nail in the coffin of Amerikan 
imperialism. Facing the threat of death and disease, oppressed 
people will crush this system that cannot deal with their 
problems.

Notes: 

1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2001: 
the Scientific Basis.

2. Richard Elliot Benedick, ITAL Ozone Diplomacy, END Cambridge: 
Harvard University Press, 1998, p. 307. For a further discussion 
of science, the environment, and risk assessment, see the reviews 
of this book and ITAL Against the Gods END by Peter Bernstein at 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bookstore/offbooks.html.

3. Issues 2000: George W. Bush on Environment. 
http://www.issues2000.org/George_W__Bush_Environment.htm 

4. Jim Motavelli. Bush Sucks. 26 Jan 2001. 
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho012601-b.stm 

5. MIM Notes 224. December 15, 2000. Climate change summit leaves 
oppressed to suffer.