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"The Earth is Finished" . . . [?]
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Aubrey Meyer
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Feb 22, 2005 23:13 PST
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This article appeared in the February edition of Catholic Journal "The
Tablet".
http://www.gci.org.uk/articles/Tablet.pdf
It was written by Mike McCarthy Environment Editor of the Independent
Newspaper. It ends with a conversation with Paul Brown of the Guardian,
after they attended the UK Government's climate conference in Exeter.
"By the time we reached London we knew what the conclusion was.
I said: “The earth is finished.”
Paul said: “It is, yes.”
We both shook our heads and gave that half-laugh that is sparked by
incredulity. So many environmental scare stories, over the years; I
never dreamed of such a one as this.
And what will our children make of our generation,
who let this planet, so lovingly created, go to waste?"
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This is an extremely depressing reaction; who knows, they may be right.
However, it still seems worth trying to avert the worst.
If you would like to write to the Tablet's Editor in this vein, her
details [with a sample letter from Dr Mayer Hillman] are: -
Ms Catherine Pepinster
The Editor - The Tablet
1 King Street Cloisters
Clifton Walk
London W6 OQZ
Dear Catherine Pepinster,
I experienced feelings of both satisfaction and extreme disquiet on
reading Michael McCarthy's article 'Slouching towards disaster' in the
12 February issue of The Tablet. My satisfaction stemmed from the fact
that the attention of your readership was drawn to the absolutely
critical nature of climate change and that the planet is already
exhibiting the characteristics of a runaway effect from rising
temperatures and the accelerating concentration of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. This satisfaction was more than compensated for by its
contents in spelling out the gravity of the situation, following Mr.
McCarthy's attendance at the Exeter climate conference three weeks ago.
However, what is of particular concern is that the appropriately bleak
nature of the article concluded with no indication of 'where we go from
here'. As you may know, this has been the subject of emails I have sent
you in the last few months (the first of them on 22 October). These
referred to the Global Commons Institute's framework proposal on
Contraction and Convergence. This proposal has been endorsed by an
impressive list of institutions and individuals, including the Royal
Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Catholic Institute for
International Relations and the Archbishop of Canterbury, to name but
three. Last week, the Corporation of the City of London, made a unique
first-time award to Aubrey Meyer, GCI's founder and director, for what
was described as a life-time's achievement in making '... the greatest
contribution to the understanding and combating (my italics) of climate
change'.
Indeed, the GCI framework proposal was the focus of my book How we can
save the planet (Penguin Books, 2004) referred to in my earlier emails.
In this, the logical outcome of Contraction and Convergence was
developed in the form of per capita carbon rationing, including a simple
method of calculating annual personal carbon dioxide emissions and
relating these to the planet's capacity to absorb them on an equitable
basis without serious damage to the planet's ecological integrity.
Would you agree that a logical follow-up to Michael McCarthy's article
should be one that gives some hope for the future by setting out the
only route out of the impasse that our instinctive desire 'to look the
other way' has led us? The justification for adopting this lies in its
practicality, its political logic, its significance as an unchallenged
solution with an assured prospect of delivering on agreed future targets
of reductions in greenhouse gas emiission reductions - and, not least,
its morality.
Dr. Mayer Hillman
Senior Fellow Emeritus
Policy Studies Institute
cc Sir John Houghton
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
Michael McCarthy, the Independent
Aubrey Meyer, Global Commons Institute
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