$10 trillion per year increased Carbon Debt for young people & doomed (?) planet

NASA’s Dr James Hansen (Adjunct Professor at 101-Nobel-Laureate Columbia University) has provided a nation-based breakdown of global responsibility for fossil fuel-derived CO2 pollution between 1751 and 2006 as a percentage (%) of the Historical Carbon Debt (1751-2006) of 346 billion tonnes C [1].

A US dollar value can be placed on that Carbon Debt from the requisite Carbon Price for effective climate change action, and equivalent to the actual damage caused, of $150 per tonne CO2 for the EU (and $250 per tonne CO2 for the US), as estimated by Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University [2].

Thus $150 per tonne CO2 x 346 billion tonnes C x 3.7 tonne CO2 per tonne C = $192 trillion or about 2.3 times the World’s GDP.

Revised annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is 64 billion tonnes CO2-e (CO2-equivalent including other GHGs like methane, CH4) and thus Carbon Debt for future generations is increasing globally each year by $150 per tonne CO2-e x 0.064 trillion tonnes CO2-e = $9.6 trillion i.e. by about $10 trillion annually.

Australia (population 24 million) is one of the worst annual per capita GHG polluters. Australia’s annual Domestic plus Exported GHG pollution is about 2 billion tonnes CO2-e [3], this giving an Australian per capita of 83 tonnes CO2-e per person per year as compared to the World average of 9 tonnes CO2-e per person per year and Bangladesh’s 0.9 tonnes CO2-e per person per year [4].

However the pro-fossil fuels, pro-pollution, anti-science, effective climate change denialist Australian Coalition Government opposes a Carbon Tax and permits free, unlimited GHG pollution of the one common atmosphere and ocean of all countries and all peoples at a Carbon Tax rate of $0 (zero) per tonne CO2-e.

Accordingly, the Australian Coalition Government’s climate change inaction is running up a Carbon Debt of $150 per tonne CO2-e x 2 billion tonnes CO2-e per year = $300 billion per year to be paid by future generations. This is not just climate criminality but also climate injustice and intergenerational injustice [5].

Young Australians and all those who care for young people, future generations, Humanity, and the Biosphere will utterly reject the egregious theft and mendacity of the neoliberal Coalition Government, vote 1 Green and put the Coalition last. Indeed the World will not indefinitely tolerate Australia’s ecocidal, terracidal, climate genocidal, dog-in-the-manger greed.

This is intolerably gargantuan intergenerational wealth transfer, climate injustice, and intergenerational inequity [5] on top of the realities that the politically dominant One Percenters collectively own about half the wealth of the world [6] and that this inequity is linked to 17 million avoidable deaths from deprivation each year [7].

Until the last century the atmospheric CO2 concentration had been no higher than about 300 parts per million (ppm) for about 1 million years [3]. Many climate scientists, biological scientists and science-informed climate activists say that for a safe planet for all peoples and all species we must urgently return atmospheric CO2 to 300 ppm CO2 from the current damaging and dangerous 400 ppm CO2 [8]. With 700 billion tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere, returning the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 300 ppm from the current 400 ppm involves removing 0.25 x 700 = 175 billion tonnes CO2 from the atmosphere.

Such reversal of atmospheric CO2 concentration to circa 300 ppm CO2 can be achieved through CO2 sequestration as cellulose (through re-afforestation and photosynthesis), biochar (through anaerobic pyrolysis of cellulosic waste) and bicarbonate (through accelerated weathering of limestone), coupled necessarily with 100% renewable energy and geothermal energy [9] and cessation of deforestation, population growth and GHG pollution from industry, transport and agriculture [10].

The cost of returning to 300 ppm CO2 via removal of 175 billion tonnes of CO2 as biochar is of the order of scores of billions of dollars (difficult but possible) but dire predictions from Professor Peter Wadhams from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University of the release of 50 billion tonnes of CH4 from the Arctic sea bed in coming decades in the absence of effective climate change action (5,250 billion tonnes of CO2-e assuming a global warming potential for CH4 105 times that of CO2 on a 20 year time frame and considering aerosol impacts) makes the task of saving the planet well-nigh impossible [3, 11].

With a global Carbon Debt increasing at about $10 trillion annually and the looming prospect that within decades it may become too late to save the planet, young people (and those who care for them) should be as mad as hell and shouldn’t take it any more.

For focussed, inclusive, climate activism I advocate an ABC strategy (akin to that successfully employed by other –isms from Humanism to Socialism) involving Accountability (by holding the terracidal climate criminals accountable at the ballot box, in public life in general, and through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) applied to all people, politicians, parties, companies, corporations and countries complicit in catastrophic climate change [12]), a Badge ( wear a badge e.g. “300 ppm CO2” indicating the safe target for atmospheric CO2 reduction), and a Credo ( a concise statement of position e.g. “for a safe and sustainable planet for all peoples and all species we must urgently return atmospheric CO2 from the present dangerous and damaging 400 ppm CO2 to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2”).

References.

[1]. Dr James Hansen, “Letter to PM Kevin Rudd by Dr James Hansen”, 2008: http://www.aussmc.org.au/documents/Hansen2008LetterToKevinRudd_000.pdf .

[2]. Dr 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/fileadmin/user_upload/research/workingpapers/wp1109.pdf .

[3]. Dr Gideon Polya, “2011 Climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .

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

[5]. “Climate justice & intergenerational equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .

[6]. Gideon Polya, “Key Book Review: “Capital In The Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty”, Countercurrents, 1 July 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya010714.htm .

[7]. Gideon Polya, “4 % annual Global Wealth Tax to stop the 17 million deaths annually”, Countercurrents, 27 June, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya270614.htm .

[8]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm”, 300.org: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org---return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .

[9]. “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .

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

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

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