An A-Z alphabetical list of actions and advocacies for climate change activists

The World may have now run out of time to prevent a catastrophic 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise, but while there is life there is hope. Climate change activists must still try in every way they can to make the looming disaster less bad. Below is an alphabetical list of numerous actions and advocacies whereby science-informed climate activists can try to mitigate the consequences of man-made climate change driven by remorseless, neoliberal One Percenter greed.

Climate change inaction by world governments now means that there is now a low probability for them achieving their common goal of avoiding a catastrophic 2 degree Celsius (2C) temperature rise. Thus the latest international consensus-based IPCC Summary for Policymakers (2014) argues for a limitation of temperature rise to 2 degrees C through limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution of the atmosphere to 450 ppm (parts per million) CO2-equivalent (CO2-e), but hard evidence says that we have already reached 478 ppm CO2-e, that plus 2C is dangerous and essentially inevitable (leading to a Pliocene-like sea level rise of 25 meters at equilibrium), and that the world will use up its 600 Gt CO2 Carbon Budget for a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C rise within about 3 years [1].

Basically, we know what the problem is (man-made GHG pollution) and how to solve it. Fundamentally, we need to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration to about 300 ppm for a safe planet for all peoples and all species and to achieve this will require the following:

1. Change of societal philosophy to one of scientific risk management and biological sustainability with complete cessation of species extinctions and zero tolerance for lying.

2. Urgent reduction of atmospheric CO2 from the present damaging 400 ppm (parts per million) CO2 to a safe level of about 300 ppm CO2 as recommended by leading climate and biological scientists.

3. Rapid switch to the best non-carbon and renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tide and hydro options that are currently roughly the same market price as coal burning-based power) and to energy efficiency, public transport, needs-based production, re-afforestation and return of carbon as biochar to soils or as bicarbonate to the ocean, with all this coupled with correspondingly rapid cessation of fossil fuel burning, deforestation, methanogenic livestock production and population growth.

Unfortunately, requisite climate change action is not happening and as a consequence serious climate disruption is already occurring - with even worse in prospect - through increased sea levels, glacier melting, monsoon weakening, increased forest fire severity, increased flooding and an increase in the incidence of severe storms and hurricanes.

Australian climate economist and ethicist Professor Clive Hamilton in his seminal book “Requiem for a Species” considers that it is now too late to avoid major global damage from man-made climate change but argues (pages 222-223) that sensible people must nevertheless continue to urge climate change action to minimize the harm: “If it is too late to prevent climate disruption there is still much we can influence. Any success in reducing emissions is better than doing nothing , because warming and its effects can at least be slowed down. Resisting those who want to capitulate is a fight worth having. And we can begin preparing for the impacts of climate disruption not by self-protection but by vigorous political engagement aimed at collectively building democracies that can ensure the best defences against a more hostile climate, ones that do not abandon the poor and vulnerable to their fate while those who are able to buy their way out of the crisis do so for as long as they can” [2].

Even if it is too late to avoid a catastrophic plus 2 degree Centigrade warming, anything we do now to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution will make the future less bad. While there is life there is hope.

Below is an alphabetically organized list of science-informed actions and arguments A-Z which we all must advance in the face of the worsening climate crisis and climate disruption.

Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol for climate change action. Many –isms from. Catholicism to Communism have successfully applied an ABC protocol of holding non-adherents legally or politically Accountable, displaying a Badge (e.g. a Crucifix or Hammer and Sickle), and having a simple Credo, or simple statement of belief (e.g. like the Nicene Creed of Catholicism or the 5 Pillars of Wisdom of Islam). Adherents of climate change activism should adopt a similar protocol, urging and applying Accountability through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), displaying an informative Badge (e.g. “300 ppm CO2”) and advancing a basic Credo (e.g. “as argued by top scientists, for a safe planet for all peoples and all species we must urgently return the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from the present disastrous 400 parts per million CO2 to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2”).

Bear witness to the worsening climate crisis. As outlined above under “Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol”, we must publicly “bear witness” to the worsening climate emergency by wearing an appropriate Badge, or T-shirt or by other messaging as outlined under “Blogging” below. I wear a Badge saying “300 ppm CO2” wherever I go and I am able to succinctly and quickly explain this bottom-line message to strangers who ask me about it in the street, at concerts, at parties, in lifts etc.

Blogging for climate change truth. According to Oxfam the top One Percent (the One Percenters) own about 50% of global wealth. We live in societies in which Democracy has been transmuted by Big Money to Plutocracy, Murdochracy, Lobbyocracy and Corporatocracy in which “one dollar one vote” has replaced “one person one vote”. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. We must use every avenue to get through the Mainstream media Wall of Silence and posting comments on Mainstream and other web articles is one way of doing this. A much-published 5-decade-career scientist I have almost no voice in Australian media and such blogging comments represents a major way for me of expressing documented, science-based humane views within Australia, notwithstanding frequent censorship by Australian mainstream media.

Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) - successfully applied against Apartheid in South Africa and currently being applied against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine – should be comprehensively applied against all people, politicians, parties, countries, companies, corporations and collectives disproportionately complicit in the worsening climate crisis [3].

Carbon Debt (Climate Debt), Carbon Price and Carbon Tax. Carbon Debt reflects the inescapable future cost in today’s dollars of fixing the remorselessly increasing climate damage. Carbon Debt is the historical contribution of countries to the carbon pollution of the atmosphere and can be variously expressed as Gt CO2-e (gigatonnes or billions of tonnes of CO2-equivalent) or in dollar terms by applying a Carbon Price. Thus leading climate economist Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University has estimated a damage-related Carbon Price in US dollars of $150 per tonne CO2-e. The World has a 1751-2006 Carbon Debt of 350 Gt C x (3.67 Gt CO2/Gt C) x $150 per tonne CO2-e = $193 trillion plus a 2007-2015 Carbon Debt of 64 Gt CO2-e x /year ($150 /t CO2-e) x 8 years = $76.8 trillion or a total 1751-2015 Carbon Debt of $270 trillion (about 3 times the annual world GDP of $85 trillion) that is increasing by about 64 Gt CO2-e/year x ($150 /t CO2-e) = $9.6 trillion/year or about $10 trillion each year. By way of a national example, Australia is a world-leading annual per capita GHG polluter with a 1751-2006 Carbon Debt of 5.9 Gt C x (3.67 Gt CO2-e/Gt C) x ($150 /t CO2-e) = $3.2 trillion plus a 2007-2015 Carbon Debt of 2 Gt CO2-e/year x ($150 /t CO2-e) x 8 years = $2.4 trillion i.e. a total 1751-2015 Carbon Debt of $5.6 trillion that is increasing at 2 Gt CO2-e /year x ($150 /t CO2-e) = $300 billion per year. Thus Australia (population 24 million) with 0.34% of the world’s population has 2.1% of the world’s Carbon Debt. The Australian Carbon Debt will have to be paid by the young and future generations and for under-30 year old Australians is increasing at about $30,000 per person per year, noting that the annual Australian per capita income is about $65,000 [4].

Climate genocide. Currently 5 million people die each year from climate change (0.5 million) or carbon burning (4.5 million) but an estimated 10 billion will die this century in a worsening climate genocide if man-made climate change is not adequately addressed. Noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN Population Division) , these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including roughly twice the present population of particular mainly non-European groups, specifically 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 [5, 6].

Demand rapid cessation of GHG pollution and an urgent return to 300 ppm CO2. Individually or collectively, privately or publicly, we are used to demanding decent public policy about all kinds of things, and our vehemence increases as we go from matters of personal benefit (e.g. more accessible child care) to matters of life and death such as invasion of Vietnam or Iraq. As outlined under “Carbon Debt” above, the young will inescapably have to pay the world’s Carbon Debt (now $270 trillion or 3 times global annual GDP) – or die. As outlined below under “Oppose climate crimes”, there is a worsening Climate Genocide in which currently 5 million die each year from climate change (0.5 million) or carbon burning (4.5 million) but an estimated 10 billion will die this century if man-made climate change is not adequately addressed [5, 6].
Demonstrate against climate change inaction. The world is rapidly running out if time to deal effectively with man-made climate change. Indeed there is a high probability that we have already passed the point beyond which a catastrophic 2C temperature rise is unavoidable [6]. Dr James Hansen (former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at 101-Nobel-Laureate Columbia University”: “The fraudulence of the Copenhagen approach – "goals" for emission reductions, "offsets" that render ironclad goals almost meaningless, the ineffectual "cap-and-trade" mechanism – must be exposed. We must rebel against such politics as usual. Science reveals that climate is close to tipping points. It is a dead certainty that continued high emissions will create a chaotic dynamic situation for young people, with deteriorating climate conditions out of their control. Science also reveals what is needed to stabilise atmospheric composition and climate… Are we going to stand up and give global politicians a hard slap in the face, to make them face the truth? It will take a lot of us – probably in the streets. Or are we going to let them continue to kid themselves and us and cheat our children and grandchildren? Intergenerational inequity is a moral issue” [5, 7].

Divest from fossil fuels. A concrete way in which people can individually or collectively strike against terracidal corporations destroying the planet for short-term greed is to divest from fossil fuels. Such action is actually in the interests of the divestors because fossil fuel assets are increasingly being seen as potential “stranded assets”. Thus the UK Carbon Tracker: “Between 60-80% of coal, oil and gas reserves of publicly listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C. The total coal, oil and gas reserves listed on the world’s stock exchanges equals 762GtCO2 – approximately a quarter of the world’s total reserves [about 3,000 Gt CO2]. If you apply the same proportion to the global carbon budgets to have an 80% chance of limiting global warming to 2°C, their allocation of the carbon budget is between 125Gt CO2 and 225Gt CO2, illustrating the scale of ‘unburnable carbon’”[3]. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CH4 on a 20 year time frame and with aerosol impacts considered is 105 times that of CO2 . The German WBGU (2009) and the Australian Climate Commission (2013) have estimated that a terminal Carbon Budget of no more than 600 billion tonnes of CO2 can be emitted between 2010 and zero emissions in 2050 if the world is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise. The 762 Gt CO2 of listed fossil fuel reserves and 3,000 Gt CO2 of total fossil fuel reserves correspond to 1.3 times and 5 times the Carbon Budget, respectively. The 50 Gt (billion tonnes) CH4 in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf that Professor Peter Wadhams and colleagues from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University predict will be released in coming decades is equivalent to 50 billion tonnes CH4 x 105 tonnes CO2-e/tonne CH4 = 5,250 tonnes CO2-e or about 9 times more than the world’s terminal Carbon Budget [5].

Ecosocialism. The insatiable neoliberals, including the corporate climate criminals, currently dominate the Western democracies that have become Corporatocracies and have made “socialism” a dirty word. Yet it is now apparent that neoliberal greed has gone too far, and indeed to the extent that a catastrophic 2C temperature rise now seems unavoidable due to excessive One Percenter GHG pollution of the one common atmosphere and ocean of all peoples. Neoliberalism has failed and must be replaced by “all men are created equal” and equal shares of the diminished planetary resources for all people on our threatened planet i.e. ecosocialism.

Educate and evangelize for climate change action. As set out above under “Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol” we must garner support for climate change action in effective ways. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. The notes and references for a “2011 climate change course” are a good source of education of climate change [8]. Thus general ignorance has allowed the climate criminals and even “climate-lite” climate activists to argue for a coal-to-gas transition that would be disastrous because (a) it locks in dirty energy for decades and (b) depending upon the rate of systemic gas leakage, gas burning can be dirtier GHG-worse than coal burning. Thus, methane (CH4) (about 85% of natural gas) is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. Methane leaks (3.3% in the US based on the latest US EPA data and as high as 7.9% for methane from “fracking” coal seams). Using this information one can determine that gas burning for electricity can be much dirtier than coal burning greenhouse gas-wise (GHG-wise). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, sufficiently high gas leakage in the system means that gas burning for power could be worse GHG-wise than coal burning. At 2.6% leakage, the GHG effect from the leaked methane is the same as the GHG pollution from burning the remaining methane [9].

Expose climate genocide and carbon burning-related mortality and morbidity. The bottom-line argument in relation to any socio-economic proposition relates to avoidable mortality (deaths). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, gas leakage in the system actually means that gas burning for power can be worse GHG-wise than coal burning [9]. However in our Plutocracies, Murdochracies, Lobbycracies and Corporatocracies Big Money gets in the way of the Awful Truth by dominating Mainstream media. Thus according Professor Jeffrey Sachs from 101-Nobel-Laureate Columbia University in his book, “The Price of Civilisation” , “Big Oil-transport-military complex represents 1 of 4 major “gangs” dominating the US and variously other Western societies (the other 3 US “gangs” being the “military industrial complex”, the “Wall Street-Washington complex” and the “health care industry”) [10]. Yet fossil fuel-driven transport comes at an enormous human cost. Thus out of a US population of 315 million, 1.5 million Americans die preventably each year with 33,000 Americans killed by motor vehicles each year, 70,000 Americans dying annually from air pollution (e.g. from coal burning, vehicle exhaust, carbon burning in general) and, as estimated by scientists from from 85-Nobel-Laureate MIT, 53,000 premature deaths occur each year in the US because of vehicle emissions [11]. In 2011 about 150,000 people died preventably that year in the UK (2011 population 62.4 million) [12] and of those 5,000 died from vehicle exhaust [11]. In Australia (population 24 million) about 80,000 people die preventably each year with 2,200 dying from vehicle exhaust and 2,000 dying from vehicle accidents [11]. The WHO estimates that 7 million people die each year for air pollution and DARA estimates that 5 million people die annually from climate change (0.5 million ) and carbon–burning (4.5 million) [5]. An estimated 10 billion people will die this century if man-made climate change is not adequately addressed [5, 6].
Express your science-informed opinions about the worsening climate crisis – in every way you can. Your horribly afflicted grandchildren will ask “What did you do in the War on Terra?”

Fossil fuel burning cessation. In order to return to 300 ppm CO2 we must cease fossil fuel burning and other GHG pollution as well as removing CO2 from the atmosphere as biochar or bicarbonate. However the cost of removing CO2 as biochar or bicarbonate is of the order of $100 per tonne CO2 and thus for every $1 fossil fuel companies get for coal, oil or gas, future generations will have to pay about $1-3 in today’s dollars to reverse the atmospheric pollution from subsequent fossil fuel combustion [13]. This estimate is similar to the estimate by Dr Chris Hope from 90-Nobel-Laureate Cambridge University of a damage-related Carbon Price of $150 per tonne CO2-e.

Gas is not clean energy. Methane (CH4) (about 85% of natural gas) is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. Methane leaks (3.3% in the US based on the latest US EPA data and as high as 7.9% for methane from “fracking” coal seams). Using this information one can determine that, depending on the systemic gas leakage, gas burning for electricity can be much dirtier than coal burning greenhouse gas-wise (GHG-wise). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning, and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, gas leakage in the system actually means that gas burning for power can be worse GHG-wise than coal burning. Thus at 2.6% methane leakage, the greenhouse gas (GHG) effect from the leaked methane as the same as that from the CO2 from combustion of the remaining methane. The much-touted coal-to-gas transition that is occurring in the US and elsewhere is counterproductive because (a) it locks in dirty fossil fuel burning for decades and (b) gas leakage makes this additionally very dirty GHG-wise [8, 9].

Greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution cessation. In order to return to 300 ppm CO2 we must cease fossil fuel burning as well as removing CO2 from the atmosphere as biochar or bicarbonate. However we must also eliminate pollution of CO2-equivalents GHG-wise such as methane (CH4, from methanogenic livestock production), nitrous oxide (N2O; from agricultural fertilizer use) , and man-made GHGs. Thus the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of various GHGs relative to same mass of CO2 on a 20 year time frame is: CO2 (1.0), CH4 (79; 105 if aerosol impacts are considered), N2O (289), chlorofluorohydrocarbon CFC-12, CCl2F2 (11,000), hydrochlorofluorohydrocarbon HFC-22, CHClF2 (5,160), hydrofluorohydrocarbon HFC-23, CHF3 (12,000), sulphur hexafluoride SF6 (16,300), nitrogen trifluoride NF3 (12,300) [8].

Health impacts of man-made climate change. As set out above under “Expose climate genocide and carbon burning-related mortality and morbidity”, carbon burning already kills about 5 million people each year with a huge attendant human morbidity, and an estimated 10 billion people may die this century if man-made climate change is not adequately addressed [5, 6].

Inform everyone you can about the worsening climate emergency. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Most evidently in the US and the rest of the Anglosphere, the world’s democracies have become Plutocracies, Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies in which Big Money purchases people, politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality and political power. All we can do is to resolutely present a science-informed case to everyone we can as set out under “Bear witness”, “Blogging”, “Demand”, “Demonstrate”, “Evangelize”, “Express your opinion”, “Expose”, “Messaging”, “Oppose”, “Protest” , “Reject”, “Say no”, “Speak out”, “Writing”…

Jettison failed and deadly capitalism and neoliberalism. Neoliberalism, that is currently dominant in our globalized capitalist world, demands maximum freedom for the smart and disadvantaged to exploit the physical and human resources of the world for personal profit, with the possibility if a “trickle-down” benefit for the poor and disadvantaged [13]. Unfortunately the ugly truth is that already 17 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease, that 1.3 billion people have died thus since 1950 [14], and that unaddressed man-made climate change may lift this carnage to an average of 100 million people dying avoidably each year this century [6]. Neoliberalism has meant a world in which already the top One Percent owns about 50% of the global wealth, and 17 million people die annually from deprivation with the One Percenters hell-bent on stealing, dangerously polluting and indeed terminally violating the one common atmosphere and ocean of all people.

Killing hope by climate criminal, terracidal and terminal capitalism. Remorseless capitalism in 19th century British textile factories was associated with annual avoidable death rates (avoidable deaths as a percentage of population per year) for the workers of about 3.0% per annum, which in turn was the approximate avoidable death rate in colonial India in 1947 under the British [14, 15]. However the British working class had aspirations that were ultimately realized with post-1945 annual avoidable death rates approaching zero (0.04% pa in 2003) [14]. Similarly Britain’s Indian colonial subjects had aspirations that led to the post-Independence avoidable death rate falling to about 0.4% pa by 2003 [14]. However neoliberal capitalist greed is predicted to kill hope with all but as few as 0.5 billion people surviving this century if man-made climate change is not addressed [6].

Loss of livelihoods, ecosystems, species and sustainability through unaddressed climate change. As outlined above under “Killing hope”, unaddressed, man-made climate change is predicted to kill all but 0.5 billion people this century in a near-terminal climate genocide [6]. The rate of species extinction is presently 100-1,000 times greater than normal [16] . The massive ecosystem and species destruction by Man has prompted the naming of the present era as the Anthropocene.

Market-based solutions (Emissions Trading Schemes) are phony diversions. Leading climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern has described man-made climate change as “the biggest market failure the world has ever seen” However that failure has been compounded by the neoliberals responsible for this failure arguing for market-based Cap-and-Trade Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) solutions that involve setting derisory “caps” on GHG pollution, trading “licences to pollute” and offsetting GHG pollution with “carbon credits” purchased by bribing the rulers of certain Developing countries to desist from destroying forests. The ETS approach is empirically ineffective, consequently counterproductive, and is utterly fraudulent in that it lends itself to market manipulation and involves particular governments selling licences to pollute the one common atmosphere and ocean of all countries [17]. Numerous economists and scientists advocate a transparent Carbon Tax to be applied to fossil fuels at the mine gate (and to other GHG polluting systems) with political realism and economic justice being satisfied by handing the receipts to all citizens [7].

Messaging is crucial for climate change action. Effective messaging is critical to success in generating a sociological tipping point for effective climate change action. As outlined above, the “Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol” of the kind suggested for climate change action has been very successful for all kinds of religious and political movements. Similarly the “Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)” approach was successfully applied against Apartheid in South Africa. One hopes that this very “A-Z of actions and advcoacy” will be an effective approach for tackling climate change action. The dire consequences of 2C, 4C or 6C temperature rises have been documented [18, 19] but the probabilities of reaching these temperature rises depend upon the extent of GHG pollution. The Global Risk and Opportunity Indicator that is based on data from the latest UN IPCC AR5 report (2013) explains “You can use it to calculate and visualize the risk our planet is facing with regards to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Choose parts per million (PPM) of greenhouse gases in the menu to the left, and the average temperature rise in degrees Celsius in the menu to the right. In the third menu you can compare the probability for climate change with other events, such as fatal flight accidents, and display them both on the meter”. Thus the Exceedance Probability for a 2C temperature rise with an equilibrium greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration of 500 ppm CO2-eq (it is currently about 480 ppm CO2-e) is 72.5% , and that if this were the annual probability of fatal flight accidents there would be 21,750,000 fatal flight accidents per year instead of 30 per year [20].

Non-compliance with the terracidal neoliberal agenda. The One Percenters own about 50% of global wealth with the remaining 99% of Humanity owning the other half. The bottom 90% are crazy if they permit continuation of a system in which the One Percenter and Ten Percenter share of annual income is increasing in the dominant Anglosphere and only the One Percenters have the resources to be able to adapt seamlessly to catastrophic climate change. Unfortunately, the One Percenters also in effect make the laws in our peaceful rule-of-law Plutocracies, Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies. However the One Percenters are vulnerable to peaceful, Gandhian, non-violent resistance (as in the Lock-The-Gate farmers’ movement in Australia), to dissemination of the truth through Alternative media on the web, and to the market place freedom to choose via Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Oppose climate crimes. We must all resolutely expose and oppose climate crimes, climate criminals, climate criminality, climate genocide, climate injustice and climate terrorism. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. In our capitalist societies we are endlessly told that “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and that the bottom line is “user pays”. The climate criminals must be made to pay the real cost of dangerously polluting the one common atmosphere and ocean of all peoples (e.g. via a Carbon Tax, a Carbon Price or a Wealth Tax). Further, existing laws variously punish complicity in human death whether through homicide, manslaughter or depraved indifference. With 5 million people presently dying each year from climate change (0.5 million) or from carbon burning (4.5 million) and with this set to worsen to an average of 100 million per year this century if climate change is not properly addressed, it is high time for exposure and judicial punishment of the One Percenter climate criminals at the national level and also at international level via the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court. The climate criminals must be also exposed by expert non-government organization (NGO) tribunals and punished by Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) applied to all people, politicians, parties, countries, companies , corporations and collectives complicit in climate crimes.

Peaceful activism no matter the provocation. Gandhi set the standard for peaceful, non-violent and ultimately successful activism. Thus, stated in avoidable mortality numbers, the annual avoidable death rate (as a percentage of population per year) in India under the British in 1947 was about 3% pa and in 2 centuries of British rule untimely, avoidable Indian deaths from violently-imposed deprivation totalled 1.8 billion. However by 2003 the post-Independence avoidable death rate had dropped to about 0.4% pa [14, 15]. Currently 5 million people die each year world-wide from climate change (0.5 million) or carbon burning (4.5 million) but an estimated 10 billion will die this century if man-made climate change is not adequately addressed [5, 6].

Political activism. Sensible, science-informed people should do as I do and letter box, hand out how to vote cards and otherwise proselytize for the Greens, who represent the major Mainstream political group in the Anglosphere who are serious about tackling climate change (the Socialists have good environmental policies similar to those of the Greens but are heavily sidelined in the Anglosphere countries).

Population must decline. The dominant factors in the loss of species and ecosystems in the Anthropocene era are (a) the huge increase in human population to 7 billion people from 2.5 billion in 1950, and (b) increased per capita resource utilization that in a carbon-based economy means increased GHG pollution. Population decline has already been achieved in some major countries (e.g. Russia and Japan) and should be a major goal for effective climate change action.

Positive feedback-inducing advocacy. Out of control climatic disruption will occur and worsen when there are positive feedbacks that make bad things induce further worse things and tipping point exceedances. Thus melting Arctic sea ice through global warming causes an increase of “black’, solar energy-absorbing, ice-free sea and more warming (the so-called “albedo flip”) ; warming of the tundra releases methane from the melting of methane-water clathrates which causes more warming; and global warming causes droughts and forest fires which decrease mitigation of greenhouse gas pollution by forest-based sequestration of carbon, this having the consequence of further increased GHG pollution. A possible example of positive feedback-inducing advocacy would be successful advocacy of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against dirty energy and its proponents resulting in higher dirty energy costs and prices, more attractive renewable energy, increased unpopularity of climate criminal politicians and more success-driven BDS advocacy. Notwithstanding perverted oligopoly media obfuscation, one supposes that best positive feedback would come from the strongest, science-backed advocacy (see “Reject consensuality over climate crime, climate genocide and terracide” below).

Probabilities of dire outcomes. As detailed in “Messaging”, the probabilities of dire climate change outcomes can be related to the probabilities of more visceral and understandable events. Thus the world has only about 3 years before it exceeds the terminal Carbon Budget of 600 Gt CO2 that must not be exceeded if we are to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2C temperature rise. Would you board a plane if it had an expertly-determined 25% chance of crashing?

Protest the worsening climate crisis. Silence is complicity. We are obliged to speak out against climate change inaction. We are obliged to bear witness. As indicated above in the “Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol” item, wearing a cogently messaging badge is an effective way of “bearing witness”. I wear a badge stating “300 ppm CO2” wherever I go and frequently have to give succinct explanations to inquiring strangers.

Punish the climate criminals. All criminals must be brought to justice and that includes justice for climate criminals through the judicial system (see “Accountability, Badge and Credo (ABC) protocol for climate change action” above) or through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) (see “Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)” above). Where judicial punishment is not available or governments protect climate criminal corporations from activist advocacy by draconian laws (as adumbrated by the climate criminal government of Tasmania, Australia), climate criminals can be at least punished through the ignominy of public exposure by expert non-government tribunals of their crimes against the environment, Humanity and the Biosphere.
Query incorrect assertions of pro-fossil fuels corporations, media and politicians. By way of example, BP announced in 2007 that “The new BP Unleaded 91 is a blend of unleaded petrol with up to 10 percent renewable ethanol - a clean, renewable fuel that is made from the by products of sugar cane or grain” [21]. However, ethanol made from sugar cane or grain is not clean, is not renewable and indeed carries a substantial Carbon Debt. According to Pimental and Patzek: “Ethanol production using corn grain required 29% more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced” [22]. While for ethanol produced in the US, 1 unit of energy input equals 1.3 energy units of corn ethanol energy, for sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil 1 unit of energy input equals 8 energy units of sugarcane ethanol energy [23]. Biofuel production whether from corn or sugar cane carries a huge Carbon Debt and accordingly cannot be described as “renewable”. Dr Joseph Fargione and colleagues state: “Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food crop–based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a "biofuel carbon debt" by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that these biofuels would provide by displacing fossil fuels. In contrast, biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on degraded and abandoned agricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and can offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages” [24]. Biofuels also pose a threat to Humanity as “food for fuel” that increases global food prices and hence malnourishment and starvation [25]. A very widespread falsehood is that “gas is clean energy” or that “gas is cleaner than coal”. However, methane (CH4) (about 85% of natural gas) is 105 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas (GHG) on a 20 year time frame and taking aerosol impacts into account. Methane leaks (3.3% in the US based on the latest US EPA data and as high as 7.9% for methane from “fracking” coal seams). Using this information one can determine that gas burning for electricity can be much dirtier than coal burning greenhouse gas-wise (GHG-wise). While gas burning for power generates twice as much electrical energy per tonne of CO2 produced (MWh/tonne CO2) than coal burning and the health-adverse pollution from gas burning is lower than for coal burning, gas leakage in the system actually means that gas burning for power can be worse GHG-wise than coal burning [9]. In Australia one can make formal complaints about corporate malfeasance and false or misleading advertisement to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and similar avenues may be open to people in other countries.

Reject consensuality over climate crime, climate genocide and terracide. Consensus is a reasonable approach in all kinds of disputes. However it is necessary to draw moral lines in the sand in relation to many key matters ranging from bestiality, child abuse, rape, and violence to war, genocide and use of nuclear weapons against civilian populations. There can be no compromise over ecosystem destruction, species extinction, climate genocide [5, 6] , climate crime [26], climate injustice [27], intergenerational inequity [27], and terracide (wiping out most of Humanity and the Biosphere). In Chapter 6, “Fruits not roots: the disastrous merger of Big Business and Big Green”, of her book “This changes everything. Capitalism vs the climate” [28, 29], Naomi Klein gives examples of green activists compromising with polluters. Naomi Klein comments “The “market-based” climate solutions favored by so many large foundations and adopted by many greens have provided an invaluable service to the fossil fuel sector as a whole”. ([28], page 199).

Renewable energy. Cessation of greenhouse gas pollution ASAP [30] means 100% renewable energy ASAP. An alphabetically-ordered compendium of towns, cities, countries and corporations committed to rapid achievement of 100% renewable energy is given by the website “100% renewable energy by 2020” [31].

Resistance. The world is badly running out of time to address man-made climate change and, realistically, it may be too late to avoid a catastrophic plus 2C temperature rise. [1]. Sensible people must now resist looming terracide in every sensible, peaceful way they can.

Sanctions. Science-informed people are obliged to take every peaceful step they can against the climate criminals with sanctions at the ballot box and in the market place being the most effective.

Say “no” to all greenhouse gas pollution and speak out against climate change inaction. Silence is complicity. We are all obliged to speak out against climate change inaction. Children will ask their grandparents: what did you do in the War on Terra? Cessation of industrial GHG pollution (from fossil fuel burning and cement manufacture) is obvious to all but the climate criminals and those they and complicit Mainstream media have duped. However methanogenic livestock also make a huge contribution. Thus World Bank analysts have recently revised upwards Man’s annual GHG pollution from 42 Gt CO2-e to 64 Gt CO2-e with livestock-linked GHG pollution contributing over 51% of the bigger figure [8].

Science-based and documented advocacy. The War on Truth by fossil fuel corporations and their media and politician backers is anti-science but these climate criminals get away with it because most people do not have a scientific training. Now scientists are properly sceptical but build on the peer-reviewed published work of their predecessors – they have not the time to continually “re-invent the wheel”. Accordingly, giving due respect to well-established scientific authority is an operationally important part of science, with the fundamental caveat of course that science is about critically testing potentially falsifiable hypotheses. Sensible people place weight on the opinions of scientific experts and especially on the collective opinions of scientific experts (e.g. the pronouncements by the UK Royal Society and the US National Academy of Science). Indeed when it comes to domestic electrical safety we place vastly greater weight on the opinion of a trained electrician than on that of a non-electrician. Climate activists have science on their side and should be prepared to give authoritative documentation to their arguments (e.g. see “2011 climate change course” [8]).

Species extinction must cease. We cannot destroy what we cannot replace and that means cessation of the horrendous current species extinction that is now occurring at a rate 100-1,000 times greater than normal and which is impacted by man-made climate change [16].

Three hundred parts per million carbon dioxide (300 ppm CO2). As argued by top climate scientists and biological scientists, for a safe planet for all peoples and all species we must urgently return the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration from the present disastrous 400 parts per million CO2 to a safe and sustainable 300 ppm CO2 (Google “300 ppm CO2”).

Tipping point for mass action on climate change . The world appears to have already exceeded tipping points for mass species extinction, massive ecosystem loss, a catastrophic 2C temperature rise, a 25 metre sea level rise over coming centuries, the total loss of Arctic summer sea ice within a decade or so, and the loss of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf in coming centuries [1]. Any of these tipping point exceedances could be the basis for a sociological tipping point leading to mass demand for rapid and effective climate change action.

United opposition to terracide and climate genocide. The contrasting examples of the Netherlands and Bangladesh are salutary. Both countries are acutely threatened by man-made climate change and consequential sea level rise and storm surges. However the rich Netherlands (annual per capita GDP $46,073) has the money to deal with the problem presently whereas impoverished Bangladesh (annual per capita GDP $822) is currently already in retreat from the remorselessly encroaching sea. However even The Netherlands will most likely be unable to cope with a future Pliocene-like equilibrium sea level rise of 25 metres implicit in a plus 2C scenario [1]. One is reminded of Jared Diamond’s example in his book “Collapse” of the big freeze in Greenland in which the rich survived only for a few more months longer than the poor [32]. The First World will be better able to partly survive climate genocide than the Developing World and the rich One Percenter First Worlders will be better able to survive than the poor [6], but basically from a non-One Percenter perspective, we are all in this together.

Vote 1 Green or Socialist and put the climate criminals last. The only political movements demanding urgent action on man-made climate change are the Greens and the Socialists. Notwithstanding the reality that out Democracies have become Plutocracies, Murdochracies, Lobbyocracies and Corporatocracies, the formal popular voting at elections remains. Sensible, science-informed people must urge everyone they can to vote 1 Green or Socialist and put the climate criminals last.

War footing. Urgent action is required to prevent disaster. David Spratt and Phillip Sutton in their book “Climate Code Red” invoked the example of the US after Pearl Harbor quickly and radically shifting manufacturing industry to a war footing and war-related production to deal with the emergency [33].

Wealth Tax to reverse man-made climate change. The whole world has a Carbon Debt of about $270 trillion (about 3 times the annual world GDP of $85 trillion) that is increasing by about $10 trillion per year, and the convenient assumption of the One Percenters who own 50% of global wealth is that the young and future generations will have to pay this debt. Now French economist Professor Thomas Piketty in his important book “Capital in the Twenty First Century” argues that the huge sequestration of global wealth by the One Percenters and Ten Percenters (the top One Percent own about half the world’s wealth) is bad for democracy (“one dollar one vote” replacing “one person one vote”) and bad for the economy (the poor cannot afford the goods and services they produce). Professor Piketty suggests an annual Wealth Tax to address this dangerous inequity [34, 35] and I have estimated that an annual Wealth Tax of 4% could bring every country up to the annual per capita GDP of China and Cuba (about $6,000 pa) and thus eliminate the horrendous Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust in which 17 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year [36]. An annual Wealth Tax would be very attractive to the impoverished young and future generations as a means of meeting the huge $270 trillion Carbon Debt and preventing a climate genocide of 10 billion victims [6].

Writing. Writing short or long commentaries on aspects of the climate crisis in electronic Mainstream and Alternative media are effective ways of “bearing witness” to the worsening climate emergency.

X stands for the unknown. There may well be circumstances in which the climate crisis is so dire that decent people will have to act and advocate in radically different ways. The climate emergency already warrants peaceful, non-violent, Gandhian mass protest. We all respect the law for a peaceful society but that position admits non-violent mass resistance. An example is given by the Lock The Gate Alliance in Australia in which normally very conservative farmers locked their gates to prevent environmentally damaging but government- and law-backed drilling and fracking for gas or mining for coal on their farms.

Young people must revolt (peacefully). Young people are witnessing the destruction of their future that is compounded by the expectation that they, the victims, will have to pay for the climate criminality of our presently One Percenter-dominated world. The whole world has a Carbon Debt of about $270 trillion (about 3 times the annual world GDP of $85 trillion) that is increasing by about $10 trillion per year – but young people and future generations will have to pay this huge Carbon Debt by reversing man-mad climate change or suffer and die [27]. When will young people wake up to this immense climate injustice and intergenerational inequity and revolt?

Zero tolerance for climate criminality. Sensible people try to achieve operational consensus (if not agreement) with others over even quite serious matters. Indeed that is how wars can be prevented. However there are areas in which we must draw a line in the sand and we must express zero tolerance for violence, war, racism, child abuse, species extinction and terracide. We must oppose the climate criminals in peaceful ways but must also clearly express our zero tolerance for their terracidal immorality.

References.

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

[2]. Clive Hamilton, “Requiem for a Species. Why we resist the truth about climate change”, Allen & Unwin, 2010.

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

[4]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .

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

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

[7]. James Hansen, “It’s Possible To Avert The Climate Crisis”, Countercurrents, 29 November, 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/hansen291109.htm .

[8]. “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .

[9]. “Gas is not clean energy”: https://sites.google.com/site/gasisnotcleanenergy/ .

[10]. Jeffrey Sachs , “The Price of Civilisation”.

[11]. “Exhaust gas”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaust_gas .

[12]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism - Zero Australian Terrorism Deaths, 1 Million Preventable Australian Deaths & 10 Million Muslims Killed By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 23 September, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .

[13]. Gideon Polya, “Expert Witness Testimony To Stop Gas-Fired Power Plant Installation”, Countercurrents, 14 June, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya140613.htm .

[14]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” that includes a history of every country and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/body-count-global-avoidable-mortality_05.html .

[15]. Gideon Polya, “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” that is now available for free perusal on the web: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com.au/ .

[16]. Phillip S. Levin and Donald A. Levin, “The real biodiversity crisis”, Macroscope, January-February 2002: http://www.soc.duke.edu/~pmorgan/levin&levin.2002.the_real_biodiversity_crisis.html .

[17]. “Science & economics experts: Carbon Tax needed NOT Carbon Trading”, 300.org: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/sciennce-economics-experts-carbon-tax-needed-not-carbon-trading .

[18]. Mark Lynas, “ Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet”.

[19]. David Spratt and Phillip Sutton, “Climate Code Red”.

[20]. Global Risk and Opportunity Indicator: http://global-risk-indicator.net/ .

[21]. BP rolls out renewable fuel in Sydney”, BP release, 29 August 2007: http://www.bp.com/en_au/australia/media/media-releases/bp-rolls-out-renewable-fuel-in-sydney.html .

[22]. D. Pimental and T.W. Patzek, “Ethanol production using corn, switchgrass and wood; biodiesel production using soybean and sunflower”, Natural Resources Research, March 2005, Volume 14, pp 65-76: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11053-005-4679-8 .

[23]. “Ethanol fuel energy balance”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_energy_balance .

[24]. Dr Joseph Fargione and colleagues, “Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt”, Science 29 February 2008, Vol. 319. no. 5867, pp. 1235 – 1238: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1152747 .

[25]. “Biofuel Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/home .

[26]. “Stop climate crime”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-climate-crime .

[27]. “Climate Justice & Intergenerational Equity”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/climate-justice .

[28]. Naomi Klein, “This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. the Climate”.

[29]. Gideon Polya, “This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. the Climate” by Naomi Klein - Green Socialist Revolution ASAP”, Countercurrents, 11 December 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya111214.htm .

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

[31]. “100% renewable energy by 2020”: https://sites.google.com/site/100renewableenergyby2020/ .

[32]. Jared Diamond, “Collapse”.

[33]. David Spratt and Phillip Sutton, “Climate Code Red: the case for emergency action”: http://www.climatecodered.org/p/book.html .

[34]. Thomas Piketty, “Capital in the Twenty First Century”.

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

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