climate and comms

The vast majority of humanity survive on a few dollars a day.    The economic boom of the last fifty years has benefited a relatively small elite. The fossil fuel driven economy has devastated the planet. Capitalism is the most efficient creator of wealth but it has been derailed and it has led to inequality and environmental degradation on a global scale. Global warming and capitalism’s favourite progeny – globalisation – has triggered social movements,   political discontent and massive migration.    There are more economic and political migrants seeking greener pastures than at any time in history. Increased Government participation in the economy both directly and through regulation is required to temper the excesses of laissez-faire capitalism. Degrowth means uncoupling the link between growth and prosperity.        Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ has been the single biggest driver of the phenomenal economic growth enjoyed globally over the last two hundred years

   The oceans have acted as ‘airbags’ in the slow motion car crash that is climate change.    They have absorbed much of the impact and protected us humans from immediate danger - apart from a 'little' whiplash i.e.  heatwaves, floods, droughts and storms. About 30% of CO2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution have been absorbed by the oceans.   So, humans on land have been spared the worst of the impact of atmospheric heating (caused by increased CO2 and other GHG concentrations) that would have otherwise taken place did we not have the oceans.     But this has come at a huge cost : (1)      increased acidification of the ocean (pH has gone from 8.3 to 8.2) it's logarithmic - so actually a 30% increase in acidity ,   and : (2)    Increased temperature of the oceans – especially in the top layer ( up to 700m depth ) – since the 1970’s the oceans have trapped up to 90% of all excess heat energy trapped by GHG’s.     This is about 0.6 degrees C.  

  The Summer of 2022 will be remembered as the season when global temperature records were broken systematically.    When more temperature records were broken in more places than ever before.    All the way across Europe and the UK records are being shattered as wildfires wreak havoc upon the natural and the built environment.   China, India and the USA have also broken heat records and there is no let-up in sight.   (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/with-record-breaking-heat-europe-glimpses-its-climate-future/)   The environments in cities and towns are increasingly becoming hostile to human habitation and this will lead to more migration.       How has this come about?   We are living in the Anthropocene geological age  – the period in earth’s history when Man has made a significant impact on the environment.      It started (in earnest) at the time of the Industrial revolution when the energy that could be unlocked from fossil fuels (most nota