Originally posted @ 2:40 pm, Fri 10th Jul 2009
A call for support for ambitious change at the forthcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen to be held in December.
Pledge your support at http://www.labour.org.uk/copenhagen_pledge
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Meanwhile, take a moment to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first landings by men on the moon - 20th July Houston time - 3:30 in the morning on the 21st July, British time. And I can remember being up in the middle of the night to watch it.
Quick congratulations to the makers of "Moonshot: the Flight of Apollo 11" shown on ITV earlier. Some nice stories, including the use of a felt pen to operate a broken switch enabling the astronauts to take off from the surface of the moon. But mainly, they gave a better sense of what it was like to be on the moon than anything I've previously seen, bringing impact to the words spoken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the moon walk.
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"So there I was ... all set to write about the anniversary of the moon landings when I opened the paper only to discover everyone else in the world has written about the anniversary of the moon landings."
Charlie Brooker is the latest journalist to bewail all the articles on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing so well before July 20th. Clips of Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" are being shown time and again, along with interviews with the public from the fifties showing the fear that the first Soviet space flight brought. Something tangible that made people decide to act, initially irrespective of the cost.
So what did the moon landings achieve? Mainly a better understanding of the probable origins of the Moon and a whole set of technological advances that came from meeting the goal; and a famous quote setting a certain expectation that things can be done if we only have the will.
"We went to explore the Moon, and in fact discovered the Earth." - Eugene Cernan, last man to leave the moon, Apollo 17
Most surprising is the assertion that the modern environmental movements started with the missions to the moon. It’s clear environmental movements existed way before then, and it's probable that other events current in the sixties may have triggered campaigns.
But Apollo 8’s Christmas Eve “good earth” broadcast and the associated photo of the Earth rising above the moon’s horizon was dramatic; as was Apollo 17’s photo of the earth fully lit by the sun, which is said to be the most reproduced photo in history.
Apollo 13’s crisis taught us a different lesson, claimed James Burke, the seventies science correspondent of the BBC. Apollo 13 was said to be jinxed by its number – something I’ve always resented, being born on the 13th. A wiring failure meant an explosion in the service module’s oxygen tanks, and the crew having to use the lunar explorer module as a temporary command module – or as James Burke put it, a lifeboat. And the lesson James Burke said we should draw from that was Apollo 13 had a lifeboat – the Earth doesn’t. So we need to look after the “good earth”.
In the seventies, the biggest threat we faced was triggered a nuclear war and a nuclear winter. But now the biggest threat we now face is global warming.
The threat mainly concerns carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. An invisible gas, vital to plant life, but toxic to humans at concentrations at above 1% and very serious at 8% (as Apollo 13 had to deal with).
Carbon Dioxide only constitutes 387 parts per million of the earth's atmodsphere (0.038%; 78% being nitrogen and 21% being oxygen, 1% argon).
How can something so slight be such a threat? Because of its ability to absorb heat so dramatically, particularly from infra-red radiated by the Earth. The CO2 (and gases like methane and Nitrous Oxide) trap the infra-red as heat, making the the planet warmer, as if it was in a greenhouse.
'There is an annual fluctuation of about 3–9 parts per million in CO2 which roughly follows the Northern Hemisphere's growing season. The Northern Hemisphere dominates the annual cycle of CO2 concentration because it has much greater land area and plant biomass than the Southern Hemisphere. Concentrations peak in May as the Northern Hemisphere spring begins and reach a minimum in October when the quantity of biomass undergoing photosynthesis is greatest. The Earth’s surface temperature varies in step with the concentration of CO2.'
And the CO2 in the atmosphere is growing. Environmentalists and scientists assert, overwhelmingly because of the carbon-based fuels we are burning; others because the variation in CO2 is a natural and cyclical phenomenon witnessed over hundreds of thousands of years. But Al Gore's movie - "An Inconvenient Truth" - emphatically showed, the CO2 levels are at an all time high in the last 650,000 years and are set to climb higher.
A warmer earth means higher seas, changes in ocean currents and weather patterns, changes in wildlife and vegetation – all of which the human race can survive. But we’ve never had to at a time when the world is so developed and so many people would lose so much. The cost - in lives, and financial, and emotional - will be immense.
Scientists recently gave their clearest warning yet of what could happen in Britain. They warned of:
Drought. In some parts of Britain summer rainwater could drop by a quarter.
Floods. Winter rains and snow could increase by almost a third. Flooding from heavier rainstorms would take its toll on businesses and homes.
Heatwaves. In 2003, an increase in average temperature of just two degrees led to 35,000 extra deaths across Europe.
So we need to act. Except, as Kennedy might have put it, it is hard. And much more expensive than the Apollo moon landings. And the benefits from spending money to stop us seeing a change are not always tangible.
Mainly we need to not release so much CO2 from burning fossil fuel - oil and coal. Alternatives include -
the avoidance of wasting heat, light and clean water (including living nearer to where we work, shop and study; better heat managament and insulation; using price to manage use), and
drawing upon other sources of heat and light such as capturing the sunlight as it falls on earth, either directly through solar light and heat capture, or indirectly by using the vegetation grown for fuel; and
using the energy in the wind or in the water in our rivers; and
recycling our waste and breaking down organic waste to create gas and compost, and
drawing energy from the tides created by the moon's orbit; and
by capturing the energy from the break-down of radioactive materials.
We know is that some of these alternative ways can be desirable in many ways, including creating jobs; but they all carry different kinds of problems and risks, the most obvious being the cost of changing from a system based on the principles of burning oil and coal without capturing the CO2.
And the alternative technologies need method & techniques, and an ambition.
The methods are well known and established through project management, including targets and timescales. Less well-known are pricing techniques - used to some effect but sometimes controversial - and rationing (being explored through concepts like 'carbon credits').
The ambition can be harder, mainly because of the consequences, often political, of requiring changes in ways of life. George W. Bush's denial of climate change epitomised that frustration.
Now, we have new opportunities, not least with the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Acting on climate change means jobs in construction as we embark on a Great British Refurb of our homes, to cut down on wasted energy. It means jobs in manufacturing as we lead new low-carbon industries, like electric cars. It means a new future for places like the North Sea, which could start to store the CO2 from our power stations and heavy industry.
(Particular points for South Derbyshire include the housing in the constituency being amongst the least insulated in the East Midlands and Toyota's plans for electric cars.)
And a growing confidence.
Growing confidence in green technologies – e.g. buses using ethanol drawn from bio-mass; the success of wind farms; new insulation materials; monitors to advise on energy consumption; the first carbon capture coal-fired power stations.
Growing confidence to deliver change – including the principles used to deliver the moon landings; using prices to change behaviour and the reform of public services.
The world meets for a big conference to agree action in Copenhagen in December. It is a key opportunity for change.
At the end of June the Labour Government published “The Road to Copenhagen”, Britain’s pitch for what the deal should include. The Labour Government will be on the side arguing for ambitious action.
The Labour Government will be arguing for a deal that every country signs up to – there can be no carbon buck-passing.
The Labour Government will be arguing that the world’s release of heat-trapping gasses needs to stop growing in the next decade and start shrinking – with support for the poorest countries to make sure they can do their bit.
This is the first time Britain has published its position in advance of global climate talks. Instead of it being treated like a government secret, it will be sent to schools, libraries, and citizens advice centres.
Pledge your support at http://www.labour.org.uk/copenhagen_pledge
The road to Copenhagen has been an unusual one – via the moon.
Let’s make it worthwhile.
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Appendix -
I relaunched the local government declaration on climate change and the number of councils signed up to it nearly trebled.
I have "inspected" the City of the Hague in Holland on their sustainable development policies and practices.
Presentations are available on -
the Nottingham Call; (Dec. 2005);
Labour's obligations, and national progress; (drawing from 2003 and 2006 material);
a presentation to the Sustainable Development UK conference (5th July, 2007) and Local Government Chronicle conference (23rd May 2007);
environmental progress in Mapperley ward (March 2007);
the launch of the Govt's Climate Change Bill (13th March, 2007);
further overall progress (February 2007);
speech to the East Midlands Regional Assembly, when it voted to support the Nottingham Declaration; (December 2006);
speech to full Council adopting a new climate change strategy; (October 9th, 2006);
review of "Who killed the Electric Car?" and the challenge of science & technology for Nottingham; (Oct. 2006);
the Green Festival, at which I hold a stall; (May 2006);
a tour of Leicester, London, Sutton and Woking to see best practice; (July 2006);
Presud, the European initiative to develop best practice on sustainable development; and findings from an inspection of The Hague; (May 2004);
Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"; (Sept. 2006);
energy saving schemes for landlords and tenants; (Sept. 2006);
overall progress and the draft climate change strategy; (Dec. 2005);
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