GreenFlint: June 2015

Tuesday 30 June 2015

Zombie gains new life

The Waste Authority's plan for Pinkham Way was defeated two years ago but there's now a new application. Barnet wants to move its Waster Transfer Station WTS from Cricklewood to Pinkham Way and has applied for planning permission (to Haringey Council as the site isn't actually in Barnet!)

According to the Pinkham Way Alliance:

"WTS’s are bad neighbour developments, bring additional heavy vehicles with all the accompanying pollution and nuisance not to speak of traffic congestion. They are high fire risks. Enfield Council we are told is against waste development at Pinkham Way because it will result in traffic rat running up Waterfall Road and surrounding residential streets to avoid the congested A406."

Also the site is valuable for biodiversity as it provides homes for 6 notable bird species, slow worms and cinnabar moth caterpillars.

The trouble here is that the Council has more time and money than the locals. Then again it lost last time!

Monday 29 June 2015

A 'two strikes' distraction from Mr Burrowes

I see with no surprise at all that David Burrowes is pressing for the early implementation of the ‘two strikes and out’ policy on knife crime.

So that's similar to the US 'three strikes and out' policy which has helped to drive the US prison population to over two million. Disproportionately black, of course.

The US has 25 times as many prisoners as the UK despite having only five times the population. It also has five times the murder rate - not to mention lots of wrongfully convicted prisoners on death row - also disproportionately black.

Now I don't suggest - I don't believe - that David Burrowes would want to bring that here. But every time someone demands tougher sentences they distract us from more useful measures - like addressing causes and restorative justice - that would do more good.

Does greed or need drive the planetary crisis?

The Green Party’s distinctive insight is that we must all live on planet Earth and that, in the long run, we must live within our planetary limits. Our species already grabs 40% of the Earth’s production. That’s morally indefensible – we are just one species yet we are driving the rest toward extinction.

It’s also unsustainable. Our impacts are ever increasing but we have only one planet. Once we’ve converted all the forests and grasslands to crops we’ll have nowhere to expand and the system of planetary exploitation we call consumer capitalism will have to stop expanding.

But that, of course, will be too late. Our increasing emissions of greenhouse gases put us on course for at least four, maybe six, degrees of warming. That will raise sea levels (by 20 meters if we can stay below four degrees) and reduce global food production. The combination of less food and more people can have no good outcome.

Pope Francis has blamed our environmental overshoot on greed whilst Mark Lynas and his fellow ‘ecomodernists’ see it as the result of trying to meet human needs. The Pope is closer to the truth.
The great expansion in fossil fuel burning in the 19th century was led by entrepreneurs. Though greed was one motive so was the desire (by some) to do good. That century produced new forms of philanthropy and Andrew Carnegie’s dictum that ‘the man who dies rich dies disgraced’ as well new forms of exploitation. Yet I believe that the simple desire to make a (big) difference was more significant than either greed or philanthropy.

Yet from these origins came a system that expected, in fact required, company directors to be greedy and which for the last 50 years has encouraged consumer greed through advertising. The system – consumer capitalism – is largely self-sustaining. It has created greedy consumers and promotes managers who are greedy for the growth and profits of their firms. It also rewards academics and commentators who encourage consumer greed (yes, I do mean you, fashion journos!) and who praise managers who increase profits – whatever the costs to other people and species.

And yet we do need some growth if we are to help the ‘bottom billion’ who go to bed hungry out of poverty. The challenge to the Green Party – indeed to everyone who cares about people and planet – is to find forms of development that relieve the worst poverty, bring greater well-being to ‘consumers’ and reduce our impacts on the rest of the planet’s ecosystems.

And to win the political battle of ideas for the new way.

Thursday 25 June 2015

Can I sell you a mountain?

Sure, sea level is rising, but it was only 1.7 mm/year in the 20th century. And it's only 3 mm/year now - 300 mm by 2100. That doesn't sound much, does it?

Though, of course, that assumes there's no further increase in the rate. In fact increasing greenhouse gas emissions make an increase almost certain so it might be 500 mm by 2100.

So how about the long-term? If we keep the global temperature rise below two degrees we can expect 400 mm from loss of mountain glaciers, 800 mm from ocean expansion and 3.3 m from the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet. That's 4.5 m in total. That's the same as the largest tidal rise on the Essex coast and, obviously, it would add to the tidal rise.

These numbers are based on very cautious treatment of the melting of glaciers and the Antarctic ice. And that's a problem because we keep finding new mechanisms that allow the ice to melt much faster. For instance, the great Antarctic glaciers flow to the sea where they generate vast ice sheets. But the sheets are breaking up (which does not raise sea level) and this allows the glaciers to move much faster (which does).

There are a lot of uncertainties here but they aren't comforting ones. They boil down to two questions:

Have we already passed the points of no return for any of the Greenland and Antarctic glaciers?
How hot will the planet get? (We're currently on course for 4-6 degrees of warming.)
How fast will we reach maximum sea level?

New Scientist estimates that four degrees of warming would produce 20 m of sea level rise.

How much do mountains cost these days?

Is Assam's teatime finally over?

We have imported tea from Assam, India, for many decades. In the 19th century the tea crop was so important that tea clippers like the Cutty Sark raced across the seas to bring the first crop to London.

Yet Asam's tea growing may not be sustainable. A New Scientist correspondent reports that temperatures are up, rainfall down and weather generally less predictable. Higher temperatures favour pests whilst reduced rainfall requires the expense of irrigation. In addition, the quality is worse.

The industry will adapt. New varieties and water conservation measures and some switchinmg from black to green and white tyea will maintain production. But its another industry that's being transformed by climate change.

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Supporting the Kurds

Two months ago a questioner in a Kurdish audience asked a panel of Greens whether we would want the UK to offer military support to the Kurdish forces defending their homelands in northern Iraq and Syria. He made it clear that this was more important to them than our views on the Living Wage or Trident. It's not an easy question - which is why all us local candidates asked Jean Lambert to answer first!

On the one hand it's easy to sympathise with anyone who's resisting Islamic State. There can be few fates worse than falling into the hands of IS - especially if you are gay or a freethinker or a woman - or just like music! The Kurds are holding the line despite inferior equipment and funding.

On the other hand Greens are sceptical of military 'solutions'. We prefer negotiation and we remember how the 'heroic' anti-Soviet mujaheddin evolved into Al Quaeda. Not to mention the role of the Blair-Bush invasion in creating the very forces the Kurds now face.

As historian Tom Holland put it at the Hay Festival we tried intervening and that was disastrous so we tried not intervening and so was that!

Yet the Kurds are not another military sect but a settled community resisting attacks. The leaders of Rojava - the Syrian enclave - are trying to develop a tolerant and democratic society. Independent observers take their attempts seriously whilst criticising shortfalls. And this is important. There are few Middle East states which even share these humane and civilised aspirations. It would be wrong and stupid of us not to make real efforts encourage a development that could, eventually, be a beacon for the region.

There are risks in every course of action but I believe that we should support the Kurds' defence of their territory. That means military supplies and, probably, training and intelligence sharing. It does not mean military action by British forces.

As I argued in a recent post the Muslim world is going through an extended period of warfare akin to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It's unpredictable but it must be right to support those who share our values.

So here are some non-military things the UK government should do:

Increase humanitarian aid to the Kurdish enclaves in Syria and Iraq.
Cease to treat the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation
Ask Turkey to end the ban on the PKK and open negotiations.
Release its leader Abdullah Ocalam from solitary confinement.

The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) can secure representation in a new parliament, marking a significant shift in Turkish politics by moving away from the era of AKP single-party governments.
Commenting on the elections, Jean Lambert, London’s Green MEP said:
‘The HDP are a party with an ecological, pro-democracy, equality driven agenda. They are also clear about wanting autonomy and peace for the Kurds. Their representation is important.’
International coordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales, Derek Wall concluded:
'They are an inspiration. Success for the HDP would be a win for the Kurds, the LGBT community and the Turkish Greens who are part of the HDP. More should be done to promote their message. Turkish voters who want to influence their country's future can vote in the General Election this weekend at Olympia.'
Turkey has the world’s highest electoral threshold, requiring a 10% vote share to achieve representation. The general election takes place on the 7^th of June.
- See more at: https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2015/05/29/greens-support-hdp-ahead-of-upcoming-turkish-election/#sthash.iZ2B5Iin.dpuf