Global Research

“It’s likely that we would need some technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reach that number (1.5C) . It’s theoretically feasible but it would mean that we should …see very dramatic declines in the emissions taking place over the coming years, and that’s a question of how prepared the countries are to create such a dramatic emission decline.” – Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (November 17, 2016 Press Conference) [1]

“It has always been one degree, the maximum that we should not exceed, and so the whole 2 degree has been a complete reframing. I mean it’s not science at all, it’s just a mechanism to keep growing the economy and keep the system going for the few that it serves.” -Cory Morningstar

“I can pretty much guarantee… we’ll get zero-emissions economy by 2050.” -Professor Guy Mcpherson

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Length (59:33)

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While the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election has dominated headlines, the annual U.N. Climate talks were taking place in Marrakech, Morocco.

The focus of the talks was to implement actionable plans to realize the goals of the previous conference. These involve keeping average global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels through a combination of methods, including transitioning away from fossil fuels toward ‘renewable’ and ‘clean’ energy. [2][3]

A fundamental rethinking of how our economic system operates appears to be off the table in these international discussions.

Whether or not the international community through these U.N. Summits constitute an authentic response to the climate crisis, there are a number of alarming trends in evidence.

• The annual growth of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere has reached a record high of between 3.2 to 3.55 parts per million (ppm) (source: Dahr Jamail, quoting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data)
• According to the Arctic Institute, concentrations of Methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than CO2, have increased from 715 parts per billion (ppb) to 1840 ppb in 2015.
• According to the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute, fall temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean were roughly 20 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal.
• According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, drought has impacted nearly one third of the continental United States during the second week of November 2016.
• According to an October 2016 paper co-authored by former NASA climate scientist JamEs Hansen and 11 others, global temperatures have reached levels approaching the mean of the inter-glacial period known as the Eemian in which sea levels were several metres higher than they are today.
• The Nature Bats Last website lists no fewer than 69 self-reinforcing feedback loops (phenomena that enable more heating as the globe warms) active on the planet today.
• According to the most recent Living Planet report released by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world’s wiLdlife populations have declined by 58% since 1970 and vertebrate populations could decline by 67% by the end of the decade.

On this week’s Global Research News Hour, we check in with three writers and past guests who have analyzed the climate crisis and the way human agencies are responding to the threat.

Guy McPherson holds the title of Emeritus Professor of Natural Resources and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona. He has chronicled and assembled hundreds of articles from the refereed scientific literature which collectively demonstrate his view that human life on Earth will not survive long beyond 2030.

Cory Morningstar is an activist and investigative journalist. She has documented the role of elite private foundations like Open Society and the Rockefeller foundations in manipulating the environmental Non-Governmental Organizations that depend on foundation money for their high profile activities. Her essays and original research is featured at Wrong Kind of Green, Counterpunch, and her own website: Theartofannihilation.com.

In the middle portion of the program, McPherson and Morningstar explore academic resistance to the inescapable dire predictions of actual climate science, the distorted role of mainstream climate activism and who benefits, and meaningful responses humans can muster to address the climate predicament.

Dahr Jamail is an award-winning journalist who first gained notoriety for his unembedded reporting on the Iraq War. His writing on Anthropogenic Climate disruption appears regularly at Truthout.org. Jamail makes an appearance near the end of the hour to update listeners on the current state of the climate and its impacts, and assesses how individuals and communities can respond in the face of the incoming climate change denying Trump Administration.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Length (59:33)

Click to download the audio (MP3 format) 

The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca . The show can be heard on the Progressive Radio Network at prn.fm. Listen in every Monday at 3pm ET.

Community Radio Stations carrying the Global Research News Hour:

CHLY 101.7fm in Nanaimo, B.C – Thursdays at 1pm PT

Boston College Radio WZBC 90.3FM NEWTONS  during the Truth and Justice Radio Programming slot -Sundays at 7am ET.

Port Perry Radio in Port Perry, Ontario –1  Thursdays at 1pm ET

Burnaby Radio Station CJSF out of Simon Fraser University. 90.1FM to most of Greater Vancouver, from Langley to Point Grey and from the North Shore to the US Border.

It is also available on 93.9 FM cable in the communities of SFU, Burnaby, New Westminister, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Surrey and Delta, in British Columbia, Canada. – Tune in every Saturday at 6am.

Radio station CFUV 101.9FM based at the University of Victoria airs the Global Research News Hour every Sunday from 7 to 8am PT.

CORTES COMMUNITY RADIO CKTZ  89.5 out of Manson’s Landing, B.C airs the show Tuesday mornings at 10am Pacific time.

Cowichan Valley Community Radio CICV 98.7 FM serving the Cowichan Lake area of Vancouver Island, BC airs the program Thursdays at 6am pacific time.

Campus and community radio CFMH 107.3fm in  Saint John airs the Global Research News Hour Fridays at 10am.

Caper Radio CJBU 107.3FM in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia airs the Global Research News Hour starting Wednesday Morning from 8:00 to 9:00am. Find more details at www.caperradio.ca 

Notes:

1) COP22: WMO Full Press Conference (November 2016); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Y5rIUe4gg

2) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/15/global-climate-change-action-unstoppable-despite-trump?utm_content=buffer3e9b2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer;

3) http://cop22.ma/en/#whatscop/post/165