Brighton - Global Climate Strike - September 20th 2019

Brighton Global Climate Strike September 2019

Bright perky young people, far more intelligent than adults, gathered in their thousands on Hove Lawns and across the globe today, to demand action from world leaders over the climate emergency. Business-as-usual greenhouse emissions will mean these young people will reach old age in a world on average between 4°C - 5°C hotter than 1850 levels. Since this is a projected average, many landmasses away from coastlines will be experience higher temperatures. Parts of Africa will become uninhabitable. The climate of southern Europe will be more like north Africa today. The Amazon rainforest is expected become a dusty savannah. Rising sea levels will inundate Pacific islands. Scientists expect the arctic to be ice free in summer between 2030 and 2050, while droughts, wildfires and floods are set to ravage North America, Europe and Australia. It is feared that methane gas from melting tundra will drive positive feedback loops, hindering our ability to control dangerous global heating. These disasters will in turn lead to mass migration of people to more habitable regions. The world will struggle to feed and water its people, animals and crops. Wars will decide who, if any of us, get to control dwindling and unreliable resources.

In the last few years, the world has witnessed the mildest effects of global heating. 2018 was the hottest English summer on record. To our children, it is likely to be one of the coolest summers of their lifetimes. Hurricane Dorian wreaked devastation across the Bahamas, reportedly killing thousands, as the decreasing circulation of global winds slows the forward progression of tropical storms to a crawl. Parts of Siberia and Alaska became so dry in summer 2019, that massive forest fires are likely to burn until autumn, while already drought-riven south Australia is entering spring with the prospect of yet another scorched earth killer summer. Don't be fooled by the pleasant side-effects of global heating. Award-winning English Pinot noir and disingenuous newspaper reports of beach-goers 'having fun' in the sweltering heat are actually signs that all is not well.

 Brighton Global Climate Strike September 2019

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Brighton Global Climate Strike September 2019

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Note to editors: Please ask for permission before using any of these images or quoting text. I can be contacted here: buy@alanmackenziephotography.com

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Comments

Anonymous said…
Sorry, just one point. Brexit or not has a little more importance re the environment! Greta has persuaded the EU to spend a quarter of their budget fighting climate change vs the complete climited denial of the US (or, rather, Trump!). Altho there are many problems with the EU &, yes, capitalism needs to be addressed wherever we are, environmentally, we would be far better off (incl environmental regulations already in place) in the EU vs slave of the US! X
20 September 2019 at 21:18
Alan MacKenzie said…
Hello, thank you for your comment. Your argument hinges on the assumption that we have just two choices: staying in the EU or crashing out straight into bad trade deals with the USA, both under a Conservative government. Have you read the linked article by Jonathan Cook? If you had, you would have understood that there is a third option of a soft Brexit under Labour, keeping close ties with Europe, but one in which the chains of global neoliberalism are loosened, enabling the UK to develop economic systems, which don't depend on mass consumption and unlimited growth. See, it's one thing having environmental regulations, but they are rendered ineffective by mass consumption of resources. We in the EU are quite good at keeping our immediate environment clean, but that's because our waste ends up getting dumped in poor countries instead. I don't mean to pick on the EU over any other brand of turbocharged capitalism, but each and every flavour will cause our extinction. So, Brexit has greater bearing on the environment than is first apparent. To avoid confusing other readers, I have quoted further from Jonathan Cook's article, regarding a soft Brexit freeing the UK from dependency on unlimited economic growth.
20 September 2019 at 22:02
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