Climate change inaction mainly for lack of strong political will has been instrumental in threatening massive intergenerational inequity and intergenerational injustice. Despoilation of the environment owing to greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution and resultant climate change are the legacies to future generations of current climate criminal, carbon pollution profligacy and climate change inaction. According to Dr Poyla, however, a massive violation of intergenerational equity and intergenerational justice (and hence inter generational inequity and inter generational injustice) is the immense cost of reversing two centuries of fossil fuel burning by biochar-based return of the atmospheric CO2 concentration to the pre-industrial 300 ppm from the current 400 ppm, this being variously estimated below at $13 trillion to $53 trillion (US dollars) or 15-62% of the current world annual GDP of $85 trillion.
Nevertheless, these numbers, while daunting, show that it is still possible to save the world from climate genocide. However massive predicted methane release from the warming Arctic means that we are doomed unless there is extremely rapid action to stop further Arctic warming and disastrous man-made climate change.
Prominent US climate scientist Dr James Hansen (former head, NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and adjunct professor at 96-Nobel Laureate Columbia University) has said on this key intergenerational equity and intergenerational justice issue in arguing for a progressive and effective Carbon Tax with the proceeds being paid directly to the public “carbon fee and dividend.”
According to Dr Hansen, fee and dividend can begin with the countries now considering cap and trade. Other countries will either agree to a carbon fee or have duties placed on their products that are made with fossil fuels. As the carbon price rises, most coal, tar sands and oil shale will be left in the ground. The marketplace will determine the roles of energy efficiency, renewable energy and nuclear power in our clean energy future. Cap and trade with offsets, in contrast, is astoundingly ineffective. Global emissions rose rapidly in response to Kyoto, as expected, because fossil fuels remained the cheapest energy. Cap and trade is an inefficient compromise, paying off numerous special interests.
While arguing that it must be replaced with an honest approach, raising the price of carbon emissions and leaving the dirtiest fossil fuels in the ground, Dr. Hansen says: “Are we going to stand up and give global politicians a hard slap in the face, to make them face the truth? It will take a lot of us – probably in the streets. Or are we going to let them continue to kid themselves and us and cheat our children and grandchildren? Intergenerational inequity is a moral issue. Just as when Abraham Lincoln faced slavery and when Winston Churchill faced Nazism, the time for compromises and half-measures is over. Can we find a leader who understands the core issue and will lead?”
The major issue is that fossil fuel users are not paying the true price of fossil fuel burning for present and future generations. As Dr Hansen has said, fossil fuels are cheapest because they are not made to pay for their effects on human health, the environment and future climate. A study commissioned by the Ontario Government, Canada, reveals that the true price of coal-based power in Ontario taking environmental and health impacts into account is 4-5 times the actual market price.
Unfortunately, the future generations will have to bear the brunt of this huge hidden current subsidy of fossil fuel burning. Regrettably, the corporate sector in the industrialized world, in which ‘big money buys politicians, parties, policies, public perception of reality, votes and political power, is seemingly responsible for this climate change inaction. The corporate sector resolutely refuses to take requisite action on climate change and the corporatist mainstream media stubbornly refuse to report reality.
Inability of the world to tackle man-made climate change colossally violates ntergenerational equity and intergenerational justice. The cost of reversing fossil fuel burning by means of biochar-based return of the atmospheric CO2 concentration to the pre-industrial 300 ppm from the current 400 ppm has been estimated at $13 trillion to $53 trillion (US dollars) or 15-62% of the current world annual GDP of $85 trillion. These numbers, while shocking, nevertheless show that it is still conceivable (albeit unlikely) that we could save the world from climate disaster. However, massive predicted methane release from the warming Arctic in coming decades means that the world is doomed unless there is extremely rapid action to stop further Arctic warming and disastrous man-made climate change.
In this regard, Dr Poyla, while asserting that the climate violators still refuse to act, has exhorted the young people to seize their future by rejecting the terracidal neoliberals dominating Western politics and by boycotting all corporations, countries, people, politicians, parties and policies linked to the worsening climate genocide. According to Dr Poyla, in practice, at the ballot box, that means that young people must vote those who support environmentalism to help save Humanity and the Biosphere, because “the world is badly running out of time to act on the worsening climate emergency.”
By Dr.Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation
