[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Climate Change Pollyannas

[Bill Totten]

by David Orton

Culture Change (February 15 2009)


"Although global warming is connected to scary scenarios featuring
soaring temperatures and worsening hurricanes and monsoons, it's also a
link to a better future".
--- from Global Warming For Dummies by Elizabeth May and Zoe Caron (John
Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd, 2009). 362 pages, paperback, ISBN:
978-0-470-84098-6.


The authors go on to say on page 1, "Global warming is opening doors for
the development of new types of fuels, leading the shift to reliable
energy sources, and creating a vision of a greener tomorrow".

In contrast, James Lovelock spoke of a different kind of green thinking,
in The Revenge Of Gaia (2006): "This small band of deep ecologists seem
to realize more than other green thinkers the magnitude of the change of
mind needed to bring us back to peace within Gaia, the living Earth".
(page 198)

Arne Naess said, "We must live at a level that we seriously can wish
others to attain, not at a level that requires the bulk of humanity not
to reach".


Introduction

"The more you know about both climate change and energy, the less
moderate you are".
--- Joseph Romm, Editor, climateprogress.org

This book, Global Warming For Dummies, by Elizabeth May and Zoe Caron,
has lots of information about climate change and its various nuances,
particularly from the individual, "what you can do", perspective. The
focus is on carbon dioxide, the main contributor to climate change. It
explains the Kyoto Protocol, how it is supposed to work, carbon
emissions trading, the different kinds of greenhouse gases and their
individual and collective significance, et cetera. In addition, this
book gives an overall sense of the contributions of various sectors of
society to greenhouse gas emissions. We are told that fossil fuels
contribute three quarters of the problem regarding greenhouse gases, and
that deforestation accounts for one quarter of the problem. (page 2)
Reading Dummies can raise the level of a person's general knowledge
about climate change, notwithstanding the various criticisms raised in
this review.

May is intelligent, passionate, hard-working, and on top of a wide
variety of environmental information. But she also works within the
industrial paradigm of values which she essentially accepts and lets
guide her political judgements. May's career shows that she "works the
system", and the society in turn rewards her with various accolades,
because the system's legitimacy is not seriously threatened by her
eco-politics. She and co-author Zoë Caron, have chosen to play a
Pollyanna role of promoting optimism in fighting climate change, when
most of the government and corporate climate change initiatives being
put forth are greenwash tokenism at best, which can always be put aside
if the world economy takes a dive.

Like other books written by Elizabeth May, this book does not
consciously espouse any critical eco-philosophical tradition which
others can support, as does James Lovelock in the above quote. May and
Caron do not raise the fundamental questions, which, I believe, climate
change and "peak", that is diminishing fossil fuels, bring to the
foreground for existing industrial capitalist societies, such as:

- how do we humans reduce our industrial impact upon the Earth;

- what are our vital needs as societies, taking into consideration the
needs and habitat requirements of all other nonhuman life forms;

- how do humans become Earth-centered in our many cultures, not just
human-centered;

- how do we bring about social justice for all the human species in a
worldwide context, so everyone's full potential may be liberated; and

- how do we bring about such profound cultural changes for humankind, if
we never raise the questions.

May and her co-author, however, are pragmatists - they point the reader
to practical engagement with this existing industrial capitalist
society. For these writers, the existing system just needs tinkering
with, not replacing. Yet it is this industrial society which is
destroying this Earth and which has brought on the climate change crisis.

There is substantial acknowledged use of data from the massive Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) released in 2007. I have not personally read this latest IPCC
document, but I have read some of the numerous climate change books
available (by authors such as Andrew Nikiforuk, Tim Flannery, James
Kunstler, Brian Fagan, John Livingston [Arctic Oil], George Monbiot, Al
Gore, Ted Trainer, James Lovelock, and others), plus William Catton's
Overshoot (1980) and Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on
the Earth (1996) by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel).

One should not forget that the IPCC report is a "consensus" document.
Debates are influenced by the delegates which member countries appoint,
like Saudi Arabia, China and the United States. The report therefore
downplays, I believe, the actual gravity of the climate situation, so
all will sign on. In his 2005 book The Weather Makers: How We Are
Changing The Climate And What It Means For Life On Earth, Tim Flannery
calls this "lowest common denominator science". Flannery also notes, "if
the IPCC says something, you had better believe it - and then allow for
the likelihood that things are far worse than it says they are". (page 246)

Dummies points out that the latest IPPC report "recommends reducing
carbon emissions by fifty to eighty per cent below 1990 levels by 2050".
(page 55) The reality is that in a continually growing world industrial
economy, these emissions increase every year. The present level of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 385 parts per million, whereas
in 1960 the level was 315 ppm. To put this in perspective, the
pre-industrial revolution figure for carbon dioxide, around the
mid-nineteenth century, was 280 ppm.

While the two authors refer to "climate change" as being a more
appropriate term than "global warming", the book title Global Warming
For Dummies, presumably reflects an editorial decision of the "Dummies"
book publishing/selling formula, of making information supposedly more
palatable and popular to the reading public.

Elizabeth May, who would be considered the lead author by most readers
(and this reviewer) in view of her past experience and listed
credentials, is the current leader of the Canadian Green Party and also
its shadow cabinet spokesperson for climate change. So the public could
perhaps look to this book to see the kind of ideas on climate change and
related topics advocated by the Green Party in Canada. May is not known
to hide her credentials and social connections under a bushel. In this
book, she is described three times in the comment "About the Authors",
and once on the book's cover, as "Dr May". It seems that having been
granted honorary doctorates in the past, now misleadingly equates to
having an earned PhD, presumably in one of the scientific fields
associated with climate change. It should be noted that May's listed
background credits include having been "a board member for nine years
for the International Institute for Sustainable Development". The
conclusion of the Dummies text is a promotion for this Institute (see
pages 340-341). Sustainable development is also pushed throughout this book.

Arne Naess, the founder of deep ecology (1912-2009) made a distinction
in the early 1970s between those who practice "shallow" ecology and
those who follow a "deeper" ecological path. May and Caron follow the
shallow path, as this review shows. Those on the deeper ecological path
see the industrial system itself as unsustainable from an ecological and
social justice standpoint, and climate change as one manifestation of
this. To address climate change means addressing the problem of
replacing industrial capitalist society.

Pollyanna optimism

"No one likes the blame game; pointing fingers and making accusations
doesn't solve anything". (page 69)

"Governments all over the world at every level, are already doing
leading-edge work, moving toward low-carbon technologies and ways of
life". (page 160)

"Can humanity actually avoid getting to the point of huge, devastating,
and irreversible changes in the world's climate? Of course!" (page 200)

"Believe it or not, letters to your elected representatives make a
difference ... Politicians are eager to know what the people think".
(page 318)

The Pollyanna title for this review - meaning a false optimism or
attitude of looking for the good side of any situation - is misleading,
given the situation we face. The basic working position permeating this
book is not that we are facing a civilizational and ecocide crisis of
hard to grasp proportions - which require seismic cultural and
institutional changes and lifestyle change which are difficult to
comprehend - with the outcome very much in doubt. But it is the
promotion of the view that good things are being done around climate
change and global warming, that we are moving in the right direction,
and only need to accelerate our efforts. I believe this to be a false,
harmful, and very misleading Pollyanna-type message. It is totally
inappropriate, considering the dire climate change situation generally,
and particularly in Canada, which is proud to be the main fossil fuel
supplier to the United States. Very little significant work regarding
reducing green house gas emissions is being done. Carbon dioxide
emissions are increasing, not declining, each year. Climate feedback
mechanisms, which introduce an extreme unpredictability into what is
going to happen - including a potential acceleration of indicators of
climate change - are already underway. There is a fair amount of talk
about climate change, but this can always be pushed aside by governing
political and economic elites and the bourgeois media, when there is
so-called bad economic news, like declining economic growth and
consumption rates.

The Pollyanna message also reflects an erroneous but common political
organizing belief, characterizing not only May's (and presumably
Caron's) environmental politics, but running throughout Green Party
electoralism in Canada - that is, for social mobilization purposes, one
has to be optimistic, non-threatening and non-radical.

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