Tue 23 Apr 2019, 06:04 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot CLP (personal capacity)
The BBC programme entitled Climate change: The facts gave a bleak future for the planet, if nothing is done to prevent global warming. Presenter, the celebrated zoologist, David Attenborough, warns of a catastrophe facing all living creatures if nothing is done to reduce the effects of man made climate change.
The primary cause of global warming is the level of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels. This has resulted in a 1oC increase in average temperature over the past century. Scientific opinion fears that the increase could rise to over 3oC in the next hundred years, if no action is taken.
These rises have already resulted in heatwaves, wild-fires, violent storms and wide-spread flooding. Attenborough believes that climate change is threatening 8% of all the world’s species and endangering the eco-system which we all depend upon. In the past 100 years, sea levels have risen by 20 centimetres, displacing land and peoples.
What concerns many in the scientific community is the belief that there will be a tipping point, which will see a sharp escalation in the current unusual weather patterns. Should temperatures rise by a further 1/2%, methane gas will be released from the permafrost and dramatically increase carbon dioxide levels.
The programme interviewed Greta Thumberg, the Swedish school student who became the spark for school strikes across the globe. Attenborough believed that much of the damage could be averted if action is taken now. Remedies to climate change looked at new technologies and ending waste. However worthy these measures are, I believe that a change in the social system is what is needed most of all.
As the programme pointed out, the fossil fuel industry has sought to muddy the waters on the causes of climate change. The current occupant of the White House is a climate change denier. The multi-national corporations call the shots and only a socialist federations of the continents can ensure a future for all the Planets occupants.
Watch the programme…it is still available on BBC i-player
