Kevin Anderson is professor of energy and climate change at the Universities of Manchester (UK), Uppsala (Sweden), and Bergen (Norway). Recently he was asked to write an article for The Conversation. The piece he submitted was turned down, however, because the editors claimed it was “too polemical.”

Here are a few excerpts. A link to the full original submission is below.
____________________________

The wealthiest 1% of people on the planet are responsible for double the greenhouse gas emissions of the poorest 50%.

This 1% of humanity uses its awesome power to manipulate societal aspirations and the narratives around climate change. These extend from pseudo-technical solutions to labeling extreme any narrative that questions inequality. This dangerous framing is compounded by a generally supine media owned or controlled by the 1%.

It is clear is that a rapid response to climate change demands a fundamental reallocation of society’s productive capacity, its labour and resources. Three decades of failure have removed any wiggle room.

Our commitments to 1.5°C and 2°C demand that existing houses and buildings be transformed, that public transport, walking and cycling be the main modes of moving in cities, perhaps with small pools of rented electric vehicles in rural areas, that our energy supply rapidly become electrified, from around 20% today to near 90% by 2040 – and all of it generated without fossil fuels.

Fast international travel will have to be for urgent or emergency purposes only. A triage approach is needed to ensure that the reallocation of society’s small carbon budget, its labour and resources, are used wisely.
____________________________

LEARN MORE -- https://climateuncensored.com/1485-2/

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Degrowth