| 9 January 2010 Formal Complaint by Dr Gideon Polya to the International Criminal Court (ICC) re US Alliance Palestinian, Iraqi, Afghan, Muslim, Aboriginal, Biofuel and Climate Genocides. The following detailed formal complaint was sent on 8 January 2010 to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over various US Alliance involvements in ongoing genocidal atrocities against Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans, Muslims, and Australian Aboriginals, and against the Developing World in general through the worsening Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide. Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo,
Information and Evidence Unit,
Office of the Prosecutor,
Post Office Box 19519,
2500 CM The Hague, The Netherlands.
Dear Sir,
Formal complaint to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court re various US Alliance, NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand and UK involvement in Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide.
A. Introduction. 1. Holocaust is the destruction of a large number of people. The term was first applied to a WW2 atrocity by Jog in 1944 (Jog, N.G. (1944), Churchill’s Blind-Spot: India (New Book Company, Bombay)) in relation to the “forgotten” man-made Bengal Famine (6-7 million Indians - many of them Muslims in a "forgotten" WW2 Muslim Holocaust - deliberately starved to death by the British, 1943-1945). It was subsequently applied to the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) which was part of a horrendous WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slavs, Jews and Gypsies killed in the Nazi German Lebensraum genocide). 2. Genocide is very precisely defined in International Law as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” as set out by Article 2 of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention: “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”
(see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/
genocide/convention.html ). 3. Key to this internationally agreed, legal definition of genocide is “intent”. Thus the “intent’ of a serial killer is not abolished by his refusal to confess or otherwise explicitly declare “intent” – it can be clearly established simply by the evidence of sustained, remorseless actions leading to serial deaths. Likewise, for example, the sustained, remorseless actions (and inactions) of the British caused the deaths of 6-7 million Indians in the 1943-1945 Bengali Holocaust (see the transcript of the 2008 BBC broadcast involving myself, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and other scholars: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot
/bengalfamine_programme.html ); and the sustained British deprivation of its Indian subjects in the 2 century British Indian Holocaust (1.5 billion excess deaths, or about 1.8 billion if including those in the Native States, and about 20% of them Muslims) (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/26713/42/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/31306/42/ ). Any interpretation that denies sustained, remorseless actions (and inactions) leading to “destroy[ing], in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” as evidence for genocide simply states, as a corollary, that any country, group or government can sustainedly and remorselessly effect such destruction provided it does not confess to any “intent” to do so. 4. Violent deaths and non-violent avoidable deaths from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease. As spelled out in great detail in my book “Body Count. Avoidable mortality since 1950” (see: http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/ ) and in a March 2009 article on Occupied Afghanistan excess deaths (see “Obama’s Afghan War “: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29546/42/ ), non-violent avoidable deaths (non-violent excess deaths, avoidable mortality, excess mortality, deaths that did not have to happen) for a country in a given period is the difference between the observed mortality and the mortality expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics. Whether a civilian person dies from bombs or bullets or from deprivation, the end result is the same and the invader and occupier culpability the same. Indeed in the WW2 Jewish Holocaust 5.6 million Jews died, with 1 in 6 dying from deprivation (see Gilbert, M. (1969), Jewish History Atlas (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London). Gilbert, M. (1982), Atlas of the Holocaust (Michael Joseph, London)). 5. A note on the calculation of non-violent avoidable deaths – example, Occupied Afghanistan. For Occupied Afghanistan in 2005-2010, annual crude death rate in “deaths per 1,000 of population per year” was 19.7 as compared to an average of about 4 for “good” high birth rate Developing countries (e.g. for peaceful, only partially-occupied, impoverished Syria it is 3.4) (see UN Population Division: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=2 ). Accordingly, the “avoidable death rate” for Occupied Afghanistan in 2005-2010 (mid-2005 to mid-2010) is19.7-4.0 = 15.7 deaths per 1000 of population per year . The average population of Occupied Afghanistan in 2005-2010 was (24.507 million + 29.117 million)/2 = 26.812 million (see UN Population Division: http://esa.un.org/unpp/index.asp?panel=2 ). Accordingly, the avoidable deaths in Occupied Afghanistan in the period 2005-2010 = 15.7 avoidable deaths per thousand population per year x 26,812 thousand population x 5 years = 2,104,742 = about 2.1 million. Application of the same analysis to the period October 2001-December 2009 yields an estimate of 3.4 million post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan. 6. Active and passive killing and active and passive genocide. The outstanding bioethicist Professor Peter Singer (Princeton University and the University of Melbourne) has stated that “We are responsible not only for what we do but also for what we could have prevented… We should consider the consequences both of what we do and what we decide not to do” (see: Singer, P. (2000), Writings on an Ethical Life (Ecco Press, New York), ppxv-xvi). An analogy of “passive genocide” in British-ruled Bengal and in the Genocides involving Australia and the US Alliance can be found in the treatment of severely disabled new-born infants. Professor Peter Singer, arguably the most influential living philosopher, has controversially argued for the humane “active euthanasia” of severely disabled infants. At present many experienced hospital doctors will administer pain relief but not sustenance to such infants by way of “passive euthanasia”. However, according to Singer: “Doctors who deliberately leave a baby to die when they have the awareness, the ability, and the opportunity to save the baby’s life, are just as morally responsible for the death as they would be if they had brought it about by a deliberate , positive action.” (see: Kuhse, H. & Singer, P. (1985), Should the Baby Live? The Problem of Handicapped Infants (Oxford University Press, Oxford)). The active massacre of Australian Aboriginals in the period from Invasion in 1788 until the late 1920s can be described as “active genocide” but the continuing Aboriginal Genocide through sustained policies of deprivation is no less deadly “passive genocide” and the same analysis can be applied to the Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide in which Australia is also complicit. As outlined below, Australia and the US Alliance countries have grossly violated International humanitarian conventions in deliberately failing to provide life-sustaining requisites to their overseas Subjects. Natural Law prohibits causing the death of others either actively or passively. International Law prohibits the deliberate killing of civilians either actively or passively (see section (7) below). 7. Geneva Convention and war criminal US Alliance failure to supply life-sustaining requisites to Subject Peoples. While annual per capita medical expenditure on Indigenous Australians is similar to that for the non-Indigenous Australians, it has been estimated that this expenditure needs to be at least doubled because of the huge morbidity and the remote location of many Aboriginal communities (a personal communication from a medical doctor expert in Aboriginal Health says that it should be tripled). While Australia has been prepared to spend up to 6 million dollars each time to save individual solo yachtspersons who have deliberately placed themselves in danger, it has remorselessly refused to meet its obligations towards Indigenous Australians with a consequent huge excess death rate (for details and documentation see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/15140/42/ ). WHO data reveal that the “annual total per capita medical expenditure” (2004) permitted by the US Coalition is $124 (in Occupied Iraq) and $29 (in Occupied Afghanistan) as compared to vastly higher amounts in various US Alliance Occupier countries: $3,122 (Australia), $3,554 (France), $3,328 (Germany), $2,623 (Italy), $3,383 (Netherlands), $2,447 (New Zealand), $2,784 (UK) and $6,714 (the US) (see WHO: http://www.who.int/en/ ; see also: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/17066/42/ ). One can now understand why there is such horrendous infant mortality in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan as reported by UNICEF (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) and as summarized below. In the case of Gaza (described by Catholic Church justice minister, Cardinal Renato Martino, as Israeli’s Gaza Concentration Camp), this part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory has been under military-applied blockade for 3 years. It can be estimated that 3,600 Occupied Palestinian infants die avoidably every year due to Israeli violation of the Geneva Convention. The sheer criminality of this failure to supply life-sustaining requisites to Subject people is made clear in Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (see: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm ): Article 55. To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate. The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods. The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements. Article 56. To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties. If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21. In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory. Of course, under international humanitarian conventions Australia has an obligation to supply such requisites to its own citizens as well as to its Subjects through invasion, conquest and forcible occupation of other countries. However it is noteworthy that no Treaty was ever signed by the invading Europeans with the conquered Indigenous Peoples of Australia. B. Various US Alliance, NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand and UK involvement in Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide. Details of various US Alliance, NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand and UK involvements in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide, that are the evidential basis of my formal complaint to the International Criminal Court, can be found in a series of carefully researched and extensively documented websites, the contents of which are summarized below together with a summary of national culpabilities. These websites also include documented statements from leading scholars and writers who use the terminology of “holocaust” and “genocide” in relation to these atrocities. 1. Palestinian Holocaust, Palestinian Genocide (0.3 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 0.2 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 7 million refugees): http://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ . Details. In 1880 there were 500,000 Indigenous Arab Palestinians and 25,000 Jews (50% immigrants) in the Holy Land – today there are 5.5 million Indigenous Palestinians in the Holy Land and some 5.5 million Palestinian refugees elsewhere and excluded from their Homeland, which is occupied by 5.5 million Jewish Israelis backed by the US, UK, Canada, the EU and Australia. 1.5 million Israeli Arabs are second class citizens under race-based laws. 4 million abusively imprisoned Occupied Palestinians have essentially no human rights – while the World looks on. In the 2006 Occupied Palestinian Territory elections conducted under Occupier guns, Hamas won 76 seats out of 132 but these Hamas MPs are now overwhelmingly either dead, imprisoned or hiding in the Gaza Concentration Camp and regarded as “terrorists” by the US, UK, Canada, the EU and Australia. UN data reveal that each year Israel is responsible for 3,600 Occupied Palestinian under-5 year old avoidable deaths, 5,700 Occupied Palestinian non-violent avoidable deaths and about 800 violent Occupied Palestinian deaths. The Palestinian Genocide has been associated with 0.3 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 0.2 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, and 7 million refugees. In December 2008- January 2009 the Israelis killed 1,400 Gazans (40% of them children) in reprisals for zero (0) Israeli deaths from Gaza missiles in the previous year. The Palestinian Genocide continues despite numerous UN General Assembly and UN Security Council Resolutions, notably UN Security Council Resolution 252 prohibiting land and property seizure, notably in Jerusalem Culpability. The ongoing Palestinian Genocide is effected by the race-based, nuclear terrorist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, colonial state of Israel with US, UK, EU, New Zealand, Canadian and Australian complicity through support that is variously financial, military, diplomatic and/or legislative. Thus the US is a major provider of military aid to Israel and its Security Council veto and support for Israel means that Israel can defy all UN Resolutions with impunity. At the other extreme, Australia has declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization (noting that Hamas won 76 out of 132 seats in the 2006 Occupied Palestinian Territory elections with the US- and Israel-backed Fatah winning 43), permits free passage to Israeli war criminals, makes Muslim religious zakkat alms-giving obligations to Gaza potentially criminal, and has made financial donations towards the ongoing Palestinian Genocide tax deductible. 2. Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide (4.5 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 2.4 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 3-4 million refugees plus 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees):
http://sites.google.com/site/afghan
holocaustafghangenocide/ . Details. As of mid-December 2009, it is estimated from the latest UN Population Division data that in Occupied Afghanistan post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 3.4 million; post-invasion violent deaths total 1.1 million (assuming expert US-Australian advice that the level of violence has been 4 times lower in the Afghan War than in the Iraq War); post-invasion violent and non-violent avoidable deaths total 4.5 million; and post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 2.4 million (90% avoidable and due to US Alliance war crimes in gross violence of the Geneva Convention – Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War demand that an Occupier must supply life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” (see: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/y4gcpcp.htm ) but according to the WHO (see: http://www.who.int/countries/en/ ) the “total annual expenditure on health per capita” permitted in Occupied Afghanistan is $29 as compared to $6,714 in Occupier US and $3,122 in Occupier Australia).
There are 3-4 million Afghan refugees plus a further 2.5 million Pashtun refugees generated in NW Pakistan by the war policies of Obama – this carnage involving 4.5 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess Afghan deaths constitutes an Afghan Holocaust and an Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/
sideshow/genocide/convention.html ). The bottom line in any comparative analysis of violent wrongdoing is consequential death. The current "annual death rate" is 7% for Occupied Afghan under-5 year old infants under the US Alliance - as compared to that of 4% (for Poles under the Nazis in WW2), 5% (French Jews under the Nazis and the Nazi-collaborator Vichy régime in WW2), 13% (Australian POWs of the Japanese in WW2) and 19% (Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe) (see “Polish Holocaust (1939-1945)-Afghan Holocaust (2001-)”: http://gpolya.polls.newsvine.com/_news/
2009/09/02/3218030-polish-holocaust-1939-
1945-afghan-holocaust-2001-?groupId=1191 . Culpability. The ongoing Afghan Genocide is effected by the US Alliance in Occupied Afghanistan and NW Pakistan, this US Alliance involving primarily the US, NATO (notably France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands), the UK, Australia and New Zealand. 3. Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide (2.5 million post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths, 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths, 5-6 million refugees; 1990-2009, 4.4 million violent and non-violent excess deaths, 2.1 million under-5 infant deaths): http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ . Details. As of December 2009, deaths from the Iraq War since 2003 include 2.5 million violent and non-violent excess deaths of Indigenous Iraqis (4.4 million since 1990; see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/34979/42/ ) and post-2003 US Alliance deaths total 4,689 (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/ ). According to the 2006 Revision UN Population Division data, medical literature data, and other authoritative sources, the Iraqi Holocaust has been associated with 1.1 million post-invasion non-violent avoidable deaths; 1.4 million violent post-invasion deaths; and 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths (90% avoidable and due to gross US Coalition violation of the Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War which demand that an Occupier supplies food and medical requisites to “the fullest extent of the means available to it.” In addition, avoidable deaths under Sanctions (1990-2003) totalled 1.7 million, violent deaths in the Gulf War totalled 0.2 million and under-5 infant deaths under Sanctions totalled 1.2 million. Iraqi refugees (both inside and outside Iraq) total 5-6 million.
The ongoing Iraqi Holocaust (1990-2009) involves 1.6 million violent deaths, 2.8 million non-violent excess deaths, 4.4 million violent and non-violent excess deaths, 1.9 million avoidable under-5 year old infant deaths and 5-6 million refugees – an Iraqi Genocide according to the UN Genocide Convention. Culpability. The ongoing Iraqi Genocide is effected by the US Alliance, most notably the US, UK and Australia (but with involvement of other countries as well). In addition it is estimated that Australian AWB violation of the UN Oil for Food Program under Sanctions had the effect of killing up to about 20,000 Iraqi infants (see: http://gpolya.newsvine.com/_news/2006/03/08/
124591-australian-greens-senator-exposes-human-
cost-of-awb-iraq-kick-back-scandal-21000-iraqi-infant-deaths ). 4. Muslim Holocaust Muslim Genocide (billions of avoidable deaths from deprivation and violence in the pre-war European colonial era (1.8 billion avoidable deaths in the British Indian Holocaust, about 20% of them Muslims); 6-7 million Indian deliberately starved to death by the British in the WW2 Bengali Holocaust, the 1943-1945 man-made Bengal Famine, this killing many Muslims and constituting a “forgotten” WW2 Muslim Holocaust; 0.6 billion Muslim avoidable deaths from deprivation in the post-war colonial and post-colonial era, 1950-2005; 9 million violent and non-violent excess deaths in the Palestinian Holocaust, 1948-2010, Iraqi holocaust, 1990-2010, and Afghan Holocaust, 2001-2010; 3 billion Muslims predicted to perish in the Climate Genocide of non-Europeans due unaddressed, man-made global warming, as detailed in section 7 below) : http://sites.google.com/site/
muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ . Further details. Muslims have been subject to horrendous mass murder events, such as the mass murder of the people of Jerusalem by the Crusaders on 15 July 1099 - more than 70,000 dead bodies of Muslim children and women were found in the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem alone. In the13th century the Mongols under Genghis Khan killed millions in Iraq and adjoining. regions. In 1492 millions of Muslims (and Jews) were killed or expelled from Spain, putting an end to the brilliant civilization of Moorish Spain. Millions of Muslims were killed in subsequent centuries due to expansion of the Russian Empire in Asia, the British Empire in Asia and Africa, the French Empire in Asia and Africa, the Spanish Empire in Asia and Africa, the Portuguese Empire in Africa and Asia and the Dutch Empire in South East Asia (principally in what is now Indonesia). For detailed and documented account of these atrocities see Gideon Polya, “Body Count, Global avoidable mortality since 1950) (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007) (for details of the book see: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ) . Culpability. Those responsible for the colonial, post-colonial, and neo-colonial carnage have been European colonial powers. As detailed below in section 7, 73% of post-1751 additional atmospheric CO2 pollution is due to European countries, principally the US, the UK, and other European countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and EU countries also variously complicit in the ongoing Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Genocides. 5. Aboriginal Genocide (Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after the invasion in 1788, mainly through violence, dispossession, deprivation and introduced disease; systematic genocidal 20th century policy involving the removal of perhaps 0.1 million children from their mothers; 9,000 Indigenous Australians die avoidably each year due to egregious neglect): http://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ . Details. Australian Aborigines suffered Genocide at the hands of the European invaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Indigenous population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after the invasion in 1788, mainly through violence, dispossession, deprivation and introduced disease. The last massacres of Aborigines occurred in the 1920s. Throughout much of the 20th century there was a policy of forcibly removing Aboriginal children from their mothers, a systematic genocidal policy involving the removal of perhaps 0.1 million children. This practice ended in the 1970s. However the continued deliberate deprivation of Aboriginal Australians amounts to a White Australian policy of passive genocide. The “annual death rate” (2003 figures) is 2.2% (for Aboriginal Australians) and 2.4% (for Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory) – as compared to 0.4% (what it should be), 2.5% (for pre-drought sheep in paddocks of Australian sheep farms), and 0.7% (for White Australians). This is happening in one of the richest countries of the world because of deliberate neglect – Australian Aboriginal health services are funded at 50% of what they should be; many Australian Aborigines live in Third World conditions; the “annual under-5 infant death rate” is over 3 times higher for Aborigines than that for White Australians; 1 in 5 Australian Aborigines have diabetes (mostly type 2 diabetes) which has huge attendant problems such as cardiovascular complications, kidney problems and blindness; and the Australian Aboriginal life expectancy is about 20 years less than that for White Australians. Indeed Monash University diabetologist Professor Paul Zimmet stated recently in relation to the world-wide diabetes epidemic "If we don't do something, there is a real chance that Australia's indigenous community will be wiped out by the end of the century. The world needs to act now if we're to deal with this problem, which threatens to consume world economies and bankrupt health systems. We are dealing with the biggest epidemic in world history." Culpability. The Aboriginal Genocide is being deliberately, knowingly and remorselessly effected by White Australia, notwithstanding utterly hypocritical declarations of non-racism and love for Indigenous Australians. No Treaty was been signed by the UK or Australia with any of the originally about 500 Indigenous Australian Peoples (260 languages). The Australian Federal Court has found that Aboriginal Genocide is not punishable under National Law although it violates International Law to which Australia is a signatory. 6. Biofuel Genocide (billions of people in the Developing World, many of them Muslims, threatened by Biofuel Famine from huge food price rises due to legislatively mandated use of food to generate biofuel for transport in the US, UK, EU and other places): http://sites.google.com/site/biofuelgenocide/home . Details. Biofuel famine from global food price rises due to competition between cars and people is threatening biofuel genocide of billions of people in the Developing World. As estimated from the latest UN Population Division data, already 22 million people die avoidably each year from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease and this is clearly impacted by enormous cereal grain price rises
(see: http://sites.google.com/site
/biofuelgenocide/food-price-rise-1 ). Culpability. Major culpability for the Biofuel Famine and Biofuel Genocide rests with countries which have variously legislatively mandated use of food-derived biofuel in transport vehicles, notably the US, UK, EU, and Australia (as well as some other countries). 7. Climate Holocaust, Climate Genocide (man-made global warming increasingly impacts the current 22 million annual avoidable deaths from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; estimates from top UK climate scientists Dr James Lovelock and Professor Kevin Anderson point to 10 billion avoidable deaths this century due to unaddressed global warming, this including 6 billion infants, 3 billion Muslims in a near-terminal, 21st century Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis): http://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ . Details. The carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere is already at 390 parts per million (ppm) and CO2 concentration is increasing at about 2 ppm per year; global average temperature is already about 1oC above the pre-industrial and is now increasing at about 0.25 oC per decade. Top climate scientists say that we must reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration to about 300 ppm for a safe and sustainable environment for all people and species (see: http://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org ). Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have recently estimated that fewer than 1 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming – noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis. Already 22 million people die avoidably every year due to deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease – and man-made global warming is already clearly worsening this global avoidable mortality holocaust. However 10 billion avoidable deaths due to global warming this century yields an average annual avoidable death rate of 100 million per year for the 21st century. Culpability. Collective, national responsibility for this already commenced Climate Holocaust is in direct proportion to per capita national pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases (GHGs). Indeed, fundamental to any international agreement on national rights to pollute our common atmosphere and oceans should be the belief that “all men are created equal”. However reality is otherwise: “annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), less than 3 (many African and Island countries), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included) (see: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19422 ). Major culpability rests with the US Alliance, NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand and UK. C. Summary. This document represents a formal complaint by Dr Gideon Polya to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court re various US Alliance, NATO, EU, Australia, New Zealand and UK involvement in Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Muslim Genocide, Aboriginal Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide. The leaders of the US Alliance countries variously involved in these genocidal atrocities notably include George Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, George Bush Junior, Barack Obama, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Nicholas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Stephen Harper, John Howard, and Kevin Rudd. However a plethora of public servants, military leaders and other national leaders are also involved. In addition, one notes the overwhelming majority of academics, public servants and journalists who are “accessories after the fact” in relation to these ongoing genocidal atrocities through inaction, ignoring and obfuscation of the immense realities documented above. Thus the taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the most liberal and ethical of the Mainstream media in Australia but a Search of the “entire ABC site” reveals a scant and inexplicit 9 items in relation to the term “Aboriginal Genocide”, 3 items relating to the term “Aboriginal Holocaust” and essentially zero (0) items in response to searches for the terms “Palestinian Holocaust”, “Iraqi Holocaust”, “Afghan Holocaust”, “Muslim Holocaust”, “Biofuel Holocaust”, “Climate Holocaust”, “Palestinian Genocide”, “Iraqi Genocide”, “Afghan Genocide”, “Muslim Genocide”, “Biofuel Genocide” and “Climate Genocide”. I understand that the International Criminal Court may be prepared to make initial investigations of formal complaints by individuals (such as this complaint) but will only act to the fullest extent of its remit in response to formal complaints by National Governments. The overwhelmingly most devastating future prospect is that current deaths from global warming will remorselessly expand to a 10 billion victim Climate Holocaust and Climate Genocide this century from insufficiently addressed man-made global warming. Countries at major risk from sea level rises due to climate change include island nations in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific (some of which face total extinction) and countries with mega-deltas in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia (of which some face catastrophic loss of agriculture and massive population displacements). Such Nations will be receiving copies of this formal complaint and are urged to transmit formal complaints to the International Criminal Court. Formal complaints to the ICC are no doubt to be expected from Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan after the war criminal occupying forces and their Indigenous puppets depart. Yours sincerely, Dr Gideon Polya, Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia Dr Gideon Polya currently teaches science students at a major Australian university. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He has recently published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contribution “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007): http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/
ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ). He has just published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot
/bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see “Truth , Beauty & Saving the World – Science, Art & Nuclear, Greenhouse & Poverty Threats”:
http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/truth-beauty-saving-the-world . ANDERSON, Kevin. 0.5 billion climate holocaust survivors | Professor Kevin Anderson is the Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK. Professor Anderson, together with Dr Alice Bows wrote an extremely important paper describing 6-8% annual GHG emissions reductions needed for 450 ppm CO2-equivalent (CO2-e): “According to the analysis conducted in this paper, stabilizing at 450 ppmv [carbon dioxide equivalent = CO2-e, atmospheric concentration measured in parts per million by volume] requires, at least, global energy related emissions to peak by 2015, rapidly decline at 6-8% per year between 2020 and 2040, and for full decarbonization sometime soon after 2050 …Unless economic growth can be reconciled with unprecedented rates of decarbonization (in excess of 6% per year), it is difficult to envisage anything other than a planned economic recession being compatible with stabilization at or below 650 ppmv CO2-e ... Ultimately, the latest scientific understanding of climate change allied with current emissions trends and a commitment to “limiting average global temperature increases to below 4oC above pre-industrial levels”, demands a radical reframing of both the climate change agenda, and the economic characterization of contemporary society” (see: Kevin Anderson & Alice Bows, “Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends”, Proc. Trans. Roy. Soc, A, 2008: http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/journal_papers/fulltext.pdf ; Gideon Polya, “Good and bad climate news”, Green Blog, 2009: http://www.green-blog.org/2009/01/13/good-and-bad-climate-news/ ; and George Monbiot, “One shot left”, Monbiot.com (also published in the UK Guardian, 2008): http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/11/25/one-shot-left/ ). Professor Kevin Anderson on how many will survive the century in a “terrifying prospect” (November 2009): “For humanity it's a matter of life or death. We will not make all human beings extinct as a few people with the right sort of resources may put themselves in the right parts of the world and survive. But I think it's extremely unlikely that we wouldn't have mass death at 4C. If you have got a population of nine billion by 2050 and you hit 4C, 5C or 6C, you might have half a billion people surviving… The worst possible result at Copenhagen is a bad deal where the world leaders have to come home and say it's a good deal when its rubbish. That's the real danger – that they will feel under pressure to sign up to anything. That could lock us into something bad for the next ten years." [1]. [1]. Jenny Fyall, “Warming “will wipe out billions””, The Scotsman, 29 November 2009: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Warming-will-39wipe-out-billions39.5867379.jp . | BASSEY, Nnimmo. Rich sentence poorest millions to climate death | Nnimmo Bassey, prominent Nigerian environmentalist and chair of Friends of the Earth International, has described Copenhagen COP15 as "an abject failure". [1]. Nnimmo Bassey re the US-proposed Copenhagen Accord "noted" by COP15 (December 2009): "Justice has not been done. By delaying action, rich countries have condemned millions of the world’s poorest people to hunger, suffering and loss of life as climate change accelerates. The blame for this disastrous outcome is squarely on the developed nations. We are disgusted by the failure of rich countries to commit to the emissions reductions they know are needed, especially the US, which is the world's largest historical emitter of greenhouse gases. In contrast African nations, China and others in the developing world deserve praise for their progressive positions and constructive approach. Major developing countries cannot be blamed for the failure of rich industrialised countries. Instead of committing to deep cuts in emissions and putting new, public money on the table to help solve the climate crisis, rich countries have bullied developing nations to accept far less. Those most responsible for putting the planet in this mess have not shown the guts required to fix it and have instead acted to protect short-term political interests. The only real leadership at the conference has come from the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who’ve come together to demand strong action to prevent climate catastrophe. Their voices are loud and growing – and Friends of the Earth International will continue to be part of the fight for climate justice.” [1]. [1]. Nnimmo Bassey, quoted in “Copenhagen: “Imperial” climate deal rejected by poor-country delegates”, LINKS, 19 December 2009: http://links.org.au/node/1418 . | BRING CLIMATE CRIMINALS TO JUSTICE (BCCJ). Climate Genocide Criminal Prosecutions Bill | Bring Climate Criminals to Justice (BCCJ) is a UK organization that exists “To establish a legal process in the UK and abroad to facilitate the criminal prosecution of Government Ministers and key business leaders whose policies and activities contribute to the mass loss of life which Climate Change is certain to now cause”. BCCJ acts in relation to Bangladesh “Working with Bangladeshi political and environmental groups to seek the introduction of legislation to prosecute foreign nationals who have contributed to the Climate Change process that will result in the mass murder of Bangladeshi nationals“ and also engages with UK environmental campaigns, “Working to ensure UK environmental campaign groups re-focus campaigning, uniting to call for the criminal prosecution and imprisonment of the worst offenders. “(see: http://www.climatecriminals.co.uk/ ). Bring Climate Criminals to Justice (BCCJ) on Climate Genocide Criminal Prosecutions Bill: “We seek the introduction of a Bill to Parliament that will facilitate the retrospective prosecution of key Climate Criminals. These are Government Ministers and others who, through their policies and activities, have made significant contribution to the mass loss of life.The Bill will permit the prosecution for the deaths that have occurred and those that will be caused in the future. The Bill will permit the introduction of unprecedented penalties which are proportionate to the scale of the crime (Penalties: Upon prosecution and conviction.) The current and next administrations will not support such legislation but we want Government Ministers and key business players to know that retrospective legislation will be introduced in the future. As public opinion hardens and campaigners demand justice, new politicians will be elected who will deliver legislation that will tackle those who are guilty of the most bestial of all crimes against humanity. We are hopeful that prompt action in Bangladesh to introduce such legislation will encourage other nations to follow suit.” [1]. [1]. Bring Climate Criminals to Justice (BCCJ): http://www.climatecriminals.co.uk/ . | BROWN, Lester. Worldwatch Institute founder warns of Environmental Genocide due to increasing Food Demand & Food Supply constraints | Lester Russel Brown (born March 28, 1934 in Bridgeton, New Jersey) is a US environmentalist, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington DC and the author or co-author of over 50 books on global environmental issues and his works have been translated into more than forty languages. His most recent book is Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_R._Brown ). Lester Brown, videoed lecture on food supply and demand constraints, commencing with the collapse of Sumerian agriculture (deforestation, salinization) and dealing with demand constraints (population growth, rising affluence and conversion of grain to fuel) and supply siode constraints (notably water, ice melting, water table lowering , over-pumping and aquifer depletion) (2011). [1]. [1]. Lester Brown, “Averting Environmental Genocide- Plan B 4.0”, You-Tube, 21 April 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Y_ue6km20 . | CASTRO, Fidel. The very survival of humanity threatened by First World-imposed global warming | Fidel Castro (born August 13, 1926) was one of the primary leaders of the Cuban Revolution, Prime Minister of Cuba from February 1959 to December 1976, and then the President until his resignation from the office in February 2008. He is currently the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba. Despite cruel US Sanctions, infant mortality in Cuba under Fidel Castro in 2003 was about the same as in the US (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro ). Fidel Castro on the very survival of human society threatened by First World-imposed global warming (Copenhagen, 2009): “The youth is more interested than anyone else in the future. Until very recently, the discussion revolved around the kind of society we would have. Today, the discussion centers on whether human society will survive.These are not dramatic phrases. We must get used to the true facts. Hope is the last thing human beings can relinquish. With truthful arguments, men and women of all ages, especially young people, have waged an exemplary battle at the Summit and taught the world a great lesson.” [1]. [1]. Fidel Castro, “The truth of what happened at Copenhagen Summit “, Countercurrents, 21 December 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/castro211209.htm . | CHÁVEZ, Hugo. Call for climate justice to stop disappearance of mankind | Hugo Chávez (born 28 July 1954) has been the president of Venezuela since 1999. He is the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution and promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez ). Hugo Chávez at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15) pleading for World to save Mankind from global warming (December 2009): “The total income of the 500 richest people in the world is greater than the 450 million poorest living on $2 a day. We have to change direction. How long are we going to tolerate the current international economic order, and allow the hungry not to have food? Let's eradicate poverty and bring in climate justice. If capitalism resists we have to do battle with it. If we do not, then mankind, the greatest creation in the universe, will disappear.” [1]. [1]. John Vidal, “Evo Morales stuns Copenhagen with demand to limit temperature rise to 1C. Bolivian president warns of climate 'holocaust' in Africa as Hugo Chávez blames capitalism for climate change”, Guardian, 16 December 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/16/evo-morales-hugo-chavez . | Climate holocaust, climate genocide & Australia’s Secret Genocide History | Gideon Polya, “Australia’s Secret Genocide History. La Trobe, “Bundoora Eucalyptus” & Black Crimes of White Australia”, MWC News, 30 April 2008. For an image of the huge “Bundoora Eucalyptus” painting see: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/4318154968/ . Revised and updated, 2010. Australia’s Secret Genocide History. La Trobe, “Bundoora Eucalyptus” & Black Crimes of White Australia. La Trobe University, Bundoora, Melbourne is one of Australia’s top dozen universities with particular expertise in paramedical training and an excellent reputation for research and teaching in the humanities and biological sciences in particular. The main campus is set in beautiful bushland about 20 kilometers north of Melbourne at Bundoora. Bundoora means “the country kangaroos like” in the local Indigenous Australian Wurrundjeri language and indeed one can often see kangaroos grazing and hopping about in the outskirts of La Trobe University in the evening and early morning. La Trobe University is named after a former Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria, Charles Joseph La Trobe (1801-1875), who administered the colony of Victoria from 1839-1854. However there are 2 sides to this man that reflect a continuing dichotomy of good and evil in Australia as a whole. Thus Charles La Trobe was a gentle, cultured man and a mountaineer, adventurer and writer. However he was a poor administrator and his rule over the British colony of Victoria was associated with 2 major failures: (1) the Eureka Stockade rebellion of gold miners that was brutally put down by British soldiers and (2) the expansion of the Aboriginal Genocide with ethnic cleansing of Indigenous (Aboriginal) people involving the notorious Native Police set up under La Trobe. This paradoxical good/evil duality is perhaps behind the statue of Charles La Trobe at La Trobe University that is exhibited standing on its head! The beautiful La Trobe Bundoora landscape with its wonderful gum trees (Eucalyptus species), birds and kangaroos is the inspiration for my huge (1.3 metres x 2.9 metres) “Bundoora Eucalyptus” painting which also illustrates the dark/light, good/evil dichotomy of Charles La Trobe and of Australia as a whole. On the one hand Australia is a prosperous, educated, democratic society that was one of the first countries to have women’s suffrage, trade unions, and compulsory State-provided education. On the other hand, Australia has a shocking secret history of involvement in appalling genocides that continues to this day. Thus in 2008 Australia is involved in Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide, Afghan Genocide, Biofuel Genocide and Climate Genocide. Before going further it must be clearly stated that the term “Genocide” used here is “Genocide” as precisely defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention (see: http://www.edwebproject.org/sideshow/genocide/convention.html ): “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: a) Killing members of the group; b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Further, in assessing deaths from particular policies of invasion, occupation and dispossession one notes that deaths can be violent (from bombs and bullets) or non-violent (from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease). Both kinds of avoidable death (death that should not have happened) are included within the term “excess death” used below (see “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007). The following catalogue of Australian involvement in Genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention – and notably in British- and American-imposed genocides - is given below in roughly chronological order from 1788 (the year of European Invasion and First Settlement) to 2008. A key reference is my book “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”; other relevant books are Chalk, F. and Jonassohn, K. (1990), The History and Sociology of Genocide. Analyses and Case Studies (Yale University Press, New Haven & London); Tatz, C. (2003), With Intent to Destroy. Reflecting on Genocide (Verso, London); and Blum, W. (2006), Rogue State, A guide to the world’s only superpower (Zed Books, London)). . 1. 18th-19th century Aboriginal Genocide (the Indigenous Aboriginal population dropped from about 1 million to 0.1 million in the first century after invasion in 1788). 2. Tasmanian Aboriginal Genocide (the “full-blood” Indigenous population dropped from 6,000 to zero in 1803-1776; however there are several thousand “mixed race” decendants of Tasmanian and Mainland Aborigines still living in Tasmania today). 3. British Indian Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 0.6 BILLION, 1757-1837; 0.5 BILLION, 1837-1901 under Queen Victoria; 0.4 BILLION, 1901-1947. 4. European Chinese Genocide (10-100 million deaths in the European imperialism-driven Tai Ping rebellion period; Australia was involved in suppressing the Boxer rebellion). 5. Maori Genocide (Maori population dropped from 0.1-0.2 million in 1800 to 42,000 in 1893; Australia was involved in the 19th century Maori wars). 6. African Genocide (scores of million perished over 5 centuries of European slavery and colonialism; Australians participated in the Sudan War, 1881-1898). 7. Pacific Genocide (there was a catastrophic population decline due to introduced disease and slavery; thus 40,000 Fijians died from measles out of a population of 150,000 in 1876; “blackbirding” slavery was conducted by Australians in the late 19th century). 8. Boer (Afrikaaner) Genocide (1899-1902; 28,000 Afrikaaner women and children died in British concentration camps; Australians participated in the Boer War as immortalized in the movie “Breaker Morant”). 9. Armenian Genocide (1.5 million killed; the Australian invasion of Gallipoli as part of an Anglo-French force in 1915 helped to precipitate this atrocity; indeed April 24 is Armenian Genocide Day and April 25 is the day of the Australia invasion in 1915 and also a sacred war dead remembrance day for Australians and New Zealanders – it is called Anzac Day after the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) which stormed ashore on that first Anzac Day at Gallipoli in 1915). 10. Bengali Genocide (6-7 million perished in the “forgotten” man-made Bengal Famine atrocity in Bengal and adjoining provinces in British India, 1943-1945; Australians were there and indeed the Governor of Bengal in 1944 was an Australian, R.G. Casey: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ). 11. British post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to British occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 727 million; Australia has the same Head of State as the UK and continues to be a loyal military ally of the UK in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan). 12. US post-1950 Third World Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to US occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era totalled 82 million; Australia participated in all post-1950 US Asian Wars in Korea, Indo-China, Iraq and Afghanistan with Indigenous Asian excess deaths now totalling 25 million). 13. Australian Colonial Genocide (1950-2005 excess deaths in countries subject to Australian occupation as a major occupier in the post-war era, namely Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands totalled 2.1 million). 14. 20th century Aboriginal Genocide (total excess deaths clearly of the order of 1million; 0.1 million Stolen Generations Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their Mothers in the 19th and 20th centuries; excess deaths in the 11 years of the Bush-ite Coalition Government totalled 90,000 for 1996-2007). The following Australian genocide involvements in this catalogue of horrors are ON-GOING. 15. Palestinian Genocide (post-1967 excess deaths 0.3 million, post-1967 under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million and 7 million refugees; with bi-partisan agreement Australia provides diplomatic, financial and haven support for Israeli state terrorism – even when directed against tens of thousands of Australian citizens as in Lebanon in mid-2006 - and up to life imprisonment for anyone giving support to the Hamas Party that overwhelmingly won the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections). 16. Iraqi Genocide (4.4 million excess deaths 1990-2010; 2.5 million post-invasion excess deaths, 0.9 million post-invasion under-5 infant deaths and 5-6 million refugees; Australia militarily involved since 1990(as of December 2009). 17. Afghan Genocide (3-7 million post-invasion excess deaths, 2.3 million post-invasion under-5 infant and 4 million refugees; Australia involved militarily since 2001). 18. Ongoing Aboriginal Genocide (9,000 excess deaths annually; 90,000 excess deaths in the last 11 years of Bush-ite Coalition rule). 19. Biofuel Genocide (16 million die avoidably each year but this is increasingly biofuel-impacted as the legislatively-mandated US, UK and EU biofuel perversion forces up global food prices; Australia is a major sugar cane grower and sugar exporter with 60% of sugar going to bioethanol production worldwide; Australia has biofuel-promoting legislation and is a major canola grower, this being a major source for biodiesel ). 20. Climate Genocide (16 million die avoidably each year ALREADY from deprivation and deprivation-exacerbated disease; Professor James Lovelock FRS says that over 6 billion will perish this century die to unaddressed climate change; on a per capita basis Australia is among the very worst greenhouse gas (GHG) polluters – in terms of 2004 figures for “fossil fuel-derived annual per capita CO2 pollution” Australia is about 40 times worse than INDIA and 160 times worse than Bangladesh if you include Australia’s world number 1 coal exports). Yet politically correct racist (PC racist) Australia steadfastly “looks the other way” and its past and present involvements in the above atrocities are overwhelmingly NOT reported by racist, lying, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media NOR taught in Australia’s schools and universities. PC racist White Australia just cannot see the “Elephant in the room” – its continuing involvement in over 2 centuries of horrendous genocide. Australians are trapped in an Orwellian dream - Australia will only stop doing it when it is INFORMED that it is doing it. Please inform everyone you can. | CONNOR, Paul. 44 day fast for COP15 but "Scientists ignored ... our irreplaceable planet was sacrificed for meaningless profits" | Paul Connor is a 29 year old climate activist and university student currently studying Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Melbourne. He fasted for 44 days as part of the international Climate Justice Fast for Copenhagen COP15 action (see: http://www.climatejusticefast.com/about-us/ ). Paul Connor on the end of a 44 day fast as part of the international, November-December 2009 Climate Justice Fast to bring attention to the need for effective world action at the December 2009 Copenhagen COP15 Climate Conference against climate catastrophe (December 2009): “Today, my only prayer is that one day we will look back upon the current period of history and we will remember a time when the threat of climate change rendered our future uncertain. We will remember feeling fear as we watched the desperate warnings of scientists ignored by our leaders at COP15, and disbelief as our irreplaceable planet was sacrificed for meaningless profits. And we will remember our frustration as we worked to awaken a world that often seemed willfully ignorant of the enormous danger it faced. But this will not be all. I believe that one day, when we look back, we will also remember something incredible. We will remember how our generation made a collective decision to rise as one, all across the globe, and refused to let shortsightedness and greed destroy our future. We will remember that even when the situation seemed hopeless we never gave up, for there was just too much at stake. And we will remember how finally, our movement, once a whisper, grew before our eyes into a roar so deafening that it could no longer be ignored. On that day, our children and grandchildren will look to us with gratitude. Just as young Westerners pay their respects to the enormous sacrifices made during the great wars, one day we too will be thanked, for doing whatever it took to ensure that our descendants on this earth could have prayers of their own.” [1]. [1]. Paul Connor, “Day 44 –One Day (fast ends)”, Climate Justice Fast,20 December 2009: http://www.climatejusticefast.com/blog/entry/day-44-one-day-fast-ends/ . | DI-APING, Lumumba Stanislaus. Copenhagen Accord death warrant to incinerate Africa in Holocaust | Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping from Sudan was the lead negotiator for the G77 (Developing World) countries at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15). According to Euronews: “The watered-down climate change text sparked angry reactions among delegates. Poorer nations denounced it as a death warrant. Sudan said the declaration, would incinerate Africa and he compared it to the Holocaust”. [1], Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping on the US-inspired Copenhagen Accord (code-named L9) that was “noted” by CPOP15 but not unanimously endorsed (December 2009): “L9 asks Africa to sign a suicide pact. It is a solution based on the values which, in our opinion, channelled six million people in Europe to the (Nazi) furnaces.” [1]. Quoted by Euronews, “Sudan compares climate deal to the holocaust”, 19 December 2009: http://www.euronews.net/2009/12/19/sudan-compares-climate-deal-to-the-holocaust/ . | GLIKSON, Andrew. "Death of billions and likely demise of civilization" GOODMAN, Ellen. "Global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers" | Ellen Goodman (born April 11 1941) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, columnist and author of many books. She was researcher and reporter for Newsweek magazine between 1963 and 1965, and has worked as an associate editor at the Boston Globe since 1967 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Goodman ). Ellen Goodman on comparing climate change skeptics with deniers of the Jewish Holocaust (1967): “By every measure, the U N 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is "unequivocal." The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get. I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.” [1]. [1]. Ellen Goodman, “No change in political climate”, Boston Globe, 9 February 2009: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/09/no_change_in_political_climate/ . | HAMILTON, Clive. Comparing Jewish Holocaust deniers, climate change deniers & deniers of the coming climate holocaust | Dr Clive Hamilton AM is an economist, Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the Australian National University (ANU), holds the Vice-Chancellor's Chair at Charles Sturt University, was the founder of the Australia Institute (a major progressive Australian think tank), and was Executive Director of the Australia Institute from1993-2008 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Hamilton ). Dr Clive Hamilton comparing WW2 Jewish Holocaust deniers and climate change deniers (2009): “If the climate deniers were to succeed, and stopped the world responding to the mountain of evidence for human-induced global warming, then hundreds of millions of mostly impoverished people around the world would die from the effects of climate change. They will die from famine, flood and disease caused by our unwillingness to act. The Stern report provides some sobering estimates: an additional 30-200 million people at risk of hunger with warming of only 2-3°C; an additional 250-500 million at risk if temperatures rise above 3°C; some 70-80 million more Africans exposed to malaria; and an additional 1.5 billion exposed to dengue fever. Instead of dishonouring the deaths of six million in the past, climate deniers risk the lives of hundreds of millions in the future. Holocaust deniers are not responsible for the Holocaust, but climate deniers, if they were to succeed, would share responsibility for the enormous suffering caused by global warming. It is a ghastly calculus, yet it is worth making because the hundreds of millions of dead are not abstractions, mere chimera until they happen. We know with a high degree of certainty that if we do nothing they will die.” [1]. [1]. Clive Hamilton, “Hamilton: denying the coming climate holocaust”, Crikey, 16 November 2009: http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/11/16/hamilton-denying-the-coming-climate-holocaust/ . | HASAN, Mohammad Rakibul. "Climate genocide is already begun ..." - shocking images of coastal Bangladesh | Mohammad Rakibul Hasan is a professional photographer, independent journalist, short film maker and cinematographer based in Bangladesh who studied in Film & Video Production at UBS Film School, Australia. He is very focused on human rights, social and environmental issues (see: http://www.mrhasanphotography.com/bio.php ). 1. Mohammad Rakibul Hasan video entitled “The Climate Genocide” with shocking images on storm-wracked coastal parts of Bangladesh (2010): “Climate genocide is already begun in Bangladesh...." [1]. 2. Mohammad Rakibul Hasan photographs of storm-wracked coastal areas of Bangladesh (2010): "Climate genocide is already begun in Bangladesh. The populations in the South and South-East Asia coastline extending from the east coast of India to the coast of Myanmar have tasted the salt taste of annual cyclones from the Bay of Bengal with ever increasing tidal floods. Due to its existence in the middle of the coastline, Bangladesh is either the worst or the common victim irrespective of the locations where the cyclones make the landfall. Cyclones are not only resulting in human casualties and destruction of properties but also leaving behind perpetual tidal floods. Around one million people have been rendered homeless due to river erosion in the mainland river basins over the last three decades as the mighty River Brahmaputra-Jamuna continues to widen due to decrease in its depth for heavy rush of sediments from the upstream and poor erosion management in the downstream. Climate change is likely to lead to increasing rates of generation of climate refugees, and it is vital that evolving frameworks for climate change adaptation address issues for compliance by national and international communities to peacefully resettle those climate refugees. The whole World should work together on this issue to prevent climate genocide and ensure environmental sustainability." [2]. [1]. Mohammad Rakibul Hasan video entitled “The Climate Genocide”, You-Tube, 16 August 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgLPkkd1pEY . [2]. Mohammad Rakibul Hasan photgraphs on Flickr “Climate Genocide (on-going project)”, Flickr (2010): http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrhasan/5276195063/.
KINGSTON, Margo. Australian writer on climate change denial and holocaust denial. Margo Kingston is an Australian journalist, author and commentator (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margo_Kingston ). Margo Kingston wrote (2007): "David Irving is under arrest in Austria for Holocaust denial. Perhaps there is a case for making climate change denial an offence. It is a crime against humanity, after all." [1]. Margo Kingston quoted by Simon Castles in The garden of good and evil”, The Age, 17 June 2007: http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-garden-of-good-and-evil/2007/06/16/1181414606757.html?page=fullpage .
LOVELOCK, James. Only 0.5 billion to survive climate holocaust | Dr James Lovelock, Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) is one of the UK’s and the World’s most eminent climate scientists. He is famous for his Gaia Hypothesis (mutually interacting physical world and biological feedbacks affecting atmosphere and climate) and for his invention of the electron capture detector which ultimately assisted in discoveries about the persistence of CFCs and their role in stratospheric ozone depletion (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock ). Dr James Lovelock re very few surviving this century (June 2009) : “If we can keep civilization alive through this century perhaps there is a chance that our descendants will one day serve Gaia and assist her in the fine-tuned self-regulation of the climate and composition of our planet. We have enjoyed 12,000 years of climate peace since the last shift from a glacial age to an interglacial one. Before long, we may face planet-wide devastation worse even than unrestricted nuclear war between superpowers. The climate war could kill nearly all of us and leave the few survivors living a Stone Age existence. But in several places in the world, including the U.K., we have a chance of surviving and even of living well. For that to be possible, we have to make our lifeboats seaworthy now.” [1]. Dr James Lovelock, quoted by interviewer (November 2007): “By 2100, Lovelock believes, the Earth's population will be culled from today's 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes -- Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.” [2]. Dr James Lovelock re fewer than 1 billion surviving this century and in answer to the New Scientist interviewer question “Do you think that we will survive”( January 2009): “I'm an optimistic pessimist. I think it's wrong to assume we'll survive 2 °C of warming: there are already too many people on Earth. At 4 °C we could not survive with even one-tenth of our current population. The reason is we would not find enough food, unless we synthesised it. Because of this, the cull during this century is going to be huge, up to 90 per cent. The number of people remaining at the end of the century will probably be a billion or less. It has happened before: between the ice ages there were bottlenecks when there were only 2000 people left. It's happening again. I don't think humans react fast enough or are clever enough to handle what's coming up. Kyoto was 11 years ago. Virtually nothing's been done except endless talk and meetings.” [3]. [1]. James Lovelock, “Climate war could kill nearly all of us, leaving survivors on the Stone Age”, Guardian, 29 June 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/29/climate-war-lovelock . [2]. Jeff Goodell, “The Prophet of climate change”, Rolling Stone, 1 November 2007: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16956300/the_prophet_of_climate_change_james_lovelock . [3]. Gaia Vince, “One last chance to save mankind”, New Scientist, 23 January 2009: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?full=true .
LYNAS, Mark. UK climate change writer on climate holocaust, holocaust denial & climate holocaust denial Mark Lynas (born 1973) is a UK author, journalist, environmental activist who wrote several books including ”Six Degrees: our future on a hotter planet” (2007) (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lynas ) . Mark Lynas (2006): “I wonder what sentences judges might hand down at future international criminal tribunals on those who will be partially but directly responsible for millions of deaths from starvation, famine and disease in decades ahead. I put [their climate change denial] in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial – except that this time the Holocaust is yet to come, and we still have time to avoid it. Those who try to ensure we don’t will one day have to answer for their crimes.” [1]. Mark Lynas, 19 May 2006, quoted by Brendan O’Neill in “Global warming: the chilling effect on free speech”, Spiked, 6 October 2006: http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1782/ .
MONBIOT, George. UK writer & activist on climate change denial and holocaust denial. George Monbiot (born 27 January 1963) is a UK writer, zoology graduate, author of several books, environmental activist and political commentator (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monbiot ). George Monbiot (2006): “Almost everywhere, climate change denial now looks as stupid and as unacceptable as Holocaust denial. But I'm not celebrating yet. The danger is not that we will stop talking about climate change, or recognising that it presents an existential threat to humankind. The danger is that we will talk ourselves to kingdom come. If the biosphere is wrecked, it will not be done by those who couldn't give a damn about it, as they now belong to a diminishing minority. It will be destroyed by nice, well-meaning, cosmopolitan people who accept the case for cutting emissions, but who won't change by one iota the way they live.” [1]. [1]. George Monbiot, “The threat is from those who accept climate change, not those who deny it”, Guardian, 21 September 2006: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/sep/21/comment.georgemonbiot . |
MORALES, Evo. Climate change inaction threatens African Holocaust, ecolocide, climate genocide | Evo Morales (born October 26, 1959) is the leader of leader of the Bolivian political party called the Movement for Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, with the Spanish acronym MAS, meaning "more") and has been the socialist President of Bolivia since 2005. He was the first fully indigenous Bolivian head of sate in the 470 years since Spanish conquest (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales ). Evo Morales on climate crimes against Humanity, prosecution of climate criminal countries before the International Criminal Court, disappearance of Island nations and the climate holocaust threatening Africa (Copenhagen, December 2009): "Our objective is to save humanity and not just half of humanity. We are here to save mother earth. Our objective is to reduce climate change to [under] 1C. [above this] many islands will disappear and Africa will suffer a holocaust... he real cause of climate change is the capitalist system. If we want to save the earth then we must end that economic model. Capitalism wants to address climate change with carbon markets. We denounce those markets and the countries which [promote them]. It's time to stop making money from the disgrace that they have perpetrated.” [1]. Evo Morales commenting on the day before the conclusion of the December 2010 Cancun Climate Conference ((he has argued for cuts of up to 50 per cent in global carbon emissions by 2020, more than any other leader): “We need limited industrial development, rational development, not industries to kill like we have now, but rather industries to save lives… It [failure to act] is leaving the world without ecology. I called it ecolocide, which will lead to genocide… It's important to create an international court of climate justice. Industries, social movements, governments and international organisations who do not meet the norms that are established must be sanctioned…The most important thing is that the proposals of the people of the world are being debated, the rights of mother earth are being debated… What's never been in a debate before is how to live in harmony with Mother Earth - that's the debate.” [2]. [1]. John Vidal, “Evo Morales stuns Copenhagen with demand to limit temperature rise to 1C. Bolivian president warns of climate 'holocaust' in Africa as Hugo Chávez blames capitalism for climate change”, Guardian, 16 December 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/16/evo-morales-hugo-chavez . [2]. Evo Morales, quoted in “Morales warns of climate “genocide””, Aljazeera, 10 December 2010: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/12/2010121054139149384.html . | POLYA, Gideon. 10 billion to die in climate holocaust, climate genocide | Dr Gideon Polya is a biochemist, academic, writer, artist, and climate change activist. Associated with the Australian Climate Emergency Network and the Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, he is the Convenor of 300.org that, informed by the latest science, holds that we must return the world's atmospheric CO2 concentration to 300 ppm for a safe and sustainable planet for all peoples and all species (see: .http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya ). Dr Gideon Polya re climate genocide (December 2009): “Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have recently estimated that fewer than 1 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming – these estimates translating to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims, 2 billion Indians, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis.” [1]. Gideon Polya on Climate Genocide in context of April 22, Earth Day (2011): “April 22 is Earth Day. The following science-informed analysis summarizes the dire state of the Planet and what needs to be done to stop the horrendous global avoidable mortality holocaust killing 18 million people each year and to deal with the worsening climate emergency that threatens a climate genocide with a predicted 10 billion victims this century if man-made climate change is not urgently addressed.” [2]. [1]. Gideon Polya, “Climate racism, climate injustice and climate genocide – Australia, US & EU sabotage Copenhagen COP15”, Bellaciao, 14 December 2009: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article19422 . [2]. Gideon Polya, “April 22, Earth Day: We Must Stop Climate Catastrophe”, Countercurrentsd, 22 April 2011: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya220411.htm . | RANAWAKA, Patali Champika. Climate racism, climate terrorism & climate genocide | Patali Champika Ranawaka is Sri Lanka Minister of Environment and Natural Resources (see: http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/11/01/spe07.asp ). Patali Champika Ranawaka on Developed World climate racism, climate terrorism and climate genocide (November 2009): “Climate racism … During the pre industrial era when oil or coal was not used as a main energy source, carbon concentration in the atmosphere was 260ppm. Now it has risen to 390ppm. During the last century the mean temperature has risen by 0.730C. It is now predicted that the temperature would rise to a point between 1.5o – 6o Celsius, during the 21st century. Therefore, scientists introduced a carbon budget to avoid catastrophic environmental disaster which may end the humanity on the planet. According to their calculations, if we could be able to go back to the 350ppm and limit the temperature rise to 1.50C relative the pre industrial era, there would be an over 90% probability to avert an environmental calamity that could devastate this planet… The infamous US Senate (Byrd - Hagel) Resolution stated that it was the sense of the Senate that US should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and time tables for developing countries (like Sri Lanka) as well. A few weeks ago, the G-8 Summit reiterated this position. Australian and Mexican proposals to Copenhagen too have suggested a similar position. In order to cut emission levels of developed countries, developing countries too should cut their emission levels. The USA emits over 36% of carbon and “Wyoming” the least populous state with only 495,700 people emits more carbon dioxide than 74 developing countries with a combined population of nearly 396 million. The carbon emission of Texas with a population of 22 million, exceeds the aggregate emission of 120 developing countries with a combined population of 1.1 billion people. For the past century the US had emitted more than 50% of the total emission of all the developing countries in the world put together! So what right do they have to ask developing countries to limit their development? On the other hand, the USA economy is very inefficient with respect to the black carbon content. Each dollar contains 0.56 grams of carbon. Whereas in Japan it is 0.26 and in Sri Lanka it is 0.16 grams. If they simply are matching the Japan’s energy efficiency they would have to reduce their emission by more than half without signing the KP. But they ignored this under developed technological structure and simply were wasting fossil fuel deposits, causing genocide to others. When the US administration talk about human right violation, global terrorism, genocide etc., they should realize that its mirror image is much worse environmental human right violation, global climate terrorism and climate genocide over our children etc., Joseph Stieglitz, the ex president of the World Bank and Nobel prize winner for economics rightly pointed out that any agreement should be based on emissions per dollar of GDP and emissions per-capita… So in Copenhagen, developing countries will have a moral high ground and rational argument. On the other hand, developed countries only have brute force and concepts like Climate Nazism, Climate Racism and Climate Terrorism.” [1]. [1]. Patali Champika Ranawaka, “Climate racism”, Sunday Observer, 1 November 2009: http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/11/01/spe07.asp . | SCIENTISTS: cyclones and man-made climate change | Scientists: cyclones and man-made climate change. This is a compendium of recent scientist and science-informed views about the connection between man-made global warming and increased cyclone (hurricane) intensity. As will become apparent from the quotations below, there have been different views at the cutting edge of research in this area of science (as is normal in science) but a recent international consensus has been established as set out in item #1 (Knutson et al, 2010): “Whether the characteristics of tropical cyclones have changed or will change in a warming climate — and if so, how — has been the subject of considerable investigation, often with conflicting results. Large amplitude fluctuations in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones greatly complicate both the detection of long-term trends and their attribution to rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Trend detection is further impeded by substantial limitations in the availability and quality of global historical records of tropical cyclones. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether past changes in tropical cyclone activity have exceeded the variability expected from natural causes. However, future projections based on theory and high-resolution dynamical models consistently indicate that greenhouse warming will cause the globally averaged intensity of tropical cyclones to shift towards stronger storms, with intensity increases of 2–11% by 2100. Existing modelling studies also consistently project decreases in the globally averaged frequency of tropical cyclones, by 6–34%. Balanced against this, higher resolution modelling studies typically project substantial increases in the frequency of the most intense cyclones, and increases of the order of 20% in the precipitation rate within 100 km of the storm centre. For all cyclone parameters, projected changes for individual basins show large variations between different modelling studies.” 1. Thomas R. Knutson, John L. McBride, Johnny Chan, Kerry Emanuel, Greg Holland, Chris Landsea, Isaac Held, James P. Kossin, A. K. Srivastava & Masato Sugi (from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA, 201 Forrestal Road, Princeton, New Jersey 08542, USA; Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Melbourne 3001, Australia; Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China; Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 54-1620 MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA; National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA; National Hurricane Center/NWS/NOAA, 11691 SW 17th Street, Miami, Florida 33165, USA; National Climatic Data Center/NOAA, 1225 W Dayton Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA; India Meteorological Department, Shivajinagar, Pune 411005, India; and Research Institute for Global Change, JAMSTEC, 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0001 Kanagawa, Japan, respectively): “Whether the characteristics of tropical cyclones have changed or will change in a warming climate — and if so, how — has been the subject of considerable investigation, often with conflicting results. Large amplitude fluctuations in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones greatly complicate both the detection of long-term trends and their attribution to rising levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Trend detection is further impeded by substantial limitations in the availability and quality of global historical records of tropical cyclones. Therefore, it remains uncertain whether past changes in tropical cyclone activity have exceeded the variability expected from natural causes. However, future projections based on theory and high-resolution dynamical models consistently indicate that greenhouse warming will cause the globally averaged intensity of tropical cyclones to shift towards stronger storms, with intensity increases of 2–11% by 2100. Existing modelling studies also consistently project decreases in the globally averaged frequency of tropical cyclones, by 6–34%. Balanced against this, higher resolution modelling studies typically project substantial increases in the frequency of the most intense cyclones, and increases of the order of 20% in the precipitation rate within 100 km of the storm centre. For all cyclone parameters, projected changes for individual basins show large variations between different modelling studies.” [1]. 2. Climate change, MSNBC, commenting on Knutson et al (2010) (item #1): “Top researchers now agree that the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming, seeming to settle a scientific debate on the subject. But they say there's not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already begun. Since just before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, dueling scientific papers have clashed about whether global warming is worsening hurricanes and will do so in the future. The new study seems to split the difference. A special World Meteorological Organization panel of 10 experts in both hurricanes and climate change — including leading scientists from both sides — came up with a consensus, which is published online Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience… The study offers projections for tropical cyclones worldwide by the end of this century, and some experts said the bad news outweighs the good. Overall strength of storms as measured in wind speed would rise by 2 to 11 percent, but there would be between 6 and 34 percent fewer storms in number. Essentially, there would be fewer weak and moderate storms and more of the big damaging ones, which also are projected to be stronger due to warming… An 11 percent increase in wind speed translates to roughly a 60 percent increase in damage… The storms also would carry more rain, another indicator of damage… study suggests category 4 and 5 Atlantic hurricanes — those with winds more than 130 mph — would nearly double by the end of the century.” [2]. 3. Greg Holland ( National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado) and Peter Webster (Georgia Institute of Technology)(2007): “We find that long-period variations in tropical cyclone and hurricane frequency over the past century in the North Atlantic Ocean have occurred as three relatively stable regimes separated by sharp transitions. Each regime has seen 50% more cyclones and hurricanes than the previous regime and is associated with a distinct range of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Overall, there appears to have been a substantial 100-year trend leading to related increases of over 0.7°C in SST and over 100% in tropical cyclone and hurricane numbers. It is concluded that the overall trend in SSTs, and tropical cyclone and hurricane numbers is substantially influenced by greenhouse warming. Superimposed on the evolving tropical cyclone and hurricane climatology is a completely independent oscillation manifested in the proportions of tropical cyclones that become major and minor hurricanes. This characteristic has no distinguishable net trend and appears to be associated with concomitant variations in the proportion of equatorial and higher latitude hurricane developments, perhaps arising from internal oscillations of the climate system. The period of enhanced major hurricane activity during 1945–1964 is consistent with a peak period in major hurricane proportions.” [3]. 4. US Today, commenting on Holland and Webster (2007) (item #3) [with a graph of number of North Atlantic hurricanes per year versus time from 1850 to 2007]): “The number of hurricanes that develop each year has more than doubled over the past century, an increase tied to global warming, according to a study released Sunday."We're seeing a quite substantial increase in hurricanes over the last century, very closely related to increases in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean," says study author Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. Working with hurricane researcher Peter Webster of Georgia Institute of Technology, Holland looked at sea records from 1855 to 2005 in a study published in the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A. The researchers found that average hurricane numbers jumped sharply during the 20th century, from 3.5 per year in the first 30 years to 8.4 in the earliest years of the 21st century. Over that time, Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures increased .65 degrees, which experts call a significant increase… The new study drew criticism from experts who dispute the merits of combining data from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when hurricane-tracking satellites didn't exist, with statistics gleaned from more modern technology.” [4]. 5. Dr Andrew Ash (director, CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship) re climate change, floods and cyclones (2011): “We have had stronger cyclones in history and we have had cyclones just as large in size, but it is rare to get both a very large and intense cyclone. The flooding we have experienced to date on the whole has been within the bounds of historical events though in some areas, such as the Western Downs in Queensland and parts of Victoria, all time records have been broken. While extreme events like flooding and cyclones are an expected feature of La Nina events, the oceans around eastern and northern Australia are particularly warm at present. It is usual for the ocean in the Western Pacific to be warm during a La Nina event but the ocean temperatures are currently the highest on record…[In December 2010 the Southern Oscillation Index, a measure of the extent of La Nina, recorded a level of 27.1... the highest recorded December value in history] … The record warm temperatures are most likely a combination of La Nina and additional warming from human activities. While the flooding events and cyclones experienced this year aren't caused by climate change, the record warm ocean temperatures provide conditions more conducive to exacerbating these naturally occurring events associated with La Nina." [5]. 6. Professor Tim Flannery (mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and 2007 Australian of the Year) re climate change, floods and cyclones (2011): “The individual severe weather events you point to are the kind of thing climate modelling predicts will become more frequent as greenhouse gas concentrations increase.” [5]. 7. Australian Bureau of Meteorology (2006) re Tropical cyclones and climate change: “Leading scientists provide an expert view of the current state of knowledge. They note that there has been a high level of interest in the topic and that substantial debate is still occurring within the scientific community. With regard to the recent tropical cyclone seasons they conclude: "No single high impact tropical cyclone event of 2004 and 2005 can be directly attributed to global warming, though there may be an impact on the group as a whole.” Dr Geoff Love, the Australian Director of Meteorology, has submitted to the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Atmospheric Sciences, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, a "Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change". The Statement was prepared by an expert group of scientists comprising Dr John McBride and Dr Jeff Kepert of the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia, Professor Johnny Chan of China, Julian Heming of the UK, and Dr Greg Holland, Professor Kerry Emanuel, Thomas Knutson, Dr Hugh Willoughby and Dr Chris Landsea of the US. The paper reaffirms the finding of a 1998 study saying that any change in the frequency of tropical cyclones (hurricanes/typhoons) due to climate change cannot be determined due to a lack of knowledge and limitations of the available observing technologies. The little evidence that does exist indicates little or no change in global frequency. It also says that while some recent studies have suggested the intensity of tropical cyclones (hurricanes/typhoons) has increased substantially over the past 50 years due to climate change, the scientific community is "deeply divided". Some researchers believe the climate record is too inconsistent to draw such a conclusion due to changes in observations equipment and methods over time. The panel says it cannot come to a definitive conclusion in this "hotly debated area"… No single disaster caused by a tropical cyclone (hurricane/typhoon) in 2004 or 2005 - including Hurricane Katrina in the US - can be directly attributed to global warming. Rather, climate change may have an impact on the group as a whole. Further research is needed.” [6, 7]. 8. Dr John McBride and Dr Jeff Kepert ( Bureau of Meteorology in Australia), Professor Johnny Chan (China), Julian Heming (UK), and Dr Greg Holland, Professor Kerry Emanuel, Thomas Knutson, Dr Hugh Willoughby and Dr Chris Landsea (US), “Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change" (2006): “No single high impact tropical cyclone event of 2004 and 2005 can be directly attributed to global warming, though there may be an impact on the group as a whole; Emanuel (2005) has produced evidence for a substantial increase in the power of tropical cyclones (denoted by the integral of the cube of the maximum winds over time) over the last 50 years. This result is supported by the findings of Webster et al (2005) that there has been a substantial global increase (nearly 100%) in the proportion of the most severe tropical cyclones (category 4 and 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale), from the period from 1970 to 10995, which has been accompanied by a similar decrease in weaker systems. The research community is deeply divided over whether the results of these studies are due, at least in part, to problems in the tropical cyclone data base. Precisely, the historical record of tropical cyclone tracks and intensities is a product of real-time operations. Thus its accuracy and completeness changes continuously through the record as a result of the continuous changes and improvements in data density and quality, changes in satellite remote sensing retrieval and dissemination, and changes in training. In particular a step-function change in methodologies for determination of satellite intensity occurred with introduction of geosynchronous satellites in the mid to late 1970s. The division of the community on the Webster et al and Emanuel papers is not as to whether Global warming can cause a trend in tropical cyclone intensities. Rather it is on whether such a signal can be can be detected in the historical data base.” [6, 7, 8]. 9. Quirin Schiermeier (writer for Nature, cartographer, graduate in geography, statistics and economics from the University of Munich) on global warming and hurricane intensity (2008): “As this year's Atlantic hurricane season becomes ever more violent, scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide. The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research published in Nature this week [see #]. And the upward trend, thought to be driven by rising ocean temperatures, is unlikely to stop at any time soon… One of the most contentious issues in the climate-change debate has been whether the strength, number and duration of tropical cyclones will increase in a warmer world. Basic physics and modelling studies do suggest that tropical storms will become more intense, because warmer oceans provide more energy that can be converted into cyclone wind. But others believe that atmospheric changes might have an inhibiting role. Increasing shearing winds - another predicted consequence of global warming - are thought to suppress the cyclonic rotation of the storms, for example… The team statistically analysed satellite-derived data of cyclone wind speeds. Although there was hardly any increase in the average number or intensity of all storms, the team found a significant shift in distribution towards stronger storms that wreak the greatest havoc. This meant that, overall, there were more storms with a maximum wind speed exceeding 210 kilometres per hour (category 4 and 5 storms on the Saffir–Simpson scale). Rising ocean temperatures are thought to be the main cause of the observed shift. The team calculates that a 1 ºC increase in sea-surface temperatures would result in a 31% increase in the global frequency of category 4 and 5 storms per year: from 13 of those storms to 17. Since 1970, the tropical oceans have warmed on average by around 0.5 ºC. Computer models suggest they may warm by a further 2 ºC by 2100.” [9]. 10. Elsner, J., Kossin, J. P. & Jagger, T. H. on global warming and increased tropical cyclone intensity (2008): “Atlantic tropical cyclones are getting stronger on average, with a 30-year trend that has been related to an increase in ocean temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean and elsewhere. Over the rest of the tropics, however, possible trends in tropical cyclone intensity are less obvious, owing to the unreliability and incompleteness of the observational record and to a restricted focus, in previous trend analyses, on changes in average intensity. Here we overcome these two limitations by examining trends in the upper quantiles of per-cyclone maximum wind speeds (that is, the maximum intensities that cyclones achieve during their lifetimes), estimated from homogeneous data derived from an archive of satellite records. We find significant upward trends for wind speed quantiles above the 70th percentile, with trends as high as 0.3±0.09ms-1yr-1 (s.e.) for the strongest cyclones. We note separate upward trends in the estimated lifetime-maximum wind speeds of the very strongest tropical cyclones (99th percentile) over each ocean basin, with the largest increase at this quantile occurring over the North Atlantic, although not all basins show statistically significant increases. Our results are qualitatively consistent with the hypothesis that as the seas warm, the ocean has more energy to convert to tropical cyclone wind.” [10]. 11. Mark A. Saunders and Adam S. Lea (Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre, Department of Space and Climate Physics, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK) on sea surface warming and increased Atlantic hurricane activity (2009): “Atlantic hurricane activity has increased significantly since 1995, but the underlying causes of this increase remain uncertain. It is widely thought that rising Atlantic sea surface temperatures have had a role in this16, 17, but the magnitude of this contribution is not known. Here we quantify this contribution for storms that formed in the tropical North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico; these regions together account for most of the hurricanes that make landfall in the United States. We show that a statistical model based on two environmental variables—local sea surface temperature and an atmospheric wind field—can replicate a large proportion of the variance in tropical Atlantic hurricane frequency and activity between 1965 and 2005. We then remove the influence of the atmospheric wind field to assess the contribution of sea surface temperature. Our results indicate that the sensitivity of tropical Atlantic hurricane activity to August–September sea surface temperature over the period we consider is such that a 0.5°C increase in sea surface temperature is associated with a ~40% increase in hurricane frequency and activity. The results also indicate that local sea surface warming was responsible for ~40% of the increase in hurricane activity relative to the 1950–2000 average between 1996 and 2005. Our analysis does not identify whether warming induced by greenhouse gases contributed to the increase in hurricane activity, but the ability of climate models to reproduce the observed relationship between hurricanes and sea surface temperature will serve as a useful means of assessing whether they are likely to provide reliable projections of future changes in Atlantic hurricane activity.” [11]. 12. Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A. & Chang, H.-R. on changes in tropical cyclone number, duration, and intensity in a warming environment (2005): “We examined the number of tropical cyclones and cyclone days as well as tropical cyclone intensity over the past 35 years, in an environment of increasing sea surface temperature. A large increase was seen in the number and proportion of hurricanes reaching categories 4 and 5. The largest increase occurred in the North Pacific, Indian, and Southwest Pacific Oceans, and the smallest percentage increase occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean. These increases have taken place while the number of cyclones and cyclone days has decreased in all basins except the North Atlantic during the past decade… We conclude that global data indicate a 30-year trend toward more frequent and intense hurricanes, corroborated by the results of the recent regional assessment. This trend is not inconsistent with recent climate model simulations that a doubling of CO2 may increase the frequency of the most intense cyclones, although attribution of the 30-year trends to global warming would require a longer global data record and, especially, a deeper understanding of the role of hurricanes in the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean, even in the present climate state.” [12]. 13. Professor Kerry Emanuel (Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA) on warming and increased cyclone intensity (2005): “Theory and modelling predict that hurricane intensity should increase with increasing global mean temperatures, but work on the detection of trends in hurricane activity has focused mostly on their frequency and shows no trend. Here I define an index of the potential destructiveness of hurricanes based on the total dissipation of power, integrated over the lifetime of the cyclone, and show that this index has increased markedly since the mid-1970s. This trend is due to both longer storm lifetimes and greater storm intensities. I find that the record of net hurricane power dissipation is highly correlated with tropical sea surface temperature, reflecting well-documented climate signals, including multi-decadal oscillations in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and global warming. My results suggest that future warming may lead to an upward trend in tropical cyclone destructive potential, and—taking into account an increasing coastal population—a substantial increase in hurricane-related losses in the twenty-first century.” [13]. 14. Professor Kerry Emanuel, Ragoth Sundararajan, and John Williams (Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts} on modeling showing cyclone storm intensity generally increases with global warming (2008): “Changes in tropical cyclone activity are among the more potentially consequential results of global climate change, and it is therefore of considerable interest to understand how anthropogenic climate change may affect such storms. Global climate models are currently used to estimate future climate change, but the current generation of models lacks the horizontal resolution necessary to resolve the intense inner core of tropical cyclones. Here we review a new technique for inferring tropical cyclone climatology from the output of global models, extend it to predict genesis climatologies (rather than relying on historical climatology), and apply it to current and future climate states simulated by a suite of global models developed in support of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. This new technique attacks the horizontal resolution problem by using a specialized, coupled ocean–atmosphere hurricane model phrased in angular momentum coordinates, which provide a high resolution of the core at low cost. This model is run along each of 2,000 storm tracks generated using an advection-and-beta model, which is, in turn, driven by large-scale winds derived from the global models. In an extension to this method, tracks are initiated by randomly seeding large areas of the tropics with weak vortices and then allowing the intensity model to determine their survival, based on large-scale environmental conditions. We show that this method is largely successful in reproducing the observed seasonal cycle and interannual variability of tropical cyclones in the present climate, and that it is more modestly successful in simulating their spatial distribution. When applied to simulations of global climate with double the present concentration of carbon dioxide, this method predicts substantial changes and geographic shifts in tropical cyclone activity, but with much variation among the global climate models used. Basinwide power dissipation and storm intensity generally increase with global warming, but the results vary from model to model and from basin to basin. Storm frequency decreases in the Southern Hemisphere and north Indian Ocean, increases in the western North Pacific, and is indeterminate elsewhere. We demonstrate that in these simulations, the change in tropical cyclone activity is greatly influenced by the increasing difference between the moist entropy of the boundary layer and that of the middle troposphere as the climate warms.” [14]. 15. Professor Ross Garnaut (climate change economist and Australian Federal Government climate change adviser) warning that floods and cyclones like those experienced by Australian in 2011 will get more extreme as global warming increases (2011): “[while climate change cannot be directly blamed for the recent flooding, or for Cyclone Yasi] the greater energy in the atmosphere and the seas can intensify extreme events and I'm afraid that we're feeling some of that today, and we're feeling that at a time when global warming is in its early stages… [re carbon tax and climate change action] "Getting back in the saddle, I would like a result this time… We've taught ourselves that we're capable of making quite a big mess of dealing with this diabolical policy problem, I hope we've learnt something along the way…We haven't played our proportionate part amongst developed countries so far. We've talked about it from time to time, but we haven't done much…It will be quite important for the international effort that Australia ceases to be a drag on the international effort…I'm not talking about us leading the world, I'm talking about our catching up." [15]. 16. Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Library (that provides carefully researched infomation to members of the Australian Federal Parliament) : “Are extreme weather events—severe storms, flooding, droughts, heat waves or extremely violent cyclones—becoming more common? The answer appears to be 'yes'. Trends towards more powerful storms and hotter, longer dry periods have been observed, according to the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, and this trend is projected to continue.” [16]. 17. Professor John Holdren (Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; Director of the Woods Hole Research Center; recent Chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and President Obama’s chief scientific adviser) on climatic disruption (2008): “Harm is already occurring (continued). (Figure) Total power released by tropical cyclones (green: Annual mean HADISST 30S-30N) has increased (circa 2-fold 1990-2003) along with sea surface temperatures (blue: West Pac + East Pac + Atlantic); Kerry Emanuel, MIT, 2006”. [17]. 18. Professor Vicky Pope (head of climate change advice at the Met Office, UK) explains how a warmer world is a wetter world (2011): "As the average global temperature increases one would expect the moisture content of the atmosphere to rise, due to more evaporation from the sea surface. For every 1C sea surface temperature rise, atmospheric moisture over the oceans increases by 6-8%. Also in general, as more energy and moisture is put into the atmosphere [by warming], the likelihood of storms, hurricanes and tornadoes increases." [18]. 19. Dr Andrew Glikson (former Principal Research Scientist, Australian Geological Survey Organization, Earth and paleoclimate scientist. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Research School of Earth Science, Planetary Science Institute, Australian National University) on Queensland floods [noting according to the report, that climate scientists were careful never to point to a single event as evidence of climate change but to examine medium and long-term trends] : “'Cyclones have increased twofold over the past 20 years. Floods have increased threefold. It's happening now, and it's happening faster than some of the climate-change scientists have dared to predict” [19]. 20. William Cosgrove (vice president, World Water Council), 3rd World Water Forum, 2003: "Extreme weather records are [already] being broken every year and the resulting hydro-meteorological disasters claim thousands of lives and disrupt national economies," said of the Marseille-based think tank made up of users and suppliers of water for social and economic development. The big problem is that most countries aren't ready to deal adequately with the severe natural disasters that we get now, a situation that will become much worse as storms and droughts become more pervasive. Ignoring the problem is no longer an option… The increasing incidence of extreme events provides a convincing argument to continue looking into building partnerships between science, water managers and the disaster preparedness communities, including the development and dissemination of capacity development packages and methodologies. It is telling that disaster reduction has been recognized since 2000 an issue central to poverty reduction. ” [20, 21].
21. World Water Council press release from the 3rd World Water Forum re climate change, droughts and floods (February 2003): “Economic loses from weather and flood catastrophes have increased ten-fold over the past 50 years, partially the result of rapid climate changes, the World Water Council (WWC) says. These rapid climate changes are seen in more intense rainy seasons, longer dry seasons, stronger storms, shifts in rainfall and rising sea levels,. More disastrous floods and droughts have been the most visible manifestations of these changes. From 1971 to 1995, floods affected more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, or 100 million people per year, according to experts. This total includes 318,000 killed, and more than 81 million left homeless. Major floods that left at least 1,000 people dead and caused $1 billion in damages per episode have been the most destructive… According to climate experts, the expected climatic change during the 21st century will further intensify the hydrological cycle – with rainy seasons becoming shorter and more intense in some regions, while droughts in other areas will grow longer in duration, which could endanger species and crops and lead to drops in food production globally. Evidence for the link between climate change and increasing climate variability is mounting rapidly. For example, scientific research has linked the recent droughts in the USA and Afghanistan to the effects of global warming… These climate disasters stemming from climate variability include: Floods [and Droughts] - Based on data for ther period 1950 to 1998, the number of major flood disasters has grown considerably world-wide from decade to decade – six cases in the 1950s, seven in the 1960s, eight in the 1970s, 18 in the 1980s, and 26 in the 1990s. The number of significant flood disasters in the 1990s was higher than in the three previous decades combined. Overall, global precipitation is estimated to have increased by about two percent since 1900, though not on a uniform basis. This disparity in new rainfall caused some places to become wetter and others to get drier, such as North Africa south of the Sahara. In the most calamitous storm surge, the flood in Bangladesh in April 1991 killed 141,000 people. Two floods in China, one in 1996 and the second in 1998, caused the highest material losses of the decade, of the order of $30 billion and $26.5 billion, respectively. Floods also destroy the hard-won economic advances that many in the developing world have accomplished, such as the Mozambique floods of 2000, which left nearly 1 million homeless, and Hurricane Mitch in Central America [1998]. Comparing the economic impacts of the 2000 flood in Mozambique with the 2002 flood in Central Europe clearly illustrates the disparity in how national economies are impacted by extreme events. The cost of damages reflects the income levels of the countries. According to officials at the World Bank, the Mozambique flood resulted in a 45 percent drop in GDP in 2000, whereas in Germany, the 2002 flood is estimated to have caused less than a one percent drop in GDP…Hurricane Mitch [1998] killed 11,000 people, with thousands of others missing. More than 3 million people were either homeless or severely affected. In this extremely poor regions, estimates of the total damage from the storm surpassed $5 billion. The President of Honduras, Carlos Flores Facusse, claimed the storm destroyed 50 years of progress. As far as the geographic distribution of the worst floods, the majority occurred in Asian countries … In addition, the impact of floods has had increasingly detrimental and disruptive effects on human health. In flooded areas, some diseases such as diarrhea, which kills 2.2 million children under th4 age of five per year, or leptospirosis (a systemic infection that can lead to meningitis and hemorrhagic jaundice) spread more rapidly… Many countries in Africa have been suffering from unprecedented droughts that may signal widespread climate change … Sea level rise is a concern in coastal and low-lying areas, including small islands. In addition to coastal flooding, saltwater intrusion into freshwater aquifers present a threat to water supplies. The average global sea level rise from 1900 to the year 2100 is expected to be 0.48 meters (19 inches), between twice and four times the rate of rise over the 20th century. The main effect on humans will be to confront extreme events such as storm surges. Areas of greatest danger include Small islands in the Pacific, mainly the Atolls; Coastal low-lying countries like Bangladesh and the Netherlands; Coastal mega-cities like Tokyo, Lagos, Buenos Aires and New York.” [20, 21]. 22. Global Greenhouse Warming.com on climate and floods: "Meteorologic floods are by far the most common of the types of floods in the human experience, affecting parts of the globe every year. Such floods can bring good, such as the fertile soils formerly brought to the Nile Delta by annual flooding. However, large floods are mostly known for their catastrophic loss of life and property, such as in China and Bangladesh which repeatedly devastated by floods - Bangladesh lost 300,000 people in November 1970 and more than 130,000 in April 1991, from cyclone-induced flooding, and the massive flooding of the Yangtze River in China in 1931 caused more than 3 million deaths with a further 2 million in 1959 from flooding and starvation. …By 2025, half the world's population will be living in areas that are at risk from storms and other weather extremes," the World Water Council said, citing evidence gathered by U.N. and other experts. The economic cost of changes in climate and floods will be huge, especially for poor countries that are likely to bear the brunt of these events. The phrase Climate and Floods is something we will hear more of in the years ahead.”[22]. 23. Dr James Hansen in “Storms of My Grandchildren” (2010): “Global warming does increase the intensity of droughts and heat waves, and thus the area of forest fires. However, because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour, global warming must also increase the intensity of the other extreme of the hydrological cycle – meaning heavier rains, more extreme floods, and more intense storms driven by latent heat, including thunderstorms, tornadoes, and tropical storms. I realized that I should have emphasized more strongly [in his 1988 testimony to a US Senate Committee] that both extremes increase with global warming.” [23]. 24. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2006 (founded in 1848, AAAS serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals; the AAAS journal Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million): “The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society. Accumulating data from across the globe reveal a wide array of effects: rapidly melting glaciers, destabilization of major ice sheets, increases in extreme weather, rising sea level, shifts in species ranges, and more. The pace of change and the evidence of harm have increased markedly over the last five years. The time to control greenhouse gas emissions is now… In addition to rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it is essential that we develop strategies to adapt to ongoing changes and make communities more resilient to future changes. The growing torrent of information presents a clear message: we are already experiencing global climate change. It is time to muster the political will for concerted action. Stronger leadership at all levels is needed. The time is now. We must rise to the challenge. We owe this to future generations.” [24]. 25. Senator Christine Milne (Australian Greens deputy leader; Tasmanian Greens senator) on man-made climate change and Cyclone Yasi (2011): “This is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy of climate change. The scientists have been saying that we are going to experience more extreme weather events, that their intensity is going to increase, their frequency.” [25]
References.
[1]. Thomas R. Knutson, John L. McBride, Johnny Chan, Kerry Emanuel, Greg Holland, Chris Landsea, Isaac Held, James P. Kossin, A. K. Srivastava & Masato Sugi, “Tropical cyclones and climate change”, Nature Geosciences, 3, 157 - 163 (2010): http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v3/n3/abs/ngeo779.html . [2]. Climate change, MSNBC, “Study: stronger hurricanes loom. Fewer expected but bigger storms to bring more damage”, commenting on Knutson et al (2010), Climate change, MSNBC, 21 February 2010: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35506750/ns/us_news-environment/ . [3]. Greg Holland and Peter Webster, “Heightened tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic: natural variability or climate trend?”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 365, no. 1860. pp 2695-2716, 2007: http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1860/2695.short . [4]. US Today, “Study links more hurricanes, climate change”, 30 July 2007: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2007-07-29-more-hurricanes_N.htm . [5]. Matt Granfield, “Coincidence or climate change?’, ABC Drum Unleashed, 3 February 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/43560.html . [6]. Australian Bureau of Meteorology, “Tropical cyclones and climate change”, media release, 20 February 2006: http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/ho/20060220.shtml . [7]. Dr John McBride and Dr Jeff Kepert ( Bureau of Meteorology in Australia), Professor Johnny Chan (China), Julian Heming (UK), and Dr Greg Holland, Professor Kerry Emanuel, Thomas Knutson, Dr Hugh Willoughby and Dr Chris Landsea (US), “Statement on Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change", submitted to the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Atmospheric Sciences, meeting in Cape Town, South Africa by Dr Geoff Love ( Australian Director of Meteorology), 2006: http://www.bom.gov.au/info/CAS-statement.pdf . [8]. Tropical cyclone, subsection Global warming, Wikipedia: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:41B86CUK98wJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone+%22tropical+cyclones+and+climate+change%22&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&source=www.google.com.au . [9]. Quirin Schiermieier, “Hurricanes are getting fiercer. Global warming blamed for growth in storm intensity”, Nature News, 3 September 2008: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080903/full/news.2008.1079.html . [10]. Elsner, J., Kossin, J. P. & Jagger, T. H., “The increasing intensity of the strongest tropical cyclones”, Nature 445, 92–95 (2008): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7209/full/nature07234.html . [11]. Mark A. Saunders and Adam S. Lea, “Large contribution of sea surface warming to recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity”, Nature, vol 451, pp 557-560, 2008: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7178/full/nature06422.html . [12]. Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A. & Chang, H.-R., “Changes in tropical cyclone number, duration, and intensity in a warming environment. ” Science 309, 1844–1846 (2005): http://www.sciencemag.org/content/309/5742/1844.full . [13] Kerry Emanuel, “Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years”. Nature vol. 436, pp686-688, 2005: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v436/n7051/abs/nature03906.html . [14]. Kerry Emanuel, Ragoth Sundararajan, and John Williams, “Hurricanes and Global Warming: Results from Downscaling IPCC AR4 Simulations”, Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., vol. 89, pp347–367, 2008: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/BAMS-89-3-347 . [15]. Professor Ross Garnaut quoited in “Cyclones, floods to get worse as warming increases: Garnaut”, ABC News, 3 February 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/03/3129424.htm . [16]. Parliament of Australia, Parliamentary Library, “More extreme weather”: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/ClimateChange/theClimate/moreExtreme.htm . [17]. Dr John Holdren (2008), “The Science of Climatic Disruption” (power point lecture): http://www.usclimateaction.org/userfiles/JohnHoldren.pdf . [18]. Vicky Pope, quoted in Damien Carrington, “”Australian floods: La Nina to blame”, Guardian, 11 January 2011: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/11/australia-floods-la-nina . [19]. Karen Kissane, “Disaster expert urges a retreat from the coast”, The Age, 15 January 2011: http://www.theage.com.au/national/disaster-expert-urges-a-retreat-from-the-coast-20110114-19rcg.html . [20]. World Water Council 3rd World Water Forum, Press release, 27 February 2003: http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/fileadmin/wwc/News/WWC_News/News_2003/PR_climate_27.02.03.pdf .
[21]. “Climate change boosting floods, drought: experts”, News in Science, 3 March 2003: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s796319.htm . [22]. Global Greenhouse Warming.com, “Climate and floods” (2003): http://www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/climate-and-floods.html . [23]. James Hansen, “Storms of My Grandchildren. The truth about the coming climate catastrophe and our last chance to save humanity”, Bloomsbury, London, 2009, pxv. [24]. American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), AAAS Resolution: Statement on Climate Change”, 2006: http://archives.aaas.org/docs/resolutions.php?doc_id=447 . [25]. “TC Yasi caused by climate change: Greens”, ABC News, 1 February 2011: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/01/3127184.htm . | SETHNESS, Javier. Climate genocide shows naked abomination of capitalism | Javier Sethness is an educator and libertarian socialist who currently lives in California (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/sethness191009.htm ). Javier Sethness on climate genocide in reviewing Richard A. Koenigsberg's book “Nations Have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust and War” (October 2009): “As is well-known, climate change stands to threaten agricultural production across much of the globe, radically diminish the global supply of freshwater, inundate low-lying coastal settlements currently home to hundreds of millions of people, prompt widespread desertification, and literally eradicate some countries that today exist. The specter of such life-negating realities seems to find its genesis in capitalist society, a form of totalitarianism that essentially values profitability above all else. The response of nearly every advanced-capitalist country to the now well-established reality of climate change has been entirely inadequate toward the end of allowing much of humanity and life itself the chance to flourish or even survive the projected consequences of anthropogenic global warming; their lack of meaningful action on this question—a lack which results from the desire to hold existing society more or less unchanged—is systematic. It cannot merely then be stated that the mass murder—the rendering-impossible of human life—that follows from reformist inaction is a mistake, an unintended consequence, an ‘externality.' Such horrifying consequences are today essentially inevitable in contemporary capitalism; as such, dominant Western treatment of these questions bears much in common with other genocidal episodes of human history…What is currently occurring, then, is the mass-murder of the global South by much of the global North. There has of course been a marked tendency toward this dynamic now for some time in human history, but it seems climate genocide constitutes the most final of these historical denials…Just, then, in Koenigsberg's words, as “[t]he Holocaust depicts the ugliness, futility and meaninglessness of submission to the nation-state,” so does the prospect of climate genocide illustrate the naked abomination of capitalism. Dialectically, of course, it also holds out the necessity of the institution of eco-socialism: it demands that humanity cut the fuse, in Walter Benjamin's words, “[b]efore the spark reaches the dynamite.” [1]. [1]. Javier Sethness, “The Holocaust and Climate Genocide: an eco-socialist review of “Nations have the Right to Kill””, Countercurrents, 19 October 2009: http://www.countercurrents.org/sethness191009.htm . | SOLON ROMERO, Pablo. Bolivian UN Ambassador: Cancun climate inaction deal means ecocide and genocide | Pablo Solón Romero is currently the Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations. He is the son of the famous Bolivian muralist Walter Solón Romero Gonzáles (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Sol%C3%B3n_Romero ). Pablo Solón Romero, the Bolivian representative at the December 2010 Cancun Climate Conference was blunt in his assessment of the final “deal”*: "We're talking about a [combined] reduction in emissions of 13-16%, and what this means is an increase of more than 4C. Responsibly, we cannot go along with this - this would mean we went along with a situation that my president [Evo Morales] has termed “ecocide and genocide”.” [1]. The BBC has summarized the Cancun Climate Deal as “Things achieved: fund to channel money from the West to developing nations; formal recognition that current emissions pledges need to rise; framework on paying countries not to cut down their forests and Things not achieved: deeper emissions cuts; mechanisms for negotiating deeper emission cuts; deciding on the legal status of any new global agreement.” [1]. [1]. “ UN Climate Change talks in Cancun agree a deal”, BBC, 11 December 2010: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11975470 ). | UN GENOCIDE CONVENTION. | UN Genocide Convention. “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948. The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The following acts shall be punishable: (a) Genocide; (b) Conspiracy to commit genocide; (c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide; (d) Attempt to commit genocide; (e) Complicity in genocide. Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals. The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3. Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction. Genocide and the other acts enumerated in Article 3 shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition. The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force. Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3. Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in Article 3, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute. The present Convention, of which the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall bear the date of 9 December 1948. The present Convention shall be open until 31 December 1949 for signature on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State to which an invitation to sign has been addressed by the General Assembly. The present Convention shall be ratified, and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. After 1 January 1950, the present Convention may be acceded to on behalf of any Member of the United Nations and of any non-member State which has received an invitation as aforesaid. Instruments of accession shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Any Contracting Party may at any time, by notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, extend the application of the present Convention to all or any of the territories for the conduct of whose foreign relations that Contracting Party is responsible. On the day when the first twenty instruments of ratification or accession have been deposited, the Secretary-General shall draw up a proces-verbal and transmit a copy of it to each Member of the United Nations and to each of the non-member States contemplated in Article 11. The present Convention shall come into force on the ninetieth day following the date of deposit of the twentieth instrument of ratification or accession. Any ratification or accession effected subsequent to the latter date shall become effective on the ninetieth day following the deposit of the instrument of ratification or accession. The present Convention shall remain in effect for a period of ten years as from the date of its coming into force. It shall thereafter remain in force for successive periods of five years for such Contracting Parties as have not denounced it at least six months before the expiration of the current period. Denunciation shall be effected by a written notification addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. If, as a result of denunciations, the number of Parties to the present Convention should become less than sixteen, the Convention shall cease to be in force as from the date on which the last of these denunciations shall become effective. A request for the revision of the present Convention may be made at any time by any Contracting Party by means of a notification in writing addressed to the Secretary-General. The General Assembly shall decide upon the steps, if any, to be taken in respect of such request. The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall notify all Members of the United Nations and the non-member States contemplated in Article 11 of the following: (a) Signatures, ratifications and accessions received in accordance with Article 11; (b) Notifications received in accordance with Article 12; (c) The date upon which the present Convention comes into force in accordance with Article 13; (d) Denunciations received in accordance with Article 14; (e) The abrogation of the Convention in accordance with Article 15; (f) Notifications received in accordance with Article 16. The original of the present Convention shall be deposited in the archives of the United Nations. A certified copy of the Convention shall be transmitted to all Members of the United Nations and to the non-member States contemplated in Article 11. The present Convention shall be registered by the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the date of its coming into force.” [1]. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948: http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html . | |
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