Tag Archives: Global warming

Eco-Awareness 

Larry Speight brings us his monthly column –

Our cultural heat dome

We are inclined through habit, conditioning and inertia to live in the pond circumstances have placed us in and are reluctant to change one iota of the negative aspects of how we live even when advised to by a concerned professional such as a medical doctor, counselor or psychiatrist. Many of us are so habituated to how we live and the prism through which we make sense of the world that we put up with the restrictions, burdens, boredom and for some the nagging sense of a life unfulfilled because change takes effort and involves social, financial and self-esteem risks.

Our inclination to live as we have always done is the real impediment to whole-heartily addressing the ecological catastrophes and social justice issues that exist locally and globally. Ecologically these include the degradation of the life support systems we depend upon namely water, air, and in the case of organisms, their extinction. The latter includes not only birds and mammals but pollinators and the multitude of micro life-forms of which healthy soil is composed.

The most serious and prolific of social justice issues are those that are out of sight. Among these are the millions of underpaid and poorly treated workers shackled by overseers to workstations in China and countries in S.E. Asia who produce much of what people in Ireland regard as indispensable not least of which are clothes and digital devices.

Almost completely absent from our mental audit of the world is the human suffering and destruction to eco-systems caused by mining the raw materials that are used in the manufacture of these consumables as well as the ecological costs involved in the transportation, packaging, storage and eventual disposal of them. Few will be aware, as the thinktank Circle Economy tell us, that a colossal 106 billion tonnes of materials are used by the global economy every year. Much of this, even the things that can be resold, repaired and recycled, end up in landfill sites, and as has been well documented, in the marine environment.

Our complacency is such that instead of taking action to stop the bleeding of our living Earth we advocate that government and corporations increase the level of bleeding, deceiving ourselves of the reality of what we are doing. The euphemism for the butchering of our biosphere and the suffering it causes, especially to indigenous societies, is ‘economic growth’.

The idea that continual economic growth is an all-round good thing is so embedded in our psyche that the news presenters and commentators on media outlets that proudly claim to be impartial frame economic growth in celebratory terms and lament indicators of ‘economic stagnation’. This fossilised thinking is prevalent across our cultural firmament.

An illustrative example are the spring and summer weather forecasts. When this spring’s temperatures across our island reached 22 and 23 Celsius on a daily basis the weather presenters used cheery words when announcing the prospect of further dry days some going as far as encouraging their audience to light barbecues.

No mention is made of the fact that without regular rainfall the rivers, lakes, reservoirs and aquifers become depleted with the result that society suffers. This includes industry, agriculture, hospitals, schools, day centers and homes. Prolonged spells of high temperature cannot only cause inconvenience but they affect mortality rates. A study published in Nature reports that between June and September 2023 an estimated 47,690 people across Europe died from heat-related causes.

Climatologists describe extended hot dry periods as heat domes in which a large area of high pressure in the atmosphere traps hot air preventing it from escaping. It could be said that the predominate ideas concerning economics and what it means to live a meaningful life are trapped in a cultural heat dome. The dome is forged by the formal education system, religion, government policy, advertising and social media to the end of sustaining consumerism whose reason d’etre is not wellbeing but capital accumulation.

The expected outcome of the ideas trapped in our cultural heat dome is contained in the global warming statistics which indicate that the warming of the planet is on an upward trajectory and expected to reach between 2.5 and 2.9 Celsius above the pre-industrial level by the end of the century. This breaches the 2015 Paris Agreement’s 1.5 Celsius global warming threshold above which the edifice of global civilisation could well collapse.

A life-support system that shows every sign of functioning below the capacity required to sustain civilization is the collection of life forms known as biodiversity. Given that 75 % of global food crops are dependent on pollinators including bees, butterflies, bats and birds the rapid decline of these combined with the decrease of soil fertility could see the demise of the intensive agricultural system that has developed since the end of the Second World War.

In regard to this the International Trade Association informs us that 80% of the food eaten across the whole of our island is imported. This includes animal feed, fruit, nuts, vegetables as well as a wide range of processed foods. Our vulnerability, not only as an island people but as a global community, is compounded by the digitalisation of almost every sphere of our lives as well as our dependency on the complex, highly sensitised supply networks.

It is sobering to think that civilisation is the proverbial camel waiting for that last straw to be placed upon our back.

We, however, don’t have to accept the self-harming ideas trapped in our cultural heat dome. These include that nonhuman nature has no moral standing and there are no alternatives to continual economic growth and our highly circumscribed political democracy. These are not laws of nature. They are cultural, time specific, and can be changed through education. A good start would be for schools to teach the new generations how to process their emotions, critique ideas, make and repair, grow and preserve food in an ecologically friendly way and apply empathy in the nonviolent resolution of conflict.

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Billy King: Rites Again

Billy King shares his monthly thoughts

If it happens to me that I am waking up in the night and thinking of the war in Ukraine and what people are going through, I cannot imagine what it is like to actually be in Ukraine. War – an offence against humanity. And yet so many people around the world are still facing it and the terror of the prospect of war. Homo sapiens has a lot of learning to do.

Keeping our hopes up

It is hard sometimes, often, to keep up our hopes of building peace when there is so much war, violence, and rumours of war around, even on the continent of Europe which saw the worst military conflagrations of the last century. And who is paying attention to what is happening in – for example – Yemen where people face not only devastating war but death from malnutrition and lack of medical aid.

There was a great piece in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/23/is-the-world-listening-the-poets-challenging-myanmars-military about the use of poetry by Rohingya people as a form of resistance. In a piece by Mayyu Ali there is a brief statement of the plight of Rohingya refugees:

There are more than a million Rohingya now living in the world’s largest refugee camp complex in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. They also face a desperate situation; living in overcrowded conditions and lacking freedom of movement or access to formal education. Deadly fires are frequent, and in early January a blaze left thousands homeless. Over the past two years, the Bangladeshi government has also relocated more than 20,000 Rohingya refugees to the flood-prone Bhasan Char island, in many cases without gaining their informed consent

Some of the poetry quoted is about the terrible violence inflicted on them by the Myanmar military. But a couple of pieces are about hope for themselves and Myanmar – and we can take that hope and apply it to the world. I will just quote one poem:

Hope

We choose hope, that’s our virtue

We believe in peace, that’s our mantra

See the stars through this darkness

We’ll rise and rise, and smile again in colours

– By Thida Shania, on her wishes for a future Myanmar.

If a Rohingya person in exile from their homeland, in the grips of a vicious military dictatorship and in an exceedingly precarious position can express that wish, how joyful should our hope be?

Global warming – the (micro) proof

You’ve seen all the statistics and worried over them. You’ve looked at the horrific wildfires of last year. You have wondered what the future is going to bring for you and your children or grandchildren if you have them or may have them. You have probably realised that, as always, it is the poor of the world who are the ones who will suffer most; but all of us will be more at risk in terms of our lives, livelihoods and wellbeing.

But some still wonder how fast things are changing. As a common or garden gardener for around forty years in Belfast and thus the north of this island, admittedly in a city and a couple of miles from the sea, (with the north of this island tending to be a couple of degrees colder than the south) I can tell you directly. Forty years ago you could rely on there being a hard frost by the end of October; now it could be Christmas, the New Year, or not at all. This last winter might not feel ‘warm’, and in the wind and damp or rain of the Irish environment that is not surprising. But I have a very reliable plant thermometer which indicates when there has been a ‘hard’ frost (one where the temperature dips to -2° or -3°C or below); nasturtiums. These go to mush when the temperature dips this low. This year most of our nasturtiums from last year are still looking happy though they don’’t flower in lower temperatures; they even survived briefly lying snow in late February.

We also have a few varieties of marigolds; these have continued flowering throughout the winter, admittedly not very expansively but a few flowers nonetheless. And I have also noticed how summer and autumn flowering plants now hang on in flower, again not expansively, until the spring flowers begin their colour.

Of course winter can have a sting in its tail but I have noticed a big difference in just a few decades. And if you go back further, and admittedly it was extreme even for then, March 1937 was completely frozen so that daffodils were only in full flower around 20th April [You remember it well? – Ed] [A photo in a paper told me – Billy.] This year daffodils are coming into bloom, almost two months in advance of 1937. A survey in England has shown that flowers are blooming on average a month earlier than a few decades ago, and I imagine that the situation in Ireland is very similar.

These are big changes in climate and its effects in such a short period of time. Ireland may not run short of water, and some parts may be getting wetter, but storms and floods will increasingly wreak major damage. We still have our heads in the sand – though many beaches may disappear with higher sea levels.

Telling

Peace News is an excellent British peace magazine https://peacenews.info/ which, as well as news from peace doings across the eastern waters has plenty of informative and challenging features. One such piece, in the February-March 2022 issue is a centre page spread featuring a map of the world, “How the world appears to China”. The details include nuclear strategic warheads and US military bases with the latter indicated by different size US flags.

A large Stars and Stripes indicates lots of US military bases, a medium US flag a medium US military base, and a small US flag a small US military base. So guess what is plonked on top of Ireland because of Shannon Airport? Yes. It’s a small US flag. This accurately depicts Ireland’s Shannon Airport as a “Small U.S. military base”. No ifs, no buts. Oh no, in Irish government speak it isn’t, it is just US military forces passing through (…..to wars and military operations all over the place…) but this succinctly names what Shannon is; a US military base. The truth should be told, and the Irish government should be told by voters – who overwhelmingly support Irish neutrality – that it is not acceptable, not then, not now, and not in the future.

Behind the scenes

Some people ensure they are always visible and that their good work and deeds are on view, and they cultivate their image. There are others who are totally different; people who do the work, no matter how hard or how long it takes, often the boring donkey work or financial affairs which would drive others to distraction. They know their organisations inside out, they carry the administration and sometimes the collective memory. They are always busy but they are the people to ask if you need something done, and they will squeeze it in. Usually calm, always efficient, their organisations depend on their organisational acumen and dedication.

And yet outsiders may not know they even exist. They are not necessarily backward at coming forward but what is important to them is that the work is done, the goals achieved, and not that their face is in the photo for the project record or the media. If it helps then they are prepared to be visible but they don’t need it. They may be at the top, the middle or the bottom, if the organisation has rungs, but they pull more than their weight.

These people are often women and they are the backbone of an organisation. Women can have big egos as well as men, though not usually as dominantly, but these women, and men, know that egotism is a detraction from the work and an obstacle to everyone’s wellbeing and getting the job done. They may not be visible but if they disappeared then civil society, and many other sectors, would be limping along.

They may be next to invisible in many instances but they are irreplaceable.

This piece has been written following the death of Marilyn Hyndman in Belfast, aged 68, and as a tribute to her.

Chips on their shoulders

The new album on the INNATE photo and documentary site https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72177720296995989 about newspaper coverage of the 1994 ceasefires, Good Friday Agreement and the DUP coming into the power-carving-up fold in 2007 made me think about propaganda in the Troubles. There were periodic propaganda or PR efforts by all armed groups during the Troubles in Norn Iron. For paramilitaries this included photos or videos of the group ‘on patrol’, brandishing weapons, or practising firing their weapons – and of course firing over the grave of killed comrades was a big set piece ritual. The government had many different campaigns including their “7 years [of the Troubles] is enough” posters after the emergence of the Peace People in 1976; republicans changed these to “700 years [of British involvement in Ireland] is enough”. For the British Army, efforts were varied, including an annual proclamation of how ‘Irish’ British army Irish regiments were on St Patrick’s Day (which I would consider cultural appropriation).

But the most bizarre British army PR stunt that I am aware of was when a photo was published about the new ‘healthy eating’ kick for soldiers stationed in the North; larger potato chips. Yes, a photo appeared, I think in the Belfast Telegraph, detailing the fact that the army was now serving larger chips so they didn’t have so much fat. Really. I can imagine a conversation in the British army PR department:

Person 1; Things are a bit quiet, I’m bored, let’s stir things up and create something really bizarre, off the wall, and see if we can get it into the media.

Person 2: Like what?

Person 1; Oh, something really crazy, like news about how the army is now making bigger chips for the sake of soldiers’ health, you know, with less fat.

Person 2; That’s ridiculous. Bet you a tenner you couldn’t get that into any of the media….

Person 1; You’re on. Some papers will take any old rubbish from us, you’re going to owe me…..

Person 2: You’ll never do it but if you do I’ll lose a tenner and have a chip on my shoulder….

And the most stupid and exploitative advert I saw was one in a magazine for a camera where it showed a reporter with said camera stepping onto the ground in Northern Ireland…out of a helicopter. Eh no, Northern Ireland was a violent place but it wasn’t the Vietnam war and reporters at least didn’t need to use helicopters.

Speaking of helicopters and the Vietnam war, the most tone deaf film propaganda/advertisement I saw was for joining the RUC, as it then was, where it showed helicopters swooping while Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries was played. Eh, was this an unconscious mirroring of Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now where there is the massacre of a Vietnamese village from helicopters with the Ride of the Valkyries blaring? Or how did this RUC ad get made. I have no idea how or why this happened but as befits the era concerned, I can say – answers on a postcard please. You are still allowed send postcards but they are now an endangered species or will they make a comeback? But we don’t need a comeback by any of the above.

Well, I hope early springtime is treating you well and you are not too depressed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – as they say, don’t mourn/moan, organise. And there is a lot of organising to do as militarists try to use the invasion of Ukraine as a reason to be more militarist and inflict more militarisation on the world – which is sad and will not end well. Take care until we meet again, Billy.