Billhook’s Recent Comments

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  I'm intrigued by the logic of your position : "I don't take part in climate action events because I believe it will take change in many areas of environmental policy to achieve climate change carbon reduction goals. So, I push for policy that will shift our manufacturing to producing products that are durable and non-toxic. I support sustainable land use so that natural resources are used efficiently. This also includes advocating the preservation of forests- which provide enormous carbon capture." While campaigning on climate policy is not everyones' idea of a happy way of life, I wonder if you recognize that without success at the global and national policy levels then all other actions for the sustainable integration of society within the natural ecology are critically undermined ? There is also the issue of displacement arising from well meant conservation efforts in one place simply causing greater extraction of resources elsewhere - forestry being a case in point. Where I live in Wales much of the woodland is preserved, meaning that even mighty oaks must be left to go past their prime, age, fall and rot, and that local hardwood demand is then met by imports of rainforest hardwoods or of the yields from the ongoing rape of the Russian temperate forest cover. For this reason I wonder if you might be persuaded to support sustainable productive forestry, as opposed to mere preservationism ? With regard to the received wisdom of forests providing "enormous carbon capture" it would be helpful to describe how this occurs. I see of course that forests hold huge volumes of carbon as standing 'Carbon Banks', but, the world's great natural forests are essentially static in their scale and carbon capacity, so where is the sink ? The soils of both Boreal and Tropical forest tend to be similarly stable - e.g. the Amazon rainforest, at about 60 million years old, has an average of a foot of topsoil under it - Some temperate forests can develop substantial soil depths, but they are a very minor part of global forest cover, and so have little effect on the average carbon sequestration rate per hectare of forestry globally. So can you say where this enormous carbon capture is occuring ? Or could it actually be a myth propagated by the rainforest-preservation lobby attempting to get its special interest loaded onto the climate bandwagon ? Regards, BillhookOn Why the climate movement needs more Ethiopian-style activists posted 7 minutes ago 10 Responses

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  More or less as I said, if you want to play the fool by continuing to criticize African delegations' disgust at US intransigence, well that's up to you. regards, BillhookOn Why developing countries cannot afford failure in Copenhagen posted 1 day, 13 hours ago 9 Responses

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  Some years back at COP 2 or 3 in Geneva, I asked a member of the US delegation off the record just what they'd do if they one day found that GW was far more serious than they were then pretending. In response he smiled and said easily, "Well, I guess we'd just have to bomb Asia's power stations to stop their pollution." Ethics, and world war, aside, this would indeed be one means of cutting CO2 output very substantially overnight. So what are the means proposed by those arranging the Climate Justice Fast for the nations to achieve 350 ppmv ? -- Do they hope to get Dr Hansen's proposal implemented, whereby the US writes a global plan, gets it endorsed by some western allies, and then coerces developing nations into compliance (for 40 years !) by threat of a trade war ? -- Or do they seek a just framework for the allocation of national emission entitlements, converging over time from the status quo to per capita parity, under an annually contracting global emissions budget ? -- Or do they just want to leave all that technical stuff to the politicians to sort out ? If they want to earn public and media support, they'd do well to describe exactly what it is they're fasting for, what means they want implemented, for in this very long-term issue it seems clear that for whole generations the Means employed are the End experienced. Regards, BillhookOn Activists launch climate hunger strike posted 1 day, 18 hours ago 1 Response

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  An interview with Pachauri (head of IPCC) shown in the UK Guardian is well worth reading on this issue: "Pachauri still sees a chance for success in Copenhagen conference" www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/05/pachauri-copenhagen-conference Pachauri takes a pragmatic and creative approach to the present impasse, making an highly constructive proposal. He also lays out the exreme hazard and urgency of mitigation of the present position. For instance, he said : "And you see so much happening all around. Look at the melting of the glaciers all over the world. What are the implications of that? Look at the impacts on agriculture. We ourselves in the IPCC have projected that as early as 2020, we would see certain African countries suffering a decline of 50 percent in agriculture, and these are countries that have massive malnutrition, hunger all around. And if they have a decline of 50 percent, what does that mean? We are asking for disaster." To put that 50% loss of farm output in context, the great famines of medaeval Europe resulted from a mere 10% to 15% cut in output. So while some African nations will lose 50%, how many other nations around the world are likely to lose that critical 10% to 15% ? Regards, BillhookOn Why developing countries cannot afford failure in Copenhagen posted 2 days ago 9 Responses

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  Landanimal - fully agreed. Obama needs to be made aware that if he fails to confront and expose the denialists' wild conspiracy theories, and fails to override opposition and negotiate the requisite treaty, he'll see his support vaporize at elections, and the first blackish president will go down in history as a one-term dismal failure. Regards, BillhookOn Why developing countries cannot afford failure in Copenhagen posted 2 days, 1 hour ago 9 Responses