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Climate change is a pressing reality. From hurricane Katrina to melting polar ice, and from mass extinctions to increased threats to food and water security, the link between corporate globalization and planetary blowback is becoming all too evident.Governments and business keep reassuring the public they are going to fix the problem. This book brings together some leading activists who disagree. They expose the inertia, denial, deception—even threats to our civil liberties—which comprise mainstream responses from civil and military policy makers, and from opinion formers in the media, corporations and academia.An epochal change is called for in the way we all engage with the climate crisis. Key to that change is Aubrey Meyer's proposed "Contraction and Convergence" framework for limiting global carbon emissions, which he outlines in this book. Also included here are contributions from Mayer Hillman and George Marshall, making this a powerful and vital guide to how mass mobilization can avert the looming catastrophe.
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Surviving Climate Change The Struggle to Avert Global Catastrophe Edited by DAVID CROMWELL and MARK LEVENE Pluto P Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI in association with Crisis Forum Cromwell 00 pre iii 24/8/07 15:36:39 First published 2007 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 www.plutobooks.com Copyright © David Cromwell and Mark Levene 2007 The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2568 2 ISBN-10 0 7453 2568 8 Paperback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2567 5 ISBN-10 0 7453 2567 X Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England Cromwell 00 pre iv 24/8/07 15:36:40 In memory of John Theobald, our friend and fellow campaigner Cromwell 00 pre v 24/8/07 15:36:40 Contents Preface ix Introduction: Survival Means Renewal Mark Levene and David Cromwell 1 Part I: The Big Picture 1 The Case for Contraction and Convergence Aubrey Meyer 29 Part II: The State and its Apparatus 2 Thinking the Worst: The Pentagon Report Dave Webb 3 Preparing for Mass Refugee Flows: The Corporate Military Sector Steve Wright 82 Climate Change and the Political Process: Consequences for Government Action in Britain James Humphreys 102 4 59 Part III: Critical Players 5 6 7 8 First They Blocked, Now Do They Bluff? Corporations Respond to Climate Change Melanie Jarman 123 Mostly Missing the Point: Business Responses to Climate Change David Ballard 137 The Mass Media, Climate Change, and How Things Might Be John Theobald and Marianne McKiggan 158 Having the Information, but What Do You Then Do With It? The Scientific and Academic Communities J