You may remember that in the middle of the snow storms, Senator James Graft Inhofe (R - OK) constructed an "igloo" in Washington, DC and posted a sign reading "Honk if you heart global warming." That other clown, Senator Jim DeMint bleated tweeted "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries uncle." Chiming in like a pair of demented marionettes, Limbaugh and Hannity blathered on with story after story distorting the facts to fit their dishonest narrative and, more importantly, Murdoch's bottom line.
Today's main feature in the Guardian has some revealing facts, undeniable facts:
World's top firms cause $2.2tn of environmental damage, report estimates.
Report for the UN into the activities of the world's 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment
Dig into those companies and you'll discover, well, the usual suspects!
Whilst the report "airs" this coming summer you can bet your last dollar on which well known corporations make the list. Place your bets. For the list of US worst polluters, look no further than here. I shudder to think of the damage being made by the rest of the world's corporations.
The report comes amid growing concern that no one is made to pay for most of the use, loss and damage of the environment, which is reaching crisis proportions in the form of pollution and the rapid loss of freshwater, fisheries and fertile soils.
Later this year, another huge UN study - dubbed the "Stern for nature" after the influential report on the economics of climate change by Sir Nicholas Stern - will attempt to put a price on such global environmental damage, and suggest ways to prevent it. The report, led by economist Pavan Sukhdev, is likely to argue for abolition of billions of dollars of subsidies to harmful industries like agriculture, energy and transport, tougher regulations and more taxes on companies that cause the damage.
Chart below compliments of the UK Guardian.
Since we are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than the earth can absorb it and soil erosion in croplands exceeds new soil formation as well as taking fish from the ocean faster than they can reproduce, we're entering a world of hurt, to paraphrase the Coen Brothers. The earth is 70% covered by water, and since the water cycle replenishes water on a continuous and natural basis, the idea of "peak water" may seem strange for most people. Yes, glaciers are melting from underneath and oceans are rising and that should mean that water will be more plentiful. Think again. The following quote is telling:
Another major concern is the risk that companies simply run out of resources they need to operate, said Andrea Moffat, of the US-based investor lobby group Ceres, whose members include more than 80 funds with assets worth more than US$8tn. An example was the estimated loss of 20,000 jobs and $1bn last year for agricultural companies because of water shortages in California, said Moffat.
Money and greed for money will eventually do us in as our species seems hardwired for self destruction.
Ahead of changes which would have a profound effect - not just on companies' profits but also their customers and pension funds and other investors - the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment initiative and the United Nations Environment Programme jointly ordered a report into the activities of the 3,000 biggest public companies in the world, which includes household names from the UK's FTSE 100 and other major stockmarkets.
Today, to top this up my email box alerted me to the United Nations bulletin on water: it estimates over 300 potential conflicts over water exist around the world today. Ensuring a peaceful availability of water for consumption, sanitation, agriculture and industrial production will become harder with more than 260 water basins in the world transcending national borders. For centuries war and conflict has been tied to the protection of water resources and with water shortages around the world becoming more and more of an issue, water has simply become the new oil.
To put it simply, conflicts arise over who has the power to control water and therefore control the economy and population. It is not helped by the increase of urbanization world wide which has exploded the demand for water tenfolds.
Aaron Wolfe, a specialist in water resource policy and conflict resolution from the Oregon State University, puts it as bluntly as he can:
This is as big as malaria, as big as HIV/AIDS. It’s bigger than tsunamis, bigger than earthquakes. It’s a crisis as big as we face. More than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion, about half the world’s population have no access to basic sanitation. Every year, water-related ailments made 250 million people sick and claimed the lives of between 2.2 million and 5 million more
He also adds that:
Conflicts over water, the world’s most precious resource, were at the heart of regional instability but they could be a catalyst for cooperation and peace if managed properly. Two thirds of the time we do anything over shared water, we cooperate. That is hugely important,
Despite the fact that the global population is growing fast and is expected to top eight billion by 2030 and 9 billion by 2050, the United Nations Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) maintains the world has the resources and the know-how to feed everyone, but half a billion people will go hungry and many millions will starve to death due to water war, politics and economics, more than climate change, natural disasters or plagues. The French relief organization Action Against Hunger (ACF) says "Famine is no longer a result of natural disaster. The map of great famines exactly matches that of wars." As the global population grows, the arithmetic becomes clear: the world would have to feed another 2.5 billion people with less water for agriculture than is now available.
You might ask, what about new technologies such as reverse osmosis and to a lesser extent, desalination? Well, only about an estimated 0.4 per cent of the world’s water came from desalination, a figure that would double in the coming decades. While its technology could be improved upon, desalinized water is not the "silver bullet" it was made out to be.
“Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions of people. Since the very birth of human civilization, people have moved to settle close to water. People move when there is too little of it. People move when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write and sing and dance and dream about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it.” Mikhail Gorbachev, 2000