Page 20 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

2 G. MURDOCK AND B. BREVINI

The Arctic ice mass plays a key role in regulating global temperatures,
reflecting the sun’s radiation back into space and cooling the winds that
blow over it and the water that passes under it. In November 2016, tem-
peratures in the Arctic were around 20 °C warmer than expected for that
time of year and sea ice coverage was the lowest ever recorded. The release
of these findings coincided with the publication of the Arctic Resilience
Report, the most comprehensive scientific study of the region to date,
lending support to the authors’ conclusion that continuing rapid melting of
the polar ice cap, and consequent warming, could trigger tipping points and
feedback loops that will have major impacts on global climate patterns, not
only in the far north but in the heavily populated middle latitudes (Arctic
Council 2016). One key tipping point is reached when the warming of
offshore permafrost releases increased volumes of methane, a major
greenhouse gas, causing extreme weather, disrupted food production and
increased health risks. One calculation, simply for the thawing of permafrost
beneath the East Siberian Sea, puts the total cost of these impacts at $60
trillion, only $10 trillion short of the estimated size of the world economy in
2012. As the authors note, “The total cost of Arctic change will be much
higher” (Whiteman et al. 2013: 401). At the same time, the prospect of
ice-free passage through polar waters and the opportunity to access the 30%
of the world’s undiscovered gas and 13% of undiscovered oil in the Arctic
are powerful incentives for further corporate exploitation.
Recent severe weather conditions provide a stark reminder that the
disruption caused by accelerating interruptions to natural cycles is not
confined to remote regions or future dates. They are here now. Figures for
global average near surface temperatures (measured a metre above ground
level) confirm that 2016 overtook 2015 as the warmest year recorded since
1850, with 90% of the increase attributable to the high levels of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere, levels not for seen for 4 million years (Met
Office 2017). The consequences are far-reaching with seal levels rising and
“climate-related extremes such as heat waves, heavy precipitation and
droughts increasing in frequency and intensity” disrupting food produc-
tion, aiding the spread of diseases previously confined to the tropics, and
accelerating species extinctions (European Environmental Agency
2017: 12).
The latest research confirms consequences that were already evident a
decade ago and had prompted the Nobel Prize winning atmospheric
chemist Paul Crutzen and his colleagues to argue that: “Human activities
have become so pervasive and profound that they are pushing the Earth