Page 212 - Carbon Capitalism and Communication Confronting Climate Crisis

208 G. MURDOCK

ACCELERATING CRISIS
On the 21st of March, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
released a comprehensive report summarising the available research
evidence on the state of planet’s climate up to the end of 2016 (World
Meteorological Organisation 2017). As the accompanying press release
noted, “The year 2016 made history, with a record global temperature,
exceptionally low sea ice, and unabated sea level rise and ocean heat…2016
was the warmest on record—a remarkable 1.1 °C above the pre-industrial
period, which is 0.06 °C above the previous record set in 2015… Carbon
dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached the symbolic benchmark of 400
parts per millions in 2015—the latest year for which WMO global figures are
available—and will not fall below that level for many generations to come
because of the long-lasting nature of CO 2 .” These stark figures prompted
David Carlson, the director of the WMO’s climate research program to note
that “We are seeing remarkable changes across the planet that are chal-
lenging the limits if our understanding of the climate system. We are now
truly in uncharted territory” (Carrington 2017).
Worsening conditions in two of the main areas or concern, polar ice and
sea temperatures, were confirmed by authoritative specialised studies pub-
lished within days of the WMO report. Research from the National Snow
and Ice Data Centre (2017) confirmed that the maximum extent of the
Arctic ice sheet in September 2016 was the second lowest for any year in the
38 years for which there are satellite records, just above the lowest recorded
level in 2012, with major impacts on extreme weather conditions across
North America, Europe and Asia, including China, where independent
research linked arctic sea ice loss to the trapped stagnant air fuelling extreme
winter air pollution (Zou et al. 2017). This work points up the general
relation between atmospheric pollution and the global warming caused by
the prevailing organisation of market capitalism but a second study pub-
lished in March detailed the number of premature deaths directly attribu-
table to the international production and trade in consumer goods (Zhang
et al. 2017). The authors estimate that 22% of the almost 3.5 million annual
pollution related deaths globally are linked to exported goods and services.
They focus on the fine particle matter pollution (PM2.5) that is estimated to
account for 90% of the premature global deaths associated with air pollu-
tion. Analysing emissions from factories, transportation and energy gener-
ation in 13 regions, they identified two processes at work. Firstly, faced with
competition to satisfy the entrenched demand for cheap consumer products