PowerSwitch

[Potemkin Villager]

On Thursday 27th November 2008, PIRC will launch the report "Climate Safety" at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London starting at 7PM.

Are any powerswitchers in the SE planning to be at this event as I am considering attending cos I will be over in London next week.
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No matter what damage it may do to society as a whole a ruling class and socioeconomic system
perpetuates itself just as long as it possibly can even to the point of a Gotterdammerung complete destruction of everything. Mack Reynolds.

[Potemkin Villager]

Climate Emergency Briefing

Out of sheer curiosity, and seapite no response on this forum, I attended the launch of the Public Information Research report "Climate Safety" during my recent trip to London. It was a wet, cold and miserable Thursday evening and I had spent the day zooming around town on a bus pass to the museums in South Kensington, visiting a few haunts from my student days, and doing a few Charring Cross Road book shops.

I estimate about 500 people or so had braved the elements to hear the cheerful news but I missed the beginning of the session and had to, and was glad to, leave early. The message is basically shock horror things are even, even, much, much, much worse than previously thought and we should be aiming for Zero Carbon, as fast as is humanly possible and what on earth are we going to do?

To answer that question Professor Monbiot was on hand with the 25 best things the UK government can do first, though strangely enough the “N” word was not uttered.

There was a Q+A session and it was clear most people, though obviously very concerned, were not at all convinced much of these things were going to be done despite all the government green-wash. One view was that we were all suffering information overload on Global Warming and thought the detailed bad news more inclined to send people down the pub rather than to a public meeting. This was certainly the view of my host who has been involved in environmental protests of one form or another for at least 30 years. He had declined to accompany me along to the event preferring instead the company of a good book!

The view I took away that the organisers and platform party were very narrowly focussed on busying themselves “solving climate change” and little else. The great unwashed in the audience had a much wider view and seemingly tacit acceptance that little may well end up being done and many things may not at all be fixable.
_________________
No matter what damage it may do to society as a whole a ruling class and socioeconomic system
perpetuates itself just as long as it possibly can even to the point of a Gotterdammerung complete destruction of everything. Mack Reynolds.