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In the first of a series of articles exploring environmental issues and developing the ideas of green socialism, Joanne Telfer, prominent Hebridean campaigner for renewable energy and its public ownership, looks at the fundamental processes behind global warming and climate change

As a starting point I'd like to introduce the concept of the carbon cycle. This is something at the heart of the debate about whether or not human activity is dangerously effecting the viability of life on this planet as we know it.

I intend to address the relevance of green socialism, whilst keeping my contributions topical. At the same time it would be useful to draw together the threads of seemingly diverse environmental problems, discovering the connection in the inability of market economies to provide effective solutions. Hopefully, others will join in and contribute to this discussion.


	Polar bears and hippos for the first time join more than 16,000 species threatened with extinction, according to the World Conservation Union.

The carbon cycle should be at the heart of the discussion about global warming and yet is rarely mentioned. The famous 'hockey stick' graph is depicted in the third image above and this shows the rise in average surface temperature for our planet since the incept of the industrial revolution.

Sceptics who support an agenda of 'business as usual' argue that this rise in surface temperature is a natural fluctuation, but the carbon cycle throws a completely different light on the subject. The industrial scale use of fossil fuel marks a profound change in the stability of a system which has helped to maintain biodiversity over several hundred million years.

Carbon is normally emitted by volcanic action in the form of CO2 and this is absorbed by plants, which are eaten by animals. This 'living' phase of the 'carbon economy' becomes a mineral resource when plants and animals die and their remains are absorbed into the land or seabed.

The cyclic nature of this process did not become clear until the discovery of plate tectonics, which emerged as a theory in 1912 but did not become accepted science until the 1960's. The surface of the earth is segmented and not continuous as might be assumed. The plates are not obviously visible from space but their boundaries are nevertheless now well established. Their shape is irregular and broadly corresponds to continental land masses.

Plate tectonics explains why when you look at a map of the world, areas such as Africa and South America, seem to look like parted pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. These broken segments of the earth's surface float on top of hot molten layers beneath, which occasionally burst forth as volcanos.

The earth's crust moves almost imperceptibly but it moves relentlessly. Occasionally this movement is rapid and catastrophic and we call such events 'earthquakes' . However, the essential feature of earth's surface geology, is that the crust is slowly recycled at the boundaries of continental plates. In deep ocean trenches, continental plates slide over each other as the lower plate sinks into the molten layers below and at mid ocean ridges, new recycled crust emerges as lava flow.

All the carbon accumulated on land from the remains of plants and animals, is eventually washed into the oceans and joins the petrified remains of marine life. This is the process which mixes up such things as coal deposits, the legacy of mighty forests, with limestone, the legacy of humble shellfish. However, some of this mixture is again pushed above sea-level as the plate boundaries shift around in constant motion.

Despite these diversions, the carbon does not re-emerge as atmospheric CO2 until very long periods of geological time have elapsed. That is of course unless human beings dig up all the carbon resources and burn them over a period of time which is a microscopic fraction of the natural timescale. .

The industrial scale burning of fossil fuel represents a short-circuit in the natural process and the implicit threat arises from two directions. The first of these is acidity in the oceans, as planetary water attempts to absorb more C02. There is strong scientific evidence that this is leading to species extinction, thus loss of biodiversity. This is particularly observable in the degradation of very ancient life-forms, demonstrating that something very unusual is happening.

Secondly, the measurable rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations promotes global warming. Carbon dioxide traps solar energy which would otherwise be reflected back into space and the more CO2, the more energy is retained. This in turn effects the balance between fertile land and desert, effects the distribution of rainfall, effects the sea level and promotes flooding. In short it represents a recipe for conflict and war, as far as our species is concerned.

These are fundamental, not trivial, problems. Yet few voices look beyond the limits of the market economy to deal with them. Leading politicians look towards an ideologically distorted and crude form of game theory. Emphasis is placed upon individuals and lifestyle choices but there is no coherent strategy to inform and enlist public support for planned intervention. The widely accepted model of contemporary politics assumes that nothing will happen unless the pockets of the oligarchy are lined with extra silver. However whilst such selective appreciation of human nature might vindicate the status quo and justify gross inequality, there is increasing awareness amongst game theorists that human nature does not operate along the lines of the Thatcherite or New Labour paradigm.

This is not a game and we only have one planet at our disposal. Solutions require a massive and immediate commitment via the direct means of organised public endeavour. As a starting point for the people of Scotland, this should be in the form suggested by Solidarity. The creation of a strategic renewable energy plan, a return to public ownership of energy production and its transmission would represent a massive step in the right direction.

The green movement as a single issue domain, has run its course by drawing attention to our collective ignorance but they are now too firmly embedded in the established order to complete their mission. Modern socialists owe a dept of gratitude to the those pioneering eco-warriors because only a few decades ago, it was they who were flagging up and drawing attention to environmental issues that most traditional socialists were ignoring. However for those behind the publication of this website, environmental issues are firmly embedded in the central economic questions of how a modern, democratic and forward-looking society should be formulated. It is now impossible to seperate the questions of sustainable development from those of wealth redistribution and common ownership. Green socialism is the assimilation of the environmental agenda with the agenda for social justice for all humankind.

The clear connection between the realms of the economic and the environmental, are no better illustrated than in the "fair model" on climate change and a link is provided at the end of this article. But given the abject failure of the G8, in recent years, to act effectively on African poverty, there seems little hope of mainstream politicians acknowledging the contradictions between the needs of the 'market' to accumulate and the needs of humanity to share.

The response of green socialism must therefore link together the need to avert catastrophic climate change, with the need for collective social ownership of energy and industry. Additionally we must promote the need for a strategic national and international plan of action, as the only way forward for those opposed to war, climate change and planetary ruination.

The carbon cycle has been instrumental in ensuring that planet earth is not cold and dead like Mars, yet not a hot, dry and poisonous place like Venus.

It's not just the distance from the sun that counts. The differences are exaggerated because of other factors. Venus has a huge capacity to trap solar heat and a run-away greenhouse atmosphere, whereas Earth has a versatile wardrobe of insulation, governed by the natural flexibility of the carbon cycle. Mars has no insulation and as far as we know, no life forms to sustain themselves. The capacity of our planet to maintain equilibrium is threatened by the greed and anarchy of capitalism, whose leaders are intent upon gambling with the shirts off the back of our world, in order to enrich a minority.

On a visit to China in 2006, Professor Stephen Hawking, warned against the perils of climate change and seriously suggested that planet Earth might resemble Venus, as the eventual outcome of human activity.

Whilst this has been criticised as alarmist in some quarters, higher life-forms on earth are clearly under threat of extinction. If current trends continue, a planet earth populated by bugs and bacteria, with fossils of humanity in the soil, would be of little comfort to any sentimental extra-terrestrial caring to argue the point.


Much too hot	Just right	Far too cold