“No Day After Tomorrow”
Biospheric Despoiling and Climate
ChangePiling Up!
• Mounds of garbage, much hazardous, continues to pile up
aimlessly across the globe• The OECD generated 4 billion tons of waste in 2001
• In 2001 signatory states to the Basel Convention generated 108
million tons of hazardous waste• China produced 155 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2005;
the US, 254 tons of it in 2007. China, in total, generates 1.3 billion
tons of industrial waste• What is dubbed “e-waste” is currently the fastest growing sourceof hazardous materials. It factors into a rising component of global
trade in waste. China, of course plays a major role in this, given its
growing need for industrial raw materials• In 2004 the US exported $3.1 billion in scrap to China, making
scrap the US’s then biggest dollar value export to China,
outstripping airplane parts and electronics

We Have Everything but Breathable Air• Disarticulation production systems across the globe
magnified the emission of solid particulate matter (SPM),
including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, lead, copperand so on, into the atmosphere• MNC production and distribution of food is also a major
contributor here. It was discovered, for example, that abasket of 20 fresh foods offered by large UK retailers had
travelled 100,943 miles to get on the shelves• Mapping of SPM which shows concentrations over global
shipping lanes. Ships use the most polluting form of oil, socalled “bunker fuel”, and their giant diesel engines emit
levels of CO2 equivalent to that of a medium sized coal
power station, making them a more significant
environmental threat than air transport. An estimated
60,000 deaths per year are caused by global shipping

The Climate Change Message• Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxideor CO2 is the “greenhouse gas” causing
climate change• When high-precision equipment monitoring
commenced in March 1958, CO2 in theworld’s atmosphere was 315.71 parts permillion (ppm)• Today, atmospheric CO2 is near 400 ppm• Significance of these numbers is that in the
10,000 years or so of life and climate stability
on earth C02 levels hovered around 275 ppm

It’s Coming….
• From the time of the industrial revolution atmospheric C02
has been steadily increasing, today at a rate of around 2 ppm
per year• What emits CO2 in such swelling proportions? Around two
thirds emanate from fossil fuels, coal and oil for industry,transportation and domestic use. Of that, power plants emit
27 percent, industry 14 percent, road transportation 12
percent and international transportation 2 percent• Big emitters of CO2 are US and China. As a team they produce
42 percent of the global total against the EU’s 15 percent• Though in per capita terms 79 countries emit more than China• And 50 percent of the Chinese increase derived from export
production (which as we know is largely foreign owned) andof that, 60 percent is estimated to be directly tied to exports
for Western economies

Us…Worry…?
• We are already near the point of 1 degree Celsius
warming of the earth• Note, as well, the CO2 measurement of 400 ppm
captures only carbon dioxide. Adding other greenhousegases to the mix places us at around 440 ppm, total
CO2 equivalent• This means we are already in the 1 to 2 degree longterm warming trajectory even if we flick the Luddite
switch now• The 1 to 2 degree limit entails frequent heat waves,
extinction of one third of species, puts half a billion
human beings at risk of starvation (this is on top of
those the “economy” is starving), and adds highly
disturbing unknowns with respect to the ocean