"The Hungry Tide" & how US & Oz threaten Island States with Climate Genocide

The World is acutely threatened by man-made climate change from increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution. The most acutely threatened countries are megadelta countries such as Bangladesh and India and island nations such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, countries that already suffer harm from increasing sea level, increased storm intensity and consequent storm surges. Australia, Canada and the United States as major annual per capita GHG polluters are disproportionately contributing to a a worsening climate genocide that is set to kill 10 million people this century if man-made climate change is not addressed (see "Climate Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/clima... ).

Tom Zubrycki’s new documentary “The Hungry Tide” draws attention to the rising tides threatening island states such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. Dan Edwards spoke to the filmmaker as reported in his article “A nations slipping under the sea”, New Matilda, 28 September 2011: http://newmatilda.com/2011/09/28/na... .

Key quote: "Kiribati seems at the very edge of the earth for most Australians, yet it is only just east of Bougainville," comments Zubrycki, a veteran documentary director with 15 films under his belt. "I’ve been following the climate debate for a number of years, and became very interested in the countries on the front line. Kiribati and its neighbor Tuvalu are expected to be the first nations in the world to disappear as a result of climate change, so this was the trigger and motivation to make the film."

A 52-minute version of “The Hungry Tide” will screen in Australia on SBS at 9.30pm on Sunday, 9 October. The feature-length cut will screen in cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne in late November.

The article of course elicited the usual climate change denialist comments which I have attempted to counter with the following documented, science-informed comments.

“This excellent article has unfortunately generated a lot of obfuscation from the anti-science, non-scientist climate change denialists. Some realities below.

1. Because of melting ice and ocean thermal expansion sea level has increased by about 30 mm in 1993-2003 (3.0 mm/year) as compared to 1.5 mm/year in the period 1910-1990 (see Professor John Holdren, "The science of climatic disruption": http://www.usclimateaction.org/user... ).

2. The problem for low lying island states is not simply sea level rise but increased intensity of big tropical storms and consequent storm surges. The power of tropical storms has increased in parallel with increasing sea temperature (ibid).

3. Knutson et al, 2010: "Modelling studies typically project substantial increases in the frequency of the most intense cyclones" (see Thomas R. Knutson, John L. McBride, Johnny Chan, Kerry Emanuel, Greg Holland, Chris Landsea, Isaac Held, James P. Kossin, A. K. Srivastava & Masato Sugi, “Tropical cyclones and climate change”, Nature Geosciences, 3, 157 - 163 (2010): http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/... ; for a compendium of expert assessments see "Cyclones and climate change": http://300org.blogspot.com/2011/05/... ).

4. Australia is a world leader in annual per capita greenhouse gas pollution and in coal and gas exports. “Annual per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution” in units of “tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year” (2005-2008 data) is 0.9 (Bangladesh), 0.9 (Pakistan), 2.2 (India), less than 3 (many African and Island countries), 3.2 (the Developing World), 5.5 (China), 6.7 (the World), 11 (Europe), 16 (the Developed World), 27 (the US) and 30 (Australia; or 54 if Australia’s huge Exported CO2 pollution is included). Australia’s current value is 64 tonnes CO2-equivalent per person per year (71 times bigger than that of Bangladesh) (see "Climate Genocide":
https://sites.google.com/site/clima... ).

5. Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have recently estimated that only about 0.5 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming. Noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN Population Division) , these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including roughly twice the present population of particular mainly non-European groups, specifically 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis (ibid).

6. In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree C temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 Gt CO2 between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Unfortunately Australia through disproportionately huge annual fossil fuel burning and exports used up its "fair share" of this terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) budget by August 2011 and is now stealing the entitlement of countries such as Somalia, Bangladesh , Kiribati and Tuvalu (see "World has 600 Gt CO2 left to pollute before 2050: Australia & Belize have ALREADY used their "fair share"", Bellaciao: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?ar... ).

7. Criticism from the South Pacific of climate racist, climate terrorist, climate criminal White Australia is muted because of aid considerations but as China’s influence increases in the South Pacific one can expect such criticism to increase. I have sent a detailed formal complaint about Australia’s role in worsening climate genocide to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and have urged threatened mega-delta and island states to do likewise (see: https://sites.google.com/site/clima... ). Unfortunately the ICC is itself an ugly racist body, an accessory to egregious war crimes and a toy of the war criminal and climate criminal US Alliance. The World will eventually act against climate criminal, climate genocidal nations like Australia and the US by through Sanctions, Boycotts, Sporting Boycotts, Green Tariffs, International Court of Justice litigation and ICC prosecutions.

8. For a detailed, documented summary of a recent climate change mini-course given to final year university science students see: http://yvcag.blogspot.com/2011_08_0... and
https://sites.google.com/site/yarra... and on 300.org (see: http://300org.blogspot.com/2011_08_...
and https://sites.google.com/site/300or... ) .

Peace is the only way but Silence kills and Silence is complicity.”

What can decent people do? Decent folk who care for Humanity must (a) inform everyone they can and (b) urge and apply sanctions against all countries, corporations, products, politicians and people involved in the worsening climate genocide.