Royal Society Picket : Our Planet is not your experiment
Alex Ludd | 08.11.2010 21:35 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Social Struggles | Technology | South Coast | World
A picket of the Royal Society (London) happened today to oppose dangerous geoengineering experiments proposed by scientists and OECD governments. Geoengineering is the attempt to alter the Earth's climate using by altering basic elements of the earth (the sky , the oceans, other)
"On the Fence" Royal Society - photography Unimundal Collective
A picket of the Royal Society (6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London near St. James Park) happened today (08/11/2010) in the cold and the rain to coincide with the opening of the conference “Geoengineering: taking control of our planet' s climate”
http://royalsociety.org/Geoengineering-taking-control-of-our-planets-climate/
Geoengineering proposals include creating an artificial volcano effect to black out the sky by blasting a massive amount of sulphate-based aerosols into the stratosphere (known as Solar Radiation Management); or changing the basic life chemistry of the oceans to increase plankton blooms.
Picket participants unfolded a big banner saying "Our planet is not your experiment" with a Hands off! Stop Geoengineering logo & planet earth picture and tied it on the fence of the Society for all to see as they arrived at the conference. Flyers explaining why the picket was happening and asking scientiists to consider how they felt about geoengineering were given out to about a third of the participants arriving at the conference (see below for text of flyer).
Picket participant Alex Ludd made the following remarks, “Hopefully some scientists are here to argue against this. A simple and socially just solution already exists: We can cut carbon emissions now. Royal Society participation in the geoengineering lobby** is bringing the topic in from the science fiction margins into climate change policy discussions. Geoengineering is a diversion (especially of money) from urgent adaptation and mitigation needs.
“What we need is a thousand candles of brilliant research, not a new Manhatten project. The Royal Society has been very good at standing up for climate science, but it would be terrible for them to blow their reputation by catering to the fantasy of oil companies and climate change deniers that some kind of magic band-aid will make the problem go away. "
“While the United Nations has banned experiments that endanger biodiversity and the life systems of the earth OECD nations are investing research money into geoengineering schemes. The rich polluter nations have tried to ignore the rest of the world and replace a UN climate treaty with their own phony agreement. We need to let them know that we won't let them do this with our planet and our life support systems.”
Text of the flyer:
-We are here to oppose GEOENGINEERING (even if not directly the conference itself). We hope that many scientists will speak out against these science fiction schemes. Geoengineering is an irresponsible diversion from urgent adaptation and mitigation needs to prepare for climate crisis.
-The Royal Society has been very good at standing up for climate science. It would be terrible for them to now blow their reputation by catering to the fantasy of oil companies and climate change deniers that some kind of magic band-aid will make the problem go away.
-Scientists must consider whether they are in danger of being politically naive. What for scientists is an interesting hypothetical problem and at best a plan of last resort will quickly become the only plan for oil companies, climate change deniers and right wing politicians. Are you being paid to build their next rhetoric?
http://royalsociety.org/Geoengineering-taking-control-of-our-planets-climate/ Geoengineering proposals include creating an artificial volcano effect to black out the sky by blasting a massive amount of sulphate-based aerosols into the stratosphere (known as Solar Radiation Management); or changing the basic life chemistry of the oceans to increase plankton blooms.
Picket participants unfolded a big banner saying "Our planet is not your experiment" with a Hands off! Stop Geoengineering logo & planet earth picture and tied it on the fence of the Society for all to see as they arrived at the conference. Flyers explaining why the picket was happening and asking scientiists to consider how they felt about geoengineering were given out to about a third of the participants arriving at the conference (see below for text of flyer).
Picket participant Alex Ludd made the following remarks, “Hopefully some scientists are here to argue against this. A simple and socially just solution already exists: We can cut carbon emissions now. Royal Society participation in the geoengineering lobby** is bringing the topic in from the science fiction margins into climate change policy discussions. Geoengineering is a diversion (especially of money) from urgent adaptation and mitigation needs.
“What we need is a thousand candles of brilliant research, not a new Manhatten project. The Royal Society has been very good at standing up for climate science, but it would be terrible for them to blow their reputation by catering to the fantasy of oil companies and climate change deniers that some kind of magic band-aid will make the problem go away. "
“While the United Nations has banned experiments that endanger biodiversity and the life systems of the earth OECD nations are investing research money into geoengineering schemes. The rich polluter nations have tried to ignore the rest of the world and replace a UN climate treaty with their own phony agreement. We need to let them know that we won't let them do this with our planet and our life support systems.”
Text of the flyer:
-We are here to oppose GEOENGINEERING (even if not directly the conference itself). We hope that many scientists will speak out against these science fiction schemes. Geoengineering is an irresponsible diversion from urgent adaptation and mitigation needs to prepare for climate crisis.
-The Royal Society has been very good at standing up for climate science. It would be terrible for them to now blow their reputation by catering to the fantasy of oil companies and climate change deniers that some kind of magic band-aid will make the problem go away.
-Scientists must consider whether they are in danger of being politically naive. What for scientists is an interesting hypothetical problem and at best a plan of last resort will quickly become the only plan for oil companies, climate change deniers and right wing politicians. Are you being paid to build their next rhetoric?
Alex Ludd
e-mail:
flour@aktivix.org
Homepage:
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/node/5217
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Pfff dear god! Effing luddites
08.11.2010 22:09
what do you idiots want?? The scientists are trying to find ways of preventing the earth turning into a burnt crisp and you scientifically illiterate wankers want to stop them!
Gawdelpus!
Right Wrist
Good on the protestors! Geoengineering - what a crazy idea!
08.11.2010 23:19
The geoengineering advocates are not trying to 'stop the planet burning to a crisp'. They are trying to find ways of allowing increased emissions by day dreaming about 'techno-fixes' that avoid social change.
The complex interactions between climate, oceans and ecosystems on a planetary scale cannot be 'engineered' in a controlled and predictable way. Its crazy. We must confront the real issue - an uncontrolled capitalist economy driven by relentless competition and growth.
Barry Kade
Homepage:
http://barrykade.wordpress.com
"What if it goes wrong? What if the cure is worse than the disease?"
09.11.2010 14:03
Ae
You don't have to be a Luddite to oppose these ridiculous schemes
09.11.2010 15:43
It's like when they introduce new species of animal to a country and because the ecosystem can't adapt quickly enough they get a population explosion,. And so then they introduce another animal to eat the first one, or a new disease to kill them off, and it backfires magnificently and the second species overpopulates or the disease spreads to other things. So they introduce a third thing, which fucks it up even more, etc.
There's a reason why evolution is slow - the balance of things is extremely complicated and large sudden changes are liable to go wrong big time.
Like a previous comment said - the way forward is to not mess things up to start with, not to find harebrained schemes to try to clean up after we have already made the mess.
anon