The UN climate change panel's report on extreme events that is due out any day now is expected to say that the world is already seeing such events.

The trailer came from Stuart Parkinson of Scientists for Global Responsibility at a meeting on climate justice at the Institute of Education in London at the weekend.

Ok, it's hardly revelatory, but the IPCC is cautious, because of the need to uphold its credibility when every sceptic in the world is ready to jump on its utterances. So such statements carry weight.

Parkinson noted that of all disasters, flooding had the most victims and the numbers affected were expected to grow rapidly.

He cited statistics that 7 per cent of the world population produce 50 per cent of global emissions, and 7 per cent of world emissions are produced by 50 per cent of the world population, and commented, "We want to use that to publicise climate justice".

The figures are likely to appear with increasing frequency ahead of the Durban climate meeting at the end of this month, and South African filmmaker Rehad Desai, who is on a UK speaking tour, told the meeting that South African activists hoped to organise at least 50,000 demonstrators for an action during the Durban conference.

He pointed to the "tremendous threat" posed by climate events to Africa's Great Lakes region and to four decades of drought in the Sahel.

"Some 80 million subsistence farmers in Africa, 66 per cent of them women, are under tremendous stress," he said, and climate change was contributing to conflict in Darfur, where herders were coming into conflict with farmers. The result was genocide and starvation. Weather disruption in Mali, where 87 per cent of the population depended  on farming and livestock, had led to conflict in the south.

"Hundreds of thousands of people are being wiped out [in Africa] as we speak.

"The impact on Africa is critical. It's a matter of life and death."

Climate change speaking tour
The Campaign Against Climate Change has organised a speaking tour with South African activist Rehad Desai. These take place in the run up to the United Nations climate talks in Durban, South Africa and the international day of action on 3 December, when there will be a demonstration in London.
London Saturday 12 November
Climate Justice Conference, 12 noon to 5pm, Institute of Education, Organised by the Campaign against Climate Change
Manchester Monday 14 November 6.30pm
Manchester University Student Union, Khaled Said room
Sheffield Tuesday 15 November 6.30pm for refreshments, speakers from 7.15pm
Quaker MeetingHouse, 10 St James Street S1 2EW
London Wednesday 16 November 7pm
PCS Union headquarters, 160 Falcon Road, London SW11 2LN
Cardiff Thursday 17 November 7pm
Cardiff Campaign againstClimate Change
Exeter Friday 18 November 2pm
Meeting organised by Exeter University and College Union (UCU)
London Saturday 19 November 11am-5pm
Unite the Resistance conference.

 

 

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