THIS POST IS A STUDY OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF THE 18/19TH CENTURY AND THE CLIMATE MOVEMENT OF OUR TIME IN THE CONTEXT OF THE BIFURCATION OF THE WORLD BY THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS A CREATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: The theory of catastrophic human caused global warming holds that it was created by the Industrial Revolution which initiated the burning of fossil fuels in significant quantities and in a steeply rising trend. The carbon in fossil fuels is millions of years old and not part of the current account of the carbon cycle. Its injection into the atmosphere is therefore an unnatural perturbation of the carbon cycle that causes atmospheric CO2 to rise and that in turn causes global mean surface temperature (GMST) to also rise by way of the greenhouse effect of CO2. Therefore, rising atmospheric CO2 causes rising GMST and rising GMST year after year is understood as global warming and because it is a creation of the industrial revolution of humans, we describe it as anthropogenic global warming (AGW). What makes it a crisis is that climate science has determined that (1) rising GMST will intensify harmful climate events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, and tropical cyclones, that (2) the warming can and must be stopped by the climate action of eliminating global fossil fuel emissions to reach zero emissions, and that (3) if the amount of warming since the most recent non-industrial and natural temperature of pre-industrial times exceeds the critical threshold of 1.5C of Warming Since Pre-industrial (WSPI), the warming will no longer be controllable because at that temperature, natural feedbacks, such as lower albedo and release of natural greenhouse gases, will take over as the primary drivers of warming such that climate action in the form of cutting fossil fuel emissions will no longer serve as the control knob to attenuate the rate of warming.

CLIMATE ACTION AGAINST AGW: The important conclusion of this analysis is that the whole world must cooperate and participate in the essential matter of reducing GLOBAL fossil fuel emissions to zero before we get to the critical WSPI temperature of 1.5C. Only then will the rising GMST cease. Without rising atmospheric CO2 there will be no rising GMST as long as the zero emissions target is reached before the critical WSPI. This end of global warming by way of global climate action against global fossil fuel emissions is the ultimate goal of the climate change movement against fossil fuels. THE ROLE OF THE UNITED NATIONS in climate action is that it is a global body with a global reach that can and must get the world to agree to a global climate action plan to cut global fossil fuel emissions. The assumed ability of the UN to carry out this role is derived from its apparent success in the Montreal Protocol global compact against refrigerants that cause emissions of ozone depleting substances.

THE GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION FUNCTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS: The extent to which this effort needs to be global is seen in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development program (SDG) described in a related post: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/03/06/sdg/ where even the UNDP, an organization created to end poverty is now charged with getting its poverty stricken clients to fight climate change instead. The global nature of the climate action movement and the role of the United Nations derived from the apparent success of the Montreal Protocol, is that the United Nations, in the context of its assumed global environmental function embodied in the creation of the UNEP, shall take charge of climate action to forge a global climate action agreement.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IS A CREATION OF THE GLOBAL NORTH: As described in a related post on this site: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/10/14/racism/ , the unresolved and confounding complexities of the failed global climate action movement and the complicated classification of nations in terms of their role in the global emission reduction compact by the UN described in a related post LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2021/01/04/a-montreal-protocol-for-the-climate/ is best understood in the context of the industrial revolution that created two very different worlds on earth as the Global North of the rich industrialized nations and the Global South of the poor third world countries and the former colonies of the Global North.

THE CLIMATE CHANGE ALARM OF OUR TIME IS A CREATION OF THE GLOBAL NORTH: The first AGW climate change paper was Callendar 1938 published by the Royal Society. Although it was well received and taken seriously, the warming world of Guy Callendar’s time ran into the 1970s cooling anomaly within a decade of publication when fears of warming quickly turned to fears of a return to the Little Ice Age. Soon after this 30-year cooling period, the world began warming again in the 1970s and British Climate Scientist Peter Cox traces the the beginning of AGW to the late 1970s while American James Hansen traces it to 1950 – the coldest segment of the 1970s cooling. The standard position of climate science on this issue is the IPCC position that traces the beginning of AGW to the Industrial Revolution.

THE GLOBAL NORTH AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH ARE TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS IN THE AGW CONTEXT. AGW, the anthropogenic global warming and climate change movement of our time is best understood as the Global North’s hindsight that the fossil fueled industrial revolution had been done all wrong because of the use of fossil fuels. Their position on this issue may be stated as “We, the Global North, did the Industrial Revolution all wrong and so we must rewind and do it right“.

THIS ARGUMENT AND ITS LOGICAL IMPLICATIONS HAVE NO RELEVANCE FOR THE GLOBAL SOUTH. The complex categories of nations and their complicated climate action roles in the UNFCCC are best understood in this context. Yet, the UNFCCC complications notwithstanding, there is no context for the Global South in this logic.

The climate crisis and the climate crisis movement against fossil fuels are both creations of the Global North and they are relevant only to the Global North in terms of the context of rewind and do the Industrial Revolution correctly because the Industrial Revolution is a creation of the Global North and their love hate relationship with it can only be understood in that context. Therefore, although climate change is a global issue, its cause and the need for climate action as stated in AGW science can only be understood as a Global North issue. If the Global North needs to cut emissions in the Global South it must do so at no cost or hardship to be borne by the Global South. In addition, if the Global North admits that they screwed up their Industrial Revolution and caused global harm, they must pay the appropriate compensation to the affected.

This chasm between North and South that makes it impossible to understand climate action as a global issue is illustrated in a related post in terms of carbon footprints: LINK: https://tambonthongchai.com/2020/10/22/carbon-footprints/ . The relevant images in that post are reproduced below under the title “CARBON FOOTPRINTS”. 

What these images demonstrate is that though climate change is a global issue and understood in global terms, climate action cannot be understood in global terms because it is a creation of the Global North’s industrial revolution gone wrong that must be fixed by the Global North.

If energy systems in the Global South need an overhaul to correct the global warming crisis created by the industrial revolution of the Global North, then they and only they are responsible and fully liable to correct the wrong they have done and the harm they have caused worldwide.

CARBON FOOTPRINTS

NEW ZEALAND: 7.8 TONS/PER CAPITA

CENTRAL AFRICA REPUBLIC: 0.1 TONS PER CAPITA

IRELAND: 8.1 TONS PER CAPITA

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO 0.1 TONS PER CAPITA

NORWAY 8.8 TONS PER CAPITA

SUDAN 0.4 TONS PER CAPITA

GERMANY 9.6 TONS PER CAPITA

BANGLADESH: 0.5 TONS PER CAPITA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 16.3 TONS PER CAPITA

CAMBODIA: 0.6 TONS PER CAPITA

CONCLUSION: CLIMATE CHANGE IS A RICH MAN’S GAME: YOU HAVE TO GET RICH FIRST BEFORE YOU CAN WORRY ABOUT BEING RICH