Global Warming Sucks! For U o T life science students

Caption: A "moulin" ice-melt river in the Greenland ice mass. It is melting faster than scientists first anticipated, leading to fears that rising ocean levels will displace tens of millions of people by 2050 AD.



Caption: victim of Katrina



Caption: Our violent culture, killing one another and the natural world. Perhaps Freud was right, that we human beings are possessed by a "death instinct" (Thanatos)? Or is it the technological culture we have created? Non-violence and justice must go hand in hand with sustainability - both require a shift in our ethics and culture, at a fundamental level.



Caption: Greenland ice melt illustration



Caption: According to one measurement, 35 million cars have so far been produced in 2007. See World Clock, which also measures global temperature increase.



Caption: as flights decrease in price, worldwide, more and more people are flying. There is no known technology to make aviation emit fewer GHGs now being implemented. The only way to drastically reduces CO2 and water vapour (a GHG) is to not fly.



Caption: native American protestor being brutalized by police. Non-violent native protests over land claims are an emerging facet of what is now termed "climate justice" and "climate racism." Protests at Sharbot Lake, Caledonia, and the tar sands have demonstrated a clear link between the struggle for indigenous rights and environmental preservation from development.



Caption: Asulan Glacier National Park showing receeding ice due to global temperature increase. Dozens of glaciers across the world are melting. They supply water to hundreds of millions of people. Drought and diseases caused by lack of fresh water will be the number one source of famine and death in this century and the next.

GLOBAL WARMING SUCKS!

We are living on this planet as though we have another one to go to

Peer-reviewed science confirms the effects of man-made climate change:

• Catastrophic loss of both human and non-human life
• Loss of 15 to 37% of all species / loss of biodiversity
• Economic and social collapse / wars over scarce resources
• Man-made climate already kills 150,000 + per year
Source: United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Canadians are morally and politically obligated to act:

• Canadians emit 17.9 tonnes of CO2 per person per year, or
about 100 times more than the average person in Africa
• Alberta tar sands is a major supplier to the U.S. oil market
• The Harper government has continually hindered critical
progress at international climate talks and is now considered
a member of the “Axis of Evil” (Canada, U.S. and Australia)
Source: www.monbiot.com

Are you sick and tired of political inaction by corrupt politicians?
You can do your part by helping us organize and educate on campus.

Global Climate Change Day of Action, December 8th (D8)

Demand the following:

• That Canada abide by its Kyoto obligations
• Invest heavily in clean safe renewable energy, not fossil fuels
• Invest in public transportation and conservation programs
• An end to public subsidies of the tar sands and their expansion
• An end to oil exploration in the Arctic and wasteful militarization
• Better protection for boreal forests and endangered species
• And closer to home: demand that U of T stop investing in Exxon Mobil
which finances climate change denial) and others fossil
fuel corporations

Canadians want real action and tough laws on the environment!
Students should be leading the climate fight. It is our future at stake!

Brought to you by Students Against Climate Change at U of T
Tel: 416-922-0035 / Email:



Caption: illustration showing gasoline use. The U.S. consumes more gas than many other nations combined. Most of the tar sands oil is exported south of the border to feed the U.S. war machine and car culture.



Caption: Energy Autonomy by Dr. Hermann Scheer, outlining his solution for Germany. There is no reason Canada cannot emulate this model. The reality is that, despite the rhetoric of politicians here, we have not even begun to try. Suburbs which cannot be heated 100 years from now are still being built, the auto industry is still be subsidized at the expense of public transportation, renewables are not being invested on a scale they deserve, and conservation is non-existant.



Caption: A real danger of the climate crisis, beyond the disasterous effects caused by climate change itself, is that it will be used as a pretext for totalitarianism by centralized states, working with corporations. The U.S., with its Patriot Act and infringement on civil liberties, is headed toward a future not unlike that depicted in Orwell's 1984.