In Bloom - you've not half shown up your utter ignorance of climate change on this thread, now don't get me wrong I'm against ID cards, and generally in favour of social centres and pretty much all the campains you're on about, but they aren't the be all and end all of it by a long way.
You appear to be of the belief that climate change is some fancy notion that even if it happes won't affect people at all (is it just british people you're interested in or are we allowed to include the rest of the world in this too?). What you fail to understand is that as with most things it's the poor generally who'll get shafted the most by climate change both in the UK and worldwide, basically because the rich have the money and influence to buy their way out of trouble / move to a better area / pay more expensive food prices etc. if they need to.
This ain't just about fucking polar bears you muppet, what do you think is likely to happen to the 6 billion people on this planet if in the space of a century global temperatures increase by say 5 degrees, leading to way more frequent el nino effects (and consequently way more frequent global crop failures, severe droughts, flash floods etc), more frequent and more severe hurricanes, higher sea levels, huge changes in weather patterns, increased storm severity etc.
you think it's just the polar bears?
Ok so how about the millions of people in the UK who're likely to see their homes flooded over the next century as once in a millenium scale flash floods become once in 50 year phenominums due to the increase moisture levels in the warmer air (obviously combined with daft planning decisions). And don't think that the insurance companies will cover them, because they won't - already the insurance comapanies are making allowances for increased storm severity as a result of global warming, and more and more houses are becoming virtually uninsurable. OR how about those living by the coast who's houses suddenlly become more vulnerable to coastal erosion as sea levels rise taking storm surges over sea defences... or just good old flooding from these higher storm surges. What about the 30,000 people who died in france last year as a result of the heatwave? what if that becomes the norm every summer?
get the picture? this is all about the affect global warming is going to have on people - only thing is that with this particular issue the people who've caused the majority of the problem will be the least affected by it in 2 ways...
firstly the rich who've caused most of the CO2 emmisions can afford to buy themselves out of trouble.
secondly most of the people who this will affect the most have not even been born yet, we're fucking up our children, grandshildrens and great grandchildrens environmental inheritance. Removing Co2 from the atmosphere, restoring permafrost, ice sheets etc. are virtual impossibilities, so we'd best hope that future generations appreciate all our efforts to change the world for them.
Now I'm only going to this trouble because I've always felt we were generally on the same page on most issues, & really don't understand your failure to get the whole climate change thing... basically if IMO if you give a shit about the worst off in society both here and globally, then you'd really better start thinking about campaigning on climate change or you're wasting your time.
As for whether the climate camp will do anything... I have my doubts too, but it's been a long time since there's been a proper get together of large numbers of campaigners from all over the UK specifically to plan the campaign against climate change, and if this is done right then it does offer a real opportunity for everyone involved to refocus, agree national priorities, co-ordinate action for maximum effect etc. IMO this camp isn't particularly about involving the wider community in the actual camp, it's about those currently involved in campaigning on this issue getting their act together in preperation for a much needed broadening of the campaign nationally over the next few years.
Out of interest on your single issue slant, do you think the campaign on cfc's in the late 80's was a successful one being as it managed to stop pretty much half the world ending up with skin cancer? or was it a failure because it wasn't run on anarchist principles & didn't really affect the working class of liverpool?
fs
