As initially pointed out by Draco T Bastard a few days ago in ‘open mike’, Portugal might be on the cusp of something.
The President has endorsed the formation of a minority pro-austerity government. The fact that the President is a former leader of a party the new Prime Minister was also a member of is, of course, inconsequential.
Also unimportant is the fact that Germany’s Angela Merkel has been reported as saying that a government reflecting the will of the electorate would be “very negative”.
So, Greece given a kicking. Italy’s electorate having unelected technocrats imposed upon them a few years ago.
This apparent crystalising of undemocratic governance in Europe, plus climate change, plus austerity, plus ‘free trade’ deals that concentrate political power in unelected and unaccountable international hands – these things don’t appear to be disconnected or entirely accidental.
The dots?
Briefly, it seems not unreasonable to suggest, and the suggestion has been made by eminent scientists, that economists have ‘informed’ climate modellers to allow for no more than 5% CO2 yearly reductions in their models. (No model factors in reductions beyond 5%). That’s had huge consequences for assumptions and parameters built into those models …ie, false peak emission dates, lower than actual rates of CO2 increases, reliance on non-existent technology to provide a guaranteed future fix etc. And it produces a rosy ‘do-able’ set of scenarios for avoiding 2 degrees C that entails nothing beyond a bit of tinkering around the edges of what we currently do and of how we currently live. Meanwhile, the ‘straight down the line’ science points to a need for 10% reductions. Not so rosy.
The contention made then, is that the only way the market economy and the power bases it sustains can survive in the face of climate change, is through a period of ‘controlled’ retraction.
Interesting times…
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