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The Suicide of Industrial Civilisation.

Every single hour of every single day, every country on this planet - some, it is true, much more than others, but all to a degree - continue to pour carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, with a reckless insouciance bordering on insanity. The result is that CO2 has reached 426.91 ppm as of June 2024, whereas methane (CH4) had reached 1,930.75 ppb (parts per billion) by March 2024. For comparison, the yearly mean CO2 in 1959 was 315.98 ppm, whereas the mean annual atmospheric level of CH4 in 1984 was 1,644.85 ppb. Nitrous oxide (N2O), the third major greenhouse gas, reached 337.66 ppb in March 2024, compared to the annual mean atmospheric level of 316.36 ppb in 2001 . The International Maritime Organisation's 2020 regulation ( IMO2020 ) reducing sulphur emissions from shipping  (by reducing the sulphur content of their fuel) has had an inadvertent effect on the climate, because these emissions are cooling aerosols, and have a global cooling eff
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A General Election Crying Out for Reform of Our Electoral System.

The General Election that took place in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 4th July 2024 led to the most disproportional result in British political history. The Labour Party, as expected, won it - but their success was more due to the voters' disgust with the Conservative Party after fourteen years of Tory Government than anything positive they had to offer. Labour won 411 seats in the House of Commons (63.23%), on the basis of  9,708,716 votes (33.7%). The turnout was 59.9% - down 7.4% on the previous General Election in 2019 (turnout 67.3%). This explains the fact that the Labour Party in 2019 - led by the supposedly 'extremist' and 'looney leftie' Jeremy Corbyn, demonised and vilified in the media, and deemed unelectable, won  10,269,051 votes that year (32.1% of the vote), but only 202 seats in the Commons (31.08%). The 'moderate' Keir Starmer thus ends up as Prime Minister, with a landslide majority, on the basis of  560,335 fewer votes than the 'extr
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Labour's Phoney Promises.

The Labour Party tells us that it will increase social spending on schools and hospitals, if elected to government, but - at the same time - reduce public sector borrowing and do this without increasing income tax, national insurance, VAT or corporation tax. Nor will it introduce a wealth tax. It has made ambiguous noises about capital gains tax (CGT). A Party committed to redistribution of income and wealth from the rich to the poor, and reducing economic inequality, could not countenance increasing indirect taxes, which are regressive, and hurt the poor more than the rich. However, nor could it continue with the two-child child benefit cap, as it plans to do. The only way that Labour's fiscal arithmetic makes any sense is on the basis of extremely optimistic assumptions about economic growth, well above current projections, and indeed the long-term trend growth-rate of 2% p.a. Rachel Reeves' boast that she will, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, achieve the "fastest rate
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Climate Report for April 2024.

Today is Thursday 11th April 2024. The Keeling Curve reports that its latest daily atmospheric CO2 reading (for the 10th April) is 427.03 ppm = 827.5 mg/m^3. The NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory informs us that atmospheric CO2 was at 425.38 ppm in March 2024, compared to 420.99 ppm in March 2023, an increase of 4.39 ppm = ~1.043% p.a. The NOAA's latest daily reading (also for the 10th April) is 427.23 ppm = 827.9 mg/m^3. (Conversions from ppm CO2 to mg/m^3 CO2 using lenntech .) The maximum atmospheric CO2 level during the warm period of the late Pliocene, 3.6 million years ago, according to Berends, de Boer and van de Wal (2021) , was 440 ppm. As de la Vega, et al.  (2020) note, the climate of this period entailed 3 °C of global warming, and sea levels 20 m (~65.6 ft.) higher than today. Humanity is engaged on a massive global experiment with Earth's climate. If we want to reproduce the climate of the Mid-Piacenzian warm period of the Pliocene Epoch in the 21st Cent
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Climate Report for March 2024.

Today is Sunday 24th March 2024. The latest daily atmospheric CO2 level reading from CO2 Earth is 425.48 ppm, for the 22nd March, which compares with 420.64 ppm for the 22nd March 2023, an increase of 4.84 ppm = 1.15% p.a. The latest daily atmospheric CO2 level reading from the Keeling Curve is also for the 22nd March, and is 425.28 ppm. The monthly average for February 2024, according to the NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory , was 424.55 ppm, compared to 420.3 ppm a year earlier, an increase of 4.25 ppm = 1.01% p.a. The NOAA has recorded nineteen daily CO2 readings so far this month at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, with an average of 425.486 ppm = 824.5 mg/m^3  = ~3,320.63 GtCO2. The Bloomberg Carbon Clock , meanwhile, has reached 424.63 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. Whatever its precise value, atmospheric CO2 is now much higher than at any time in the past 805,000 years (Yamamoto, M.  et al , Nature Geoscience , 31st March 2022) and, indeed, in the last 3.3 million ye
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Climate Report, February 2024.

Today is Friday 9th February 2024. Yesterday, the 8th, according to CO2 Earth , the daily atmospheric CO2 level was 425.6 ppm, up from 420.12 ppm on the 8th February 2023. This is an increase of 5.48 ppm = 1.3% p.a. 425.6 ppm = 824.7 mg/m^3 = 3,321.519 GtCO2. The Keeling Curve gives a slightly lower figure for the 8th February of 425.1 ppm = 823.8 mg/m^3 = 3,317.616 GtCO2. The daily levels for February have been consistently higher than those of January this year, except for the first two days, which were both 422.21 ppm. The NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory recorded a monthly mean of 422.8 ppm for January 2024, up from 419.48 ppm for January 2023, an increase of 3.32 ppm = 0.79% p.a., but the daily means have increased substantially since the 4th February, with that date's figure being 426.21 ppm, that for the 6th being 425.89 ppm, and that for the 7th - like that for the 8th - being 425.6 ppm. According to de la Vega et al, 2020 , CO2 during the KM5c stage of the Mid-Pi
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The Labour Party and Equality.

In an interview with ITV's deputy political editor,  Anushka Asthana, published in The Guardian on Saturday 13th January 2024, in answer to her question about redistribution of income and wealth from the rich to the poor, Sir Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party, had this to say: 'No, that isn't how I want to grow the economy. I don't think redistribution is the sort of one-word answer for millions of people across the country... I'm afraid if it's just redistribution, I think that fundamentally disrespects people.' Redistribution has, of course, nothing to do with growing the economy, and no-one is arguing for absolute equality, merely - but vitally - for greatly reduced inequality , so the 'dignity and respect due to skilled work' he referred to is an irrelevance, particularly as many of the super-rich derive their wealth and income, not from work, skilled or otherwise, but from interest and rents. Starmer is - once again - displaying his
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