Blog & Debate
Welcome to the GJA blog space. Here we host critical debates on the key issues we face, as an organisation, as a movement of workers, and as a society.
At the Crossroads: Environmentalism, Peace and Hope for the Future
Globally, the best estimate we have is that militaries are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The US military is the largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases on Earth, generating an estimated 636 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent...
Why the Climate Struggle is a Class Struggle
Photo: Mick Holder, NUJ LFB This excerpt from GJA Newsletter editor Paul Atkin's speech at the Trade Union Hub of the XR Big One protest on Saturday has been put around by XR Trade Unionists. The relevant part of the full speech is here. Why organise in the trade...
IPCC Report AR6 – some afterthoughts
Photo by John Blower flickr.com/photos/10332960@N03/ When we at GJA decided to produce our recent three-part summary of the latest IPCC report, the purpose was to break down an extremely lengthy and often impenetrable text into points that could be used for making...
A Brief Guide to the IPCC Synthesis Report, part C
Photo by Gene Gallin on Unsplash This piece provides a summary of the latest IPCC synthesis report based on their sixth Assessment Report (AR6), part C, which deals with the ‘Urgency of Near-Term Integrated Action’. In other words, what we need to do by 2030 to have...
A Brief Guide to the IPCC Synthesis Report, Part B
Photo by Adrian Balasoiu on Unsplash Summarising Part A of the report was straightforward as it comprised a factual assessment of where we are now. By contrast, Part B covers Long Term responses and uses sophisticated modelling to project future scenarios based on...
A brief guide to the IPCC Synthesis Report, Part A
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash This piece provides a summary of the latest IPCC synthesis report based on their sixth Assessment Report (AR6). Given that even the relatively short ‘summary for policy makers’ is not an easy read, here we attempt to draw out the...
ULEZ and Just Transition Debate
Photo: Possible This Blog contains a number of statements and briefings on the Ultra Low Emissions Zone extension. Editor’s view (pers cap) Health impacts of Polluted Air in Outer London - Imperial College Mum’s for Lungs view Trade Union Clean Air Network (TUCAN)...
Bomb train: Where Tory Rail “Modernisation” ends up.
Photo: flickr.com/photos/rogerblackwell/ By Paul Atkin This report from "Democracy Now" on the rail disaster in Ohio last week, in which a 150 car freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and a "controlled burn" by the company released "a fireball and mushroom...
Deep sea mining imperils ‘our greatest ally’, the Ocean
By Philip Pearson Mining companies are negotiating controversial permits from the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA) to strip mine metallic nodules on the deep Ocean floor for the copper, cobalt and nickel they contain. Marine scientists, governments and...
GMB needs to embrace the Green New Deal
Recently, the GMB’s General Secretary caused outcry by declaring support for fracking and calling Green New Deal activists bourgeois. For those outside of GMB this statement may seem surprising but to understand where such statements come from you need to look at...
WANTED: a debate on climate policy in the Trade Union movement
Photo: Tim Dennell www.flickr.com/photos/shefftim/On 8th October, our colleagues in Campaign Against Climate Change held a day’s conference titled ‘Urgent action, long term solutions: cost of living, climate and industrial action'. One of the sessions, for which I...
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