In pursuit of our establishing a socialist economic structure, all socialists, communists and progressive capitalists have to be certain they have their technical scientific facts correct. This is necessary to establish and maintain credibility for political analysis. A case in point is the Peter Symon article in the November 2008 issue of PA, "Socialism, Internationalism and Climate Change."
The credibility of the excellent political analysis part of the article was substantially lost because of technical scientific errors, which mixes up global warming with the depletion of the ozone layer. Releasing carbon dioxide and the release of chlorine in the upper stratosphere are two different phenomena.
Carbon dioxide comes from combustion systems like vehicle engine exhaust and natural gas or coal electricity generation systems. Chlorine molecules are release by ultraviolet ray bombardment of chlorinated refrigeration gas called Freon which does not react chemically with anything. Air-conditioning systems are the main source for the Freon release. One chlorine molecule will react catalytically with about 100,000 ozone molecules. This ozone layer absorbs ultraviolet, rays from the sun, thus protecting the earth's plant and food growth from destruction. Depletion of this layer would be catastrophic to the plant. It is noted that ozone in the earth's atmosphere is deleterious to human health, but ozone in the upper stratosphere is necessary for our survival. Eliminating chlorine from refrigerants is the solution to tis problem and it will take about 100 to 200 years to replenish the ozone destroyed.
The greenhouse effect causes an increase in atmospheric temperatures and thus melts ice caps, glaciers, while an increase in atmospheric temperatures and thus melts ice caps, glaciers, while increasing sea levels and changing the weather in many ways that are not known precisely. Corporate profits are severely affected by switching to non-carbon sources of energy, e.g. solar and wind generated electricity. This is to be compared with corporate profits being maintained in production of non-chlorinated refrigerants to stop ozone depletion.
Politically oriented people on the left need to know that these are two separate and unrelated technical problems; they require entirely different solutions. Of note is the fact that several other potentially catastrophic environmental disasters are facing us, all seemingly unrelated to each other except that they are driven by corporate profits and excessive population. Specifically, these include reduction in use of natural resources. Estimates range from 500 million to 1 billion population limit for natural resource sustainability. Many knowledgeable scientific opinions conclude that humankind cannot survive more than 50 or 60 years, assuming no nuclear bomb holocaust takes place first.
