Paper tigers

Back in December, I wrote about my publishers and their ecologically unsound paper policy. Here’s a reminder and an update…

Greenpeace is running a campaign to encourage UK publishing houses to stop sourcing paper from ancient forest regions and to develop ancient forest friendly solutions, including the use of recycled paper and virgin fibre certified to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Greenpeace has had considerable success with its campaign, with over 40% of the book publishing industry having now introduced forest friendly procurement policies.

Unfortunately, Hachette Livre UK, which controls 17% of the publishing industry, is refusing to join the movement. It continues to source virgin fibre from ancient forest areas such as those in Finland, as well as using pulp from Russia, where illegal logging practices are rife. Hachette is also printing books in South East Asia and has failed to demonstrate that these are not linked to the destruction of Indonesian rainforests.

It isn’t easy for a large company to change its policies; but by making a long-term public commitment, Hachette could send a clear message to the industry that this is the direction the company wants to move in. This is roughly what I wrote in a letter to Hachette CEO, Tim Hely Hutchinson. In his reply he assured me that my next novel, Serious Things, would be published on FSC paper. At the same time, Hachette Livre UK has signed up to a new industry initiative called PREPS. This initiative only commits the company to identifying where it is sourcing its paper fibre and does not commit it to moving towards recycled and FSC certified papers in the long term, as all of the other major publishing houses have done. So there is still much lobbying to be done.

Now it would be fair to say that I am a very wee minnow in the well-stocked Hachette pond. To this end, I have written to more substantial authors asking them to add their names to the campaign. So far, only the philosopher A.C. Grayling has responded and my thanks go out to him. I wait in hope of hearing from some of the others, who include David Mitchell, Kate Mosse, Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Maeve Binchy and John Le Carré.

A quick update: 24/04/07. This morning one of the best known authors in the UK sent me an email. I was thrilled to learn that he is already an active supporter of the Greenpeace paper campaign and has taken substantial steps to ensure that his own novels are published on 'sustainable' paper. The author's efforts predate mine and were independent of my letter - which just shows that demand for change is real.

In praise of the Governator

Back in my flying days (I'm grounded now), I had the immense pleasure of spending several months in a writers' colony in Iowa City. My stay there coincided with the special election for Governor of California.

Back in 2003, Bush and his ilk seemed unstoppable, along with their aggressive and environmentally destructive agenda. So it was with dismay that I watched a glib, musclebound Austrian movie star defeat the Democrat incumbent to hand the Republican party one of the most coveted prizes in American politics.

Nearly four years on, I'm glad yet surprised to confess to a change of heart. I never thought I'd write this, but I'm a fan of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While the rest of his Republican Party continues to pretend that global warming isn't happening, the Governator is pushing ahead with truly bold legislation to combat the crisis. Last year, he signed into law a target calling for emissions to be reduced by 25 % by the end of the next decade. As leader of the tenth largest economy in the world - and the hub of a 'green tech' revolution - Arnie can make a real difference to the way we, and especially the US, respond to climate change.

But Arnie isn't satisfied with legislation. In his own, somewhat peculiar, style, he is trying to make the green movement mainsteam. "We have to make it sexy," he says. "We have to make it attractive so that everyone wants to participate."

Claiming that "for too long the environmental movement has been powered by guilt", Mr Schwarzenegger predicts that it will become powered by "something much more positive, much more dynamic, something much more capable of bringing about major change.

"So the new environmental movement is not about guilt, it's not about fringe, and it's not about being overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem, but it is about mainstream momentum."

The retention of California was the one bright spot for the Republicans in the November elections. Arnie's conversion to the cause of planet Earth was largely responsible. In a very important warning to his party, he has this to say. "Politics plays a big part in the tipping point here. If you are against taking action on greenhouse gases and common emissions your political base will melt away as surely as the polar icecaps, I can guarantee you that. You will become a political penguin on a smaller and smaller ice floe that is drifting out to sea."

Not bad progress, from a man who used to wax lyrical about his several Humvees.

A fool's hope

After writing about the coming horrors of global warming, I looked about the web for evidence that, despite its narrow-mindedness, our species might be capable of saving itself. This is the battle of our time and its warriors are geek and mild. And no, that isn't a spelling mistake.

See here: http://www.worldchanging.com/

and here: http://www.thewebofhope.com/

also here: http://www.global-cool.com/

and, while you're at it, here: http://www.antiapathy.org/

Summarising the fear, frustration and anger I so often feel, I came across this from Dr Lara Hansen of the WWF:

"The irritating thing is that we have all the tools at hand to limit climate change and save the world from the worst impacts," says Dr Lara Hansen, Chief Scientist of WWF's Global Climate Change Programme. "The IPCC makes it clear that there is a window of opportunity but that it's closing fast. The world needs to use its collective brains to think ahead for the next ten years and work together to prevent this crisis."

"It becomes an economic as much as an ethical priority to defend what remains of nature on this planet -mangroves and coral reefs protect coasts, forests protect watersheds," adds Hansen. "Our societies are dependent upon nature, yet we have undermined it for centuries. Now, with climate change, we are attacking the very basis of the natural world - putting us all at risk."

THE EMERGENCY

This morning I took a deep breath and sat down to read about the latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is grim, grim reading, which should have people clamouring in the streets. (They won't, of course. They'll be wearing t-shirts and driving their Jeeps to the shopping centre.)

For those of you who have the stomach for it, here's a summary of some of the IPCC's findings.The IPCC's 'Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Report' ( http://www.ipcc.ch/) was compiled by more than 2,500 scientific expert reviewers, with 800 contributing authors and 450 lead authorities from over 130 countries.

In its first working group report, the 'Physical Science Basis', published in February, the IPCC concluded that it was "very likely" - more than 90% probable - that global warming is man-made.

Global temperatures will rise by between 1.8 degrees Centigrade and 4 degrees Centigrade in the 21st Century (a mere 5 degree global shift triggered the last glaciation).

Impacts of warming include the following probable scenarios:

* 75 million to 200 million more people in Africa will be exposed to water shortages; rain-dependent agricultural yields could fall by 50% by 2020. The costs of adapting to climatic change could be as much as 10% of economic output. In short, the lifestyles of the richest nations will ruin the poorest.

* The Great Barrier Reef will experience 'significant loss of biodiversity' by 2020.

* Eastern parts of the Amazon rainforest will gradually change to savannah from forest.

* Rivers will dwindle everywhere, with impacts felt most severely in China and India, following decreased precipitation and glacier melt in the Himalayas.

* Small glaciers in the Alps will vanish by mid-century. Larger ones will shrink between 30% and 70% by 2100.

* In polar regions, land-based arctic ice zones could shrink by up to a third by 2100. Sea ice will vanish by 2040. Bye-bye, polar bears!

* Permafrost areas may decrease 33% by 2050 - leading to massive releases of methane, another major greenhouse gas.

* If global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Centigrade (on the very low end of predictions), up to a third of all species will face the risk of extinction.

* Huge patterns of flora and fauna shift, with extensive species loss, in Europe, of up to 60% in some areas.

I can hardly believe these words as I type them. It all sounds like science fiction but, God help us, it's science fact. And bear in mind that the IPCC delegates wrangled for a long time over the content of their report, with the world's biggest polluters, China and the USA, objecting to phrasing and seeking to tone down the most dire predictions. With help from the Saudis (of course), they seem to have succeeded. So even these terrifying statistics have been watered down.

Global warming is the planetary emergency. It isn't just an issue among others: it's the envelope in which all other issues are contained. Looking at our reactionary press, our plane-binging, gas-guzzling citizens, it's clear that we in the rich world have a long, long way to go if we're going to confront the catastrophe.

The moral and cultural shift needed is far greater than that which led, 200 years ago, to the abolition of the slave trade. That took decades to bring about.

We, unfortunately, do not have the luxury of time.