Bali Humbug.
That is what it is, pure humbug, that results in nothing postive at all. It amounted to a large media event, from which we heard reports of tough negotiaitons trying to get hard targets for emmission reductions.
Aren't our politicians just great, staying up late battling to save our world. In a luxuary hotel, at our expnse, in a remote luxuary holiday destination at the other side of the world. I am glad I don't have to suffer such hardships to save the world and mankind.
Except, they saved nothing, except maybe a few votes for themselves. Ten thousand people travelled to the climate summit. That is ten thousand people carried by aeroplane. Ten thousand eco warriors have created massive amounts of greenhouse emissions for no good reason at all. Zip, nothing, zero. The only conclusion we can draw is that the environment would have been tangibly better off if they had all stayed at home and saved those twenty thousand journeys.
All the Bali circus achieved is a further heightening of the mass hysteria that is the "Al Gore" school of climate change and environmentalism. And as far as FirstMistake is concerned, this brand of environmentalism is a clear and present danger to the environment. In fact it presents the biggest danger there is to the environment. Let me tell you why.
Al Gore made his speech, which as usual was full of scary "facts". What it lacked was balance, evidence and substance to these claims. It was also factually incorrect. He stated that the last decade was the warmest on record. Sorry Mr Gore, but that is just plain wrong. The warmest on decade in the 20th century was the 1930s, and the historical and geological records show much higher temperatures. Maybe he meant that this last decade has been the warmest this century. This is true - statistically when measured in the first decade of any century, that decade will be the warmest on record so far for that century. This is the kind of gibberish the "Al Gore" school routinely produce.
The Al Gore school, which includes most politicians, continually, remorslessly, ram home a single problem. The worlds climate is getting warmer. This is all they say. That is all they are worried about. This is all they bang on about. The world is getting warmer, and we will suffer for it. Warmer means wetter, means less ice, means less food production etc. You know the litany by now....
The danger in this approach is it promotes a single solution. We need to reduce emissions. Do that single thing and we will all be saved. Yeah, we might, but I doubt it.
The single issue approach that the Bali conference promotes convieniently forgets that mankind is detroying the natural habitats of species ( including ours ) and the natural environment at an alarming rate. It convienently forgets that the worlds population is exploding, and this is putting pressure on water supply and food production, in which case a wetter climate might be just what the thirsty will need. It maintains the belief mankind should control the environment instead of working with it.
This attitude promotes singlemindedness of technoligical solutions. The overrididng importance of obtaining energy without producing greenhouse emissions now justifies the destruction of precious environments, such as peat bogs by concreting them over with industrial wind power stations, the accelerated destruction of rainforests to produce bio fuels and the setting of arable land to produce fuel crops rather than food that pushes prices up for the poorest, most hungry peoples of the world. All to obtain "clean" energy.
How can we call such energy "clean". The real question is what do we do with this energy? We leave office lights on all night serving no purpose, we drive huge cars that are much heavier and bigger than ever before. We watch television in our over heated homes, more interested in seeing if a particular celeb will eat that worm without chucking up. We like to be able to flick through channels without bothering to get up out of our seats, and to make that easy we leave the power running through the TV all night.
We don't want to wear a pullover indoors, so we turn the heat up and ensure all the house lights are on. We don't have time to dry our clothes on the line, so we use our tumble driers everyday. We simpy use much more energy than we ever did, just for our convienience. Not for any higher purpose or advance in civilization. No, it is just because we are lazy.
And it is for our convienience that the worlds poor will be priced out of the food market. That is waht "clean" energy will be used for. Perhaps this is why Sir Bob Geldof wants us to rely more on nuclear power.
So how is it that the great Al Gore has not seen this? How can it be? He is so concerned and involved with the environment and environmental issues that he would be aware of this and not reduce the problems to a single issue.
Well if you listen to St Gore of the Climate and others of his ilk, you will discover that a number of technologies are being promoted as solutions. "Clean" bio fuels, wind power and Genetically Modified crops. We have touched on the others, but lets look at GM crops.
GM crops will be necessary in this new changed climate, in order that the worlds population can be feed. This, apparently, will be the only way that farmers will be able to cope and to prduce enough food for the world. The problem with this the worlds poorest farmers will then be reliant on big business and will need to buy seed crops each and every year, instead of being able to independantly maintain their own seed crops. GM crops are engineered and do not reproduce naturally. Does anyone remember the science fiction movie "Soylent Green"?
St Gore and his cohorts are part of the system. St Gore has done very well out of the current capitalist system, and there are massive vested interests tobe maintained. As usual it is all about money and greed.
The big trouble is the current capitalist system is based on growth, infinite growth. We live on a finite planet, with finite resources, so the economic system needs to change. It needs to be a system based on finite resources not continual, infinite growth. This represents a radical, fundamental change in the way we live our lives.
And that is the biggest danger posed by the Bali fiasco. It promotes the view that if we can get our emissions under control, by any means, then we are OK and it is business as usual. This is like a doctor maintaining that if he can keep the patient breathing, then you can remove all of his organs and he will be OK.
The world urgently needs some new medicine.
