Comment Archive:

Saturday 3rd December 2005

A Christmas Message

Thursday 1st December 2005

Hot Potato

winter picture As the country slumps headlong into the freezing fog and dank chill of winter global warming is probably the last thing on your mind. Indeed after years of listening to mouldy old gloom and doom merchants prophesying that the recent spate of mild winters have been sure signs that the final conflagration is fast approaching, this sudden cold snap is oddly comforting and something of a relief. See, you old farts? Nothing to worry about. The planet isn’t warming up after all. It was just a minor aberration. How can there be global warming when my koi carp have just gone belly-up under an inch of ice?

How can there be indeed? Let’s set aside current scientific calculations that suggest the ultimate effects of global warming would actually be to see the United Kingdom ground down into fish and chip flavoured paste under a plate of ice the size of Europe and instead look at some startling short term predictions by the International Energy Agency that were published early last month.

burning oil in Iraq picture The most sobering forecast is that reserves of fossil fuels will meet rapidly rising demands only up until 2030. And then only if billions of pounds / dollars are poured into new facilities in the Middle East and North Africa. Hmm. Isn’t it amazingly fortuitous that the good old US of A just happens to be manoeuvring in the Middle East even as we speak – purely for humanitarian reasons of course. I’m sure the knowledge of dwindling oil reserves and the potential collapse of its car based economy wasn’t at all the driving force behind its decision to spend millions of dollars getting its army ensconced in Iraq and serendipitously gaining a toe-hold in such an oil rich country.

The UK government is, of course, equally as culpable in this endeavour. Do they really think we’re that stupid?

global warming picture Worrying forecast number two is that by 2030 carbon dioxide emissions – the chief cause of global warming - will have risen by 52% anyway, a rise that effectively takes us past the point of no return. As a Greenpeace spokesperson pointed out in response to this forecast, such a rise "takes us off the scale in terms of predictable warming". That’s putting it mildly. And what will contribute toward this increase in greenhouse gas emissions? The final forecast that energy demand itself will rise by more than 50% over the next 25 years, most of this increase coming from rapidly developing countries and emerging economies such as China. The IEA estimates that £32billion will need to be invested in oil production in the Middle East and North Africa to meet this rise in demand.

However, presumably after 2030 we’ll all be skint and riding our bicycles in the dark. Probably to generate electricity.

So I’m afraid the doom and gloom merchants have still got it right. Modern man is rocketing himself toward a very uncomfortably warm and airless future and seems intent on burning as much fuel in his rocket to get him there as fast as he possibly can - totally ignoring the fact that it is this consumption of fuel that is causing the problem in the first place. Surely everyone can see what an act of sheer unmitigated lunacy this is?

Everyone it seems apart from the company directors, the company investors and an ill assortment of short sighted world politicians. Basically everyone who is running the show that we all have bit parts in. Well hey Mr MP, what’s the use of producing a popular TV show if the planet itself is steeling itself to burn down all the sets, asphyxiate the cast and crew and then pull the plug on all of the TV stations? But I guess as long as your pockets are stuffed with cash when you pop your clogs you’ll be happy, right? I mean sod your children and the poor generations that come after you that have to cope with corrupted climates and dismantled eco-systems, energy rationing and food shortages, expanding deserts and shifting ice caps, sweltering heat and rising sea levels, world droughts and global epidemics... the list of negatives is unfortunately endless. And I can’t think of one positive that could possibly make any of this wanton global destruction worthwhile.

And it’s not as if the world leaders are ignorant to the dangers. They know the facts the same as you and me. They no doubt frown and sigh over their cornflakes every morning the same as we do. Unlike you or me, however, they’re happy to grandly speachify and make big public promises about green issues in order to secure our votes in the short term and look dashing in the press and the media. And then do eff all about it.

Fact: Tony Blair committed Britain to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 by 12.5% - instead they rose by 2.5% in the first half of this year. Cheers Tony. It seems like most politicians you’re merely a talker as opposed to a doer. The trouble is talking never saved anybody.

conflagration picture Let’s jump to the current BP adverts that are gracing our TV’s in the UK. They feature a series of short on-the-street interviews with a number of apparently random passersby, all earnestly concerned as to the effects of global warming and the approaching world energy crisis (isn’t it amazing how the multinationals even use fear of the disaster that they are causing to shift more product?). The last interview features a bulky guy with a NY accent waxing philosophical about the fact that we are "damaging the capability of this planet to heal itself". Sterling heart felt stuff no doubt.

But I wish to disagree with it. My own theory is that this planet is a lot stronger and a darn sight more tenacious than we as a species could ever hope to be. This planet represents a massive network of life and ecological support systems the depth of which we haven’t even begun to plumb. Don’t worry; it will heal itself just fine. So what’s the problem then, you ask?

dinosaur picture Let’s rephrase the BP advert sound-bite a little bit: I believe that we are damaging the will of this planet to support us (the human race). My fear is that the healing process of this planet will involve eradicating the major cause of its hurt... us. The planet itself will be fine. What we need to worry about is our own survival. And maybe thinking in this way will clarify the issue and bring it home to the politicians and the don’t-carers a bit more. All this talk of global warming and ecological meltdown tends to distance people from the real problem - it’s as if they’re blinded by the hip jargon. All this talk of globalism depersonalizes the individual; makes the solution the sole responsibility of huge international corporations and megabucks politicians. Nothing to do with us little people.

But it is. We all must play our part. Because it we don’t we as a species are not going to survive. Forget global warming, think of species purging. Think of the complete eviction of the human race from the food chain. This planet is a huge effing landlord / bailiff and it’s giving us final notice to shape up or ship out.

Tony? George? Are you listening?

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