Global Warming
and Emulators of the Ostrich
Over
2,000 scientists from around the world have conducted
since 1988 the most extensive, peer-reviewed, enquiry
into the world climatic changes and have declared
unanimously that human-caused global warming has
already set in and would continue to go from bad
to worse unless drastic measures were taken to reverse
the trend. Chairman of the UN-supported Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Dr. Rajendra Pachauri,
summed up their findings in the apocalyptic prediction:
"We are risking the ability of the human race to
survive." Ironically, his predecessor, Dr. Robert
Watson, had been forced out of office under pressure
of Bush administration, for pushing too hard for
quick action. Dr. Pachauri and his IPCC team, being
scientists, could hardly tamper with their findings
to accommodate the corporate greed to continue its
environmental degradation.
The top British scientist, Sir David King, has gone
further by calling the climate change "the biggest
danger humanity has faced in 5,000 years of civilization."
President Bush is no "flip-flop" like John Kerry.
Once he decided to attack Iraq, the unprecedented
worldwide demonstrations against the war were simply
ignored by him. He had, likewise, decided in 2001
to withdraw from the Kyoto protocol that had been
enthusiastically endorsed by his predecessor. The
Bush administration elected to emulate the ostrich
by burying its head into sand and feigning that
there was no ecological problem. Some over-enthusiastic
members of his team and industrial interests even
engaged a few scientists to contend that everything
was fine with ecology; the fears of global warming
were only a hoax. Of course it can't be otherwise,
in their view, with George Bush at the helm of world
affairs. The scientific community, however, regarded
these fellows as quacks and shills.
Their soothing, soporific voices therefore disappeared
soon. The world temperature has already increased
by one degree Fahrenheit, sea levels have gone up
by 4 to 7 inches, record summer heat wave in 2003
left 35,000 dead across Western Europe, many more
in South Asia and elsewhere. The monsoons, which
brought rains to the farms of South Asia with almost
clockwise precision, have turned quite erratic.
The world is experiencing more hurricanes, tornadoes,
downpours, heat waves, droughts and blizzards. In
their wake come flooding, landslides, power-outages,
crop failures, property damage, disease, hunger,
acute poverty and even loss of life. Weather pundits
were surprised at the torrential rains in California
and elsewhere in the US last January. One after
the other, three tornadoes smashed the coasts of
Florida. On the other side of the globe, the northern
areas of South Asia have been buffeted with unusual
snowstorms claiming many lives. An arid area like
Balochistan has been subjected to torrential rains,
causing a dam to breach and floods to inundate large
areas and claim hundreds of lives. The above are
but a few glimpses of what is happening.
The industrial states of the world have, in pursuit
of profit, engaged in a ruthless environmental degradation.
A global calamity is awaiting us unless we stop
abusing the planet that sustains us. The first major
step in this direction was the enforcement of the
Kyoto protocol a few days back - on February 16,
2005. This international agreement sets targets
for industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse
gas emissions to 5.2% below the 1990 level by 2012.
A total of 141 states have ratified the pact. It
is applicable right now to industrialized countries
whose plants emit bulk of the gases, carbon dioxide
(CO2) in particular, that trap heat and create a
greenhouse effect in world environment. Thirty-five
industrial states have acceded to the pact. The
United States, the biggest polluter with its share
reaching a quarter of the global emissions, and
Australia, another industrial sate, have not joined
the agreement. Pakistan, which is right now at the
receiving end of the ill effects of the climate
change, ratified the treaty two months before its
enforcement.
An eminent speaker at the function held in Kyoto
to mark the enforcement of the treaty was (Miss)
Wangari Maathi, Kenya's deputy environment minister
and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace
Prize. In an oblique reference to the US stand on
the protocol, she said: "One of the reasons why
some of the countries don't want to support the
Kyoto Protocol is exactly because they don't want
to reduce their over-consumptive life pattern."
The US economy, as envisioned by Lord Maynard Keneyes,
is based and thrives on consumption. The system
has worked well, particularly since World War II.
It puts a premium on innovation, hard work and equal
opportunity. Most of the inventions have thus taken
place in the US. Nothing wrong with the system except
that the financial elite leads the political elite.
And Kyoto, according to one estimate, meant a loss
of some $400 billion dollars for the US industries
and corporations and a definite slowing down of
their activities. Even in such quarters the earlier
skepticism has yielded to an acceptance of the reality
of the calamity stalking the present world civilization.
At the official level, it is accepted now that the
global warming is human-caused. The administration
has made an allocation of $4 billion for research
on alternative sources of energy, and on technological
innovations in production that admit of a slashing
down of the emission of CO2, methane and other gases.
This allocation need must be enhanced manifold.
America has the scientists and technical facilities
to achieve this. Fortunately, the US media appear
to have grasped the gravity and urgency of the problem
and might start stressing the need for a war on
pollution. With the rapprochement between Palestine
and Israel, the need for pursuing further the war
on terror has lost its urgency. It has also been
realized that in the subculture of potential terrorists,
the harsher the punishment for a crime, the more
attractive it becomes for them. Fear of punishment
thus becomes counter-productive.
Does it work as a deterrent on a suicide bomber?
Global warming has become a far more formidable
an enemy. The Bush administration might still be
obsessed with the war on terror and on tyranny of
late, but major corporations and State governments
have, on their own, started taking measures to cut
down greenhouse gas emissions. General Motors, for
instance, has achieved its target of a 10% reduction
in its plants in North America. American Electric
Power, based in Columbus, Ohio, is the largest power
producer, and it has pledged to reduce by 10% CO2
emissions from its plants by 2006. Some 40 States
have worked out projects on their own or in concert
with other States for the same purpose. At the federal
level, Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman had
introduced a bill in 2003 for curbs on emissions.
It was defeated 55 to 43. The next attempt is likely
to succeed, as it would compensate to some extent
at least for the embarrassing absence of the US
from the list of countries that have ratified the
Kyoto protocol on February 16, 2005. The time for
playing ostrich has definitely ended. arifhussaini@hotmail.com
February 17, 2005
