I went to this interesting presentation on climate change yesterday, and that set me thinking about the basic injustice of climate change, specially when seen from the perspective of the common people of Orissa and India, and their oppressed brethren from across the world, who are not lucky enough to be living in developed countries or being the elite of their respective countries.
The developed countries (europeans/Americans/whites) exploited us for the last couple of centuries through colonisation, slavery, looting our societies while industrialising themselves. This they did with the help of the turncoat elites of our nations - many of whose descendents still lord it over us. And during their industrialisation, they belched billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Then as decolonisation took place, they, along with our elites felt that we needed to be developed - and so now our land, water, forests- all are being taken away for models of development which add to their wealth and wellbeing (and developing a small percentage of our population who seem to be doing much better). And this fossil fuel based development adds more carbon dioxide to the air.
And then we have climate change and global warming - because of all the CO2 that these people have put in the air while improving their life standards and driving their SUVs and cars. But look at the irony, it is our countries in the tropics which are going to become deserts or face massive floods, and its our water which is going to dry up with the dissappearing glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes. And the poor are the vulnerable population who have no capacity to protect themselves from the ravages of global warming, who are going to die in millions and who are going to starve as food supplies become costlier because the rich people won't reduce meat in their diets and need bio-diesel for their cars.
And the carbon mitigation plans - based on markets and purchasing power- will convert all our cultivable land into carbon sink plantations and jatropha plantations - while the poor starve and live in hunger, and try to migrate - and start killing each other- while fortress Europe and Fortess America put walls around themselves so that environmental and climate refugees can't pour into their countries
The God/s, if there is one, has a real perverse sense of humor. Or a wicked sense of justice. He definitely seems to love the rich and the powerful and to dislike the poor. The poor don't inherit the earth - the rich and the powerful do.
The developed countries (europeans/Americans/whites) exploited us for the last couple of centuries through colonisation, slavery, looting our societies while industrialising themselves. This they did with the help of the turncoat elites of our nations - many of whose descendents still lord it over us. And during their industrialisation, they belched billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Then as decolonisation took place, they, along with our elites felt that we needed to be developed - and so now our land, water, forests- all are being taken away for models of development which add to their wealth and wellbeing (and developing a small percentage of our population who seem to be doing much better). And this fossil fuel based development adds more carbon dioxide to the air.
And then we have climate change and global warming - because of all the CO2 that these people have put in the air while improving their life standards and driving their SUVs and cars. But look at the irony, it is our countries in the tropics which are going to become deserts or face massive floods, and its our water which is going to dry up with the dissappearing glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes. And the poor are the vulnerable population who have no capacity to protect themselves from the ravages of global warming, who are going to die in millions and who are going to starve as food supplies become costlier because the rich people won't reduce meat in their diets and need bio-diesel for their cars.
And the carbon mitigation plans - based on markets and purchasing power- will convert all our cultivable land into carbon sink plantations and jatropha plantations - while the poor starve and live in hunger, and try to migrate - and start killing each other- while fortress Europe and Fortess America put walls around themselves so that environmental and climate refugees can't pour into their countries
The God/s, if there is one, has a real perverse sense of humor. Or a wicked sense of justice. He definitely seems to love the rich and the powerful and to dislike the poor. The poor don't inherit the earth - the rich and the powerful do.
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