Burn In Hell

Global warming, for how long can it remain an inconvenient truth?

It’s an extremely valid question, I mean get real how much longer can it possibly take for policy makers, business men and governments to pull their fists out of their ears and take heed of the warning signs screaming at them.

In a massive jump to attention the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) has released its fourth assessment of the state of knowledge of global warming. Written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists worldwide. The report blatantly declares that the probability that global warming has been caused by human activities is greater than 90 percent when compared to the previous report published in 2001, which put the probability at a stupidly small 66 percent. They have even taken the enormous trouble to state that, “although further changes in the worlds climate are now inevitable, the future, particularly in the long term, remains largely in our hands – the magnitude of expected change depends on what human choose to do about greenhouse gas emissions.” Now if this isn’t clear enough to the people of this planet, I really don’t know what is.

The massive host of data, statistics, information, research and experiments that absolutely prove that global warming is indeed human induced and will destroy our climate, is enough to fill all the gaudy mansions of India’s corrupt politicians, which is no mean feat seeing that situation. Governments are instrumental in implementing the massive change that is required to make even the slightest of dents in this horrifying situation. Unfortunately signs from that side don’t seem so promising. America’s continued refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol agreement just scratched the surface of the utter denial that persists in the policies of the fabled Bush administration.

In a move that defied all logic and sensibility, the House of Representatives on august 4th disagreed about a proposal to reduce the fuel thirst of American cars. Unbelievably, they also passed up the opportunity to lavish more subsidies on ethanol. They did not even bother to consider a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases. Instead they’re brilliant holistic solution was to build more windmills. These cannot even begin to compete with the coal fired monster plants, especially in southern states where the country is not mountainous and offer meager wind speeds. Such eco friendly energy initiatives will be of any real use only if it part of much larger policy including all the neglected areas mentioned above. The current scheme; when in doubt about energy policy, build more windmills, will not get us anywhere near to solving this world crisis.

Another example of a slightly neurotic piece of policy making can be seen in Beijing, where air pollution levels are so devastatingly high that the international Olympic committee president Jacques Rogge warned that some events such as long-distance races might have to be postponed as pollution in the games area was found to be so high as to effect the performance of athletes. Imagine a situation in which the race has to be stopped because the athletes are choking on noxious traffic fumes, it’s absurd; imagine the daily life of a Chinese citizen. So what’s the government’s solution to this problem? One would expect them to try and curb the 1000 new cars to the road everyday by beefing up mass public transport or at least improving legislation on more fuel-efficient or eco friendly cars. Ha! Fat chance, their brilliant quick fix solution really takes the cake. They intend to ban 1.3million cars off the roads for the duration of the games then allow them right back on after the world sees a falsely clean and green china. How do they decide which cars stay and which cars are “rested”, well isn’t it obvious; under the plan cars with odd and even numbers will be permitted to ply on the roads on alternate days and violators will be heavily fined. If anybody thinks this is just a practical joke on the governments part {I really don’t blame you} well think again because Beijing has already implemented a four day trial of this pretty much crazy scheme. The moment the Olympic games are over, Beijing’s 3 million cars will stream back on the streets as if nothing had ever happened, only to crush Beijingers short-lived experience of breathable air.

The human race has a seriously big problem on its hands and the dazed and confused works of various governments are taking us one step forward and ten steps back. Businesses don’t seem to be pulling their weight either, with massive protests against environmental taxes being levied against them or pressure to clean up their act. More dangerously companies are quickly catching up with the idea of dedicating about half a percent of their resources to the environment and then claiming and broadly publicizing themselves as the planet’s saviors. Even the rock star Sting’s cries of SOS at the recent live earth concerts, cant seem to stir the world into practical action to combat global warming. As long as environmentalism remains a pet project, a source of good PR and a ramshackle political initiative, the planets situation will continue to disintegrate at the frightening pace it has reached after the industrial revolution. If we don’t act now, regardless of our religion or atheism, we’ll end up burning in a hell, created on our very own dear blue planet