Monday, January 22, 2007

Tehran Times: "Destroying our home planet"

This is an interestingly leftist take on global warming, from the government-controlled press of a country whose rulers are often described as "conservative." Note the attack on Israel in the third paragraph:
The capitalists’ greed for amassing wealth over the past few decades has laid the groundwork for a global environmental catastrophe of unimaginable proportions.

This greedy and unscrupulous behavior doesn’t recognize any borders. It is draining resources, polluting waters, and destroying flora and fauna. According to some scientists, millions of people will be forced to immigrate to other places in the future because of global warming.

Certain governments conduct regular military maneuvers and launch wars against others, causing air and water pollution. For example, a massive oil spill caused by Israeli missile attacks on a Lebanese power plant in the coastal town of Jiyye, south of Beirut, resulted in the release of an estimated 17,000 tons of oil into the Mediterranean Sea.

Even now that the planetary fire alarm of global warming is ringing loudly, some industrialized countries refuse to abide by the lax regulations set by the Kyoto Protocol.

Those most responsible for global warming are the rich countries of the Northern Hemisphere, but the people who are going to suffer more from climate change are those living in the global South.

The United States, which is home to less than five percent of the world population, accounts for about 25 to 30 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions produced.

Last spring, NASA climate scientist James Hansen accused the Bush administration of censoring his reports on global warming. Hansen, a world expert on climate change, fears that only a 10-year window exists to curb greenhouse gas emissions before the world reaches a cataclysmic tipping point of no return.

Russia, another industrialized country in the upper Northern Hemisphere, has shrugged off worries about global warming.

Exacerbating the situation, China and India, which together account for a third of the world population, are racing down the road of industrialization, such that their demands for energy are pushing international oil prices to record highs.

Greed, coupled with the failure to teach people how to live in harmony with the ecosystem and the annual increase of 76 million people to the world population, are putting intolerable pressure on the earth.

Industrialists have always boasted of the benefits of technology and how it has raised the standard of living and created jobs. However, the protection of the environment of our fragile blue planet stands above everything.

Hundreds of millions of cars -- the main cause of climate change -- are plying the world’s highways and byways.

Add to this the carbon and nitrogen emissions from air travel. Some government officials, especially foreign ministers, are in the sky as often as birds.
How did Ahmadinejad travel on his recent visit to South America? By bike?
If some companies have now turned to producing somewhat environmentally friendly cars, it is because of pressure from green movement activists and rising oil prices in international markets.

As the least beneficiaries of technology, the poor people of the global South are already suffering from severe droughts and storms, which are the result of climate change. With the melting of the ice caps and glaciers and the subsequent rise in the sea level, the hometowns and lives of people living in coastal areas will be threatened.

If greedy corporations and governments do not stop damaging the environment under the pretext of economic development, they will eventually create a hell on earth for millions of people characterized by environmental degradation, declining food production, and more starvation.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thank you for reposting this. You need to look into the possibility that Hansen is a plant from Iran.