Some people never learn. Instead of combating the massive melting of glaciers, they're speculating on oil and gas under Greenland's ice. ... Another failure at the next U.N. climate conference would truly be a disaster.
Flooding in Pakistan, landslides in China,
wild fires in Russia, tropical storms in the Philippines, and the oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico. It's hard to imagine a more dramatic situation for the U.N.
climate conference in Bonn. Even such shrill alarm bells failed to push
climate diplomats toward any conclusions. Instead of finally pulling the
emergency break and agreeing on binding CO2 reductions, government
representatives jetted in from around the world releasing huge amounts of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This disturbed neither the participants nor
the media, who again paid hardly any attention to the failure of the event,
even though about 90 percent of today's natural disasters are climate-induced.
But for most citizens and politicians, a
change in course cannot be identified. Hardly anyone has drawn any serious
conclusions from the conference findings. If governments want to hold polluters
responsible, they face immediate resistance, as occurred with the planned
flight tax. The annual €1 billion this would eventually bring in would not only
reduce budget deficits, but also the privileges of airlines compared to more
environmentally-friendly modes of transport, such as railways. The FDP (Free Democratic Party), CSU (Christian Socialist Union)and air traffic
lobby immediately warned of the "negative effects" on employees, and
right away, Finance Minister Schäuble's (CDU) reasonable proposal was
threatened with ending in a half-baked compromise. It's economy versus ecology
again, as it is with the auto industry, which due to increased demand, is once
again producing more luxurious, gas-guzzling CO2-spewers, and boasting about extra
shifts [for auto workers].
Posted by
WORLDMEETS.US
As I sat recently in an Inter-City Express
"Sauna" from Berlin to Düsseldorf (it was more than 104 degrees on
the train), several retired couples in my vicinity were worried about whether
they would miss their low-cost flight to South Africa. When another traveler ventured
to guess that the delay, caused by a failure in the air conditioning system,
was connected to climate change, the long-distance travelers were astonished. Few
would have guessed that the Inter-City Express air conditioning technology originated
at a time when one could count on a maximum temperature of 90 degrees.
[Editor's Note: In June and
July, unusually high temperatures wreaked havoc with a number of German high
speed trains. Several people (including entire classes of students) collapsed due
to the failure of air conditioning systems.]
Those who think people
need to suffer the consequences of climate change before coming to their senses
are mistaken. Most ignore the insidious danger of climate change even when the
consequences are on their doorstep. Yet others would like to base new business enterprises
on it. Instead of effectively combating climate-induced glacier melt in the
polar regions, industrialized nations are speculating on the mineral resources
underneath the no-longer permanent ice. The American
Geological Institute suspects there are 18 billion barrels of oil and natural
gas in the ice-covered region between Greenland and Canada. Greenlanders
believe that they've already come out winners due to climate change. But the
57,000 winning inhabitants of the island will confront billions of losers
throughout the world.
What to do? Scientists and
environmentalist recommend a radical change in lifestyle, but who'll volunteer
- even if it's no longer a question of want, but of must? We can only use as
much as we - us and nature - can handle. In that respect, this is really a case
of politics. Another failure at the next U.N. climate conference would truly be
a disaster.
*Klaus Staeck is a publisher and
commercial artist.
