…two steps backwards at COP26
Now that not only the world leaders but the Sherpas and activists have departed from COP26 at Glasgow, what’s the biggest takeaway for your Eyewitness? Apart from learning that the people who live there are called “Glaswegians” and the men don’t wear those plaid miniskirts all the time, that is!! Well, firstly, that with all the hot air spewed during the speeches, talks, negotiations, press conferences, protests and such like, the climate had to’ve warmed up a notch!! And this doesn’t include all the CO2 spewed out from all those jet engines bringing in the big wigs!!
So, another takeaway? Well, the reaffirmation that when you’re an elephant among pygmies, you can sit anywhere you damn well please! Including ON the pygmies! And that’s what the elephants in the room at Glasgow – the US, China and India – pretty much did on burning the worst pollutant of them all – coal. They kicked THAT can down the road by diluting a resolution from “phasing it out” to “phasing it down” by 2050!! Slick, ain’t it? So, between now and 2050 you can expect the RATE of burning coal to reach – or surpass! – the historic levels back when America was literally steamrolling its way to the top of the economic heap!!
And the same thing’s gonna happen with the production of oil and gas!! The organisers of COP26 had barely shut down their mikes – after the Chair, Alok Sharma broke down in tears over “what could’ve been!” – when each oil-producing country such as the US, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Russia started ramping up their production! Yet our very woke Climate and Environmental activists in our dirt-poor Mudland stamped their feet and shrilly demanded that we shut down all production here right now!! Or else? But that’s grist for another mill!
Another takeaway that was reaffirmed from COP25 was that don’t believe any promise on donations to poor countries by the rich countries to help the former cut back on emissions. Or take mitigating measures to deal with rising seas and hurricanes that they caused with their profligate pollution!! Poor countries were fooled once five years ago at COP25 in gay (as in happy!) Paree, when the big shots promised US$100 BILLION! Not even a fraction was delivered and then that fraction was mostly loans rather than grants!!
And as such, the last takeaway is we can all expect “Mercury Rising” going forward. Forget the 1.5C limit and maybe double it and you’ll get an idea where we’re heading. So, where does that leave us?
Drill, baby, drill! Let’s get as much money from our oil and build that Silica City ASAP!!
Head South, young men (and women)!!
…into a hole in India
Gandhi famously said that India lives in its villages. Sadly, more than half-a-century later, it remains true. China, in the meantime – once just as poor as India – has far surpassed India in urbanisation. And, not so coincidentally, has also outstripped it in development, manufacturing and growth. The problem is, notwithstanding Gandhi waxing lyrical about the virtues of village life, villagers are generally resistant to change. Even when it’s in their interest.
Take the farmers’ protests over the last year that forced the Government to back down on three Farm Bills it’d passed to liberalise the agricultural sector. The bottom line was that, for instance, commodities would’ve been traded across state lines, forward contracts could’ve been negotiated and the base prices that become top prices would’ve been removed to allow supply and demand to set prices.
This is how the rest of the world operates – including China. But Indian agriculture will remain inefficient to satisfy the traders who mediate farm products.
Hope Guyanese farmers see the light!!
…on City Hall
In preparation for restoring City Hall, a fence has been built. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to tear down the entire derelict structure and rebuild it from “scratch”??
