Greenhouse débacle. Dracula in charge of blood bank

Gideon Polya, “Greenhouse débacle. Dracula in charge of blood bank”, MWC News, 23 May 2006.

Greenhouse débacle. Dracula in charge of blood bank

AUSTRALIA and South Africa have been appointed by an international conference in Germany to co-chair international development of new arrangements to deal with limiting greenhouse gas emissions after the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol concludes in 2012. However this extraordinary decision is like putting Dracula in charge of the Blood Bank. Australia is the world’s worst carbon dioxide producer on a per capita basis (closely followed by Canada and the US) and (together with the US) refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Global warming is a major threat to water supply, food production and hence to human survival in Africa in particular. However the utter incompetence of the post-Apartheid South African government has massively contributed to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa and horrendous mass mortality.

Australia has not signed the Kyoto Protocol and is the world’s worst per capita carbon dioxide producer: thus in 1999 the tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per capita were as follows for the following key players: Australia (27.9), Canada (22.2), US (20.7), Ireland (15.6), Netherlands (14.5), New Zealand (14.4) and Denmark (13.6) – with lesser values for Germany (11.6), UK (10.8), Japan (9.6), Italy (9.1), France (8.2), and Russia (7.6) (see: here & MWC News ).

Australia is simultaneously among the world’s worst on a per capita basis for greenhouse gas production, land clearance, forest wood chipping, species extinction, coal exports, coal-based electricity and consumption of resources (annual per capita income US$22,000 as compared to US$400 for Bangladesh). Not only does Australia behave in a remorselessly greedy, selfish and irresponsible way in a global and environmental sense - White Australia also comprehensively fails in its direct, LEGAL obligations towards its non-European subjects. Thus Australia has participated in US Asian Wars since 1950 that involved some 18 million excess (avoidable) deaths and is part of the US-led Coalition in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories. The “annual under-5 infant mortality rate” is 2.7% (Occupied Iraq) and 5.7% (Occupied Afghanistan) (see MWC News: and here ).

Notwithstanding a huge volume of patronizing and “politically correct” platitudes, White Australia has a basically racist and uncaring attitude to its indigenous (aboriginal) inhabitants. White Australia has been grossly derelict in relation to provision of health, education and security for Australian aboriginals. Thus Australia has been shocked by current revelations about horrible abuse of Australian aboriginals involving horrendous violence and the rape of women and children (see: here ). Aboriginal life expectancy is about 20 years lower than for White Australians and the “annual death rate” is 2.2% (for Australian aborigines, 3 times the national average) and 2.4 % (Australian aborigines in the Northern Territory) versus 2.5% for sheep on Australian sheep farms (see MWC News ).

Britain’s Chief Scientist says that global temperature will rise by 3 degrees Centigrade by the end of the century and threaten water supply for 1-3 billion people. Third World people in Africa and Asia are at particular risk (see: here). Given White Australia’s appalling record of abuse of its non-European subjects, can there be any expectation that greenhouse-profligate, racist White Australia will behave responsibly towards 0.7 billion Africans facing catastrophe from global warming? However, what can we expect from co-chair South Africa? Not much, based on their wretched post-Apartheid track record.

South Africa has already played a disastrous role in exacerbating avoidable mortality in Africa through sheer incompetence in dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic as illustrated by the following figures. The highest degree of HIV infection in the world is to be found former British colonies in Southern and East Africa and neighbouring countries and for the world’s worst countries the percentage of the population that was HIV positive in 2003 (in descending order) is: 20.6% (Swaziland), 19.9% (Botswana), 17.9% (Lesotho), 14.1% (Zimbabwe), 11.9% (South Africa), 10.7% (Namibia), 8.6% (Zambia), 7.0% (formerly Portuguese Mozambique), 7.5% (Malawi), 6.8% (the formerly French Central African Republic), 4.4% (Tanzania) and 3.8% (Kenya) (see: here & MWC News ). Further, like Australia, South Africa is a major coal producer and exporter.

White Australia has been grossly derelict in relation to provision of health, education and security for Australian aboriginals. The world can expect no joy from the international appointment of greedy, greenhouse gas-profligate, criminally racist White Australia and criminally incompetent South Africa as co-chairs for developing sensible responses to global warming. Putting these morally-flawed major coal producers in this position is like putting Dracula in charge of the Blood Bank. Yet according to James Lovelock (“The Revenge of Gaia”, Allen Lane. London, 2006), we may have already passed the point of irreversible damage to fundamental global homeostatic (balancing) mechanisms.

Ultimately the blame for this débacle lies with unethical, racist, lying Mainstream Media (that remorselessly accommodate to dominant corporate Establishment positions) and with the general passivity of cynical and apathetic Western populations. Rational Risk Management for a planet under acute threat requires a well-attested protocol successively involving (a) information, (b) scientific analysis and (c) sensible systemic change. Humanity can no longer tolerate dis-information, spin and corrupt unresponsiveness in the face of a pending catastrophe.