As the World Burns

In Copenhagen, the so-called leaders of the World (193 countries were represented) have shown once more the simple truth in an old song. I've been unable to find out who wrote this, but it has been performed by Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Vaya Con Dios and others. The refrain in question is

Your mind is on vacation and your mouth is working overtime

It's very fitting for the non-binding agreement two weeks of mouthing and mincing words have led to.

Image Source unknown

The Real Enemy !?

"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself."

Quote on page 75 of The First Global Revolution, A Report by the Council of the Club of Rome. September 1991. An online version of the book is here.

The text below indicates what the book is about – and please do remember that it was written almost 20 years ago!! As far as I can see … nobody learned from it and none of the problems it described have been solved.

In the 1970s, the Club of Rome launched the book The Limits to Growth. Essential reading for all those concerned about the future of the planet, the book was translated into 37 languages. Now, President Emeritus Alexander King and Secretary General Bertrand Schneider review global problems 20 years on, offering both a warning and an approach to a possible solution to world problems. Topics covered by this book include the need for the world to convert from a military to a civil economy, the recognition of the disastrous short-term effects of exploitation by First World countries of Third World poverty and need, and the containment of global warming: the need to reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide, to encourage reforestation, to conserve traditional forms of energy and develop alternatives.

Yet the authors of the statement The real enemy then is humanity itself have also fallen into a trap, just like they warned their readers not to do. By designating all of humanity as the enemy (of the planet and life as we know it), they have failed to point out that the real enemy is not every single individual - herding sheep or planting rice - but those among humanity who are motivated by a perverted greed and the obscene belief that the planet, the Earth, is theirs to control and to manipulate. The real enemy - if truth be told - are the multinational corporations and conglomerates who relentlessly follow the Bible in it's assertion that the planet is something we own - rather than be part of. Says the Old Testament in Genesis: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Well, the Earth is full and subdued, fish and birds are disappearing due to dominion, an every living thing that moves upon the earth is in dire danger to die of the poisons that fed the greed of the the people who run Bayer, Baxter, Monsanto, Shell ... to name but a few.

And although the Bible continues (Genesis) by saying: God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good - it doesn't look that good once one opens one's eyes to the full extent; they way they were meant to be used.

Photograph: Copyright © CCRCC

The Quandary of the 21st Century

The reading that made me write this is concerned with two things: Climate Change and the possible necessity to reduce the breeding of livestock, which means that most of us should turn into vegetarians - unless you already are one.

However, becoming a vegetarian is not what I refer to as quandary, nor do I use quandary in order to imply that climate change presents such a situation. A quandary is nothing more than a difficult and unpleasant predicament, whereas human-made climate change is outright dangerous and possibly disastrous.

Perhaps it is best to read the few lines of text that got me into this philosophical mood:

A 2006 United Nations (UN) report revealed that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships in the world combined. The report attributed 18 per cent of annual worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions to cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and other farmed animals, but new research from the Worldwatch Institute indicates that the figure actually could be much higher. According to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change”, raising animals for food produces 51 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions.
[quote from Eagle Eye, a blog that is part of the English newspaper The Independent]

Photograph © CCRCC

It all sounds straightforward, doesn't it? A UN report, authors who publish data based on research by the Worldwatch Institute.

Now what I perceive as the quandary, is the fact that these days, we can't anymore believe anyone. It's a general disease that came with the information-explosion and the media-society, with corporations often employing scientists as PR manufacturers.

These days, it is possible that the driving force behind such a report are the industries running on selling oil and making cars. Feeling that they look bad - in environmental terms - they would be interested in telling us that eating meat is worse than driving cars.

On the other hand, the people behind the cited reports could be extremist PETA vegetarians who want to turn meat-eaters into outcasts, similar to what is happening to tobacco-smokers.

Now how can we decide if the data are true or a full blown lie, whether or not spin-doctors have twisted it - and who paid the spin doctors? Each of us would need an army of scientists, desk-clerks and secretaries to find out what's true and what not ... and we can't afford that.

Then again, governments do have such armies of aides, and we actually pay for them, yet to no avail. Watching the carousel of wrong decisions that's known as government ... these Ladies and Gentlemen seem to suffer from the very same quandary as you and I: How to detect a True Lie?