New World Order

The Copenhagen Climate Change talks were always destined to be little more than a talk-fest.

If anything genuinely inspiring comes from it, I for one will be much surprised. My feeling is that what we’re witnessing, even after a couple of days, is the arising of a new world order where the industrial giants, the so-called ‘first world’ nations, will call the tune on climate change mitigation. Second & third-world nations will simply be the lesser players. The oceanic island states will lose their sovereignty ultimately because in the grand global scheme in which the tune is called by the major industrial nations, their concerns are transitory. I’d even go so far as to state that arguments of climate change deniers will be utilised by the first world nations such that claims of inevitability will be aired by the first world in a bid to belittle the outcries of the the smaller island states. In my view, it is inevitable that Small Island Developing States (SIDS) will lose out in global climate change negotiations simply because their voices, their contributions to the global picture simply aren’t loud enough or of high enough concern to the first world. There is no appeasing going on. There is only overt collaboration, collusion occurring between the major players in much the same way as the major powers in pre-world war two Europe made decisions about what could and couldn’t be sacrificed in a bid to stave off war. Some might like to call that ‘appeasement’ but in reality, the only parties being appeased are those who are apparently conducting the ‘appeasement’. There is no third party.
In my view, humanity being the pathetic species it truly is, will use events like Copenhagen to pave the path to its own destruction. The atmospheric carbon ‘tipping point’ used to be 350 ppm. Copenhagen is all about limiting atmospheric poisoning to 450 ppm. In ten years or less, the target will be 550 ppm, by which time the oceans will be exhibiting conclusive symptoms of acidification, polar ice will have vanished for the foreseeable geological future during the northern summer and continental ice shelves in Antarctica will have reduced by at least 20%.
It’s what we do, we human beings. Habitat destruction is our forte. We lose more species every day, week and month than we realise, and most of us don’t care a fig, nor have the least understanding of what it is we do. Last night on the ABC’s 7:30 Report there featured an article on farmed Atlantic Salmon in Tasmania. I was struck by the words of David Suzuki addressing the National Press Club in October 2006…

“You all sat here and chowed down on farmed salmon and obviously you don’t give a shit about what you’re putting into your body. You know what a farmed salmon is? It’s filled with toxic chemicals.”

It’s worthwhile recalling Suzuki’s words in regard to the performance of the media, national & international, in regard to the pressures humanity places on this planet daily.

He calls himself ‘second-rate’, but I’m afraid I prefer to listen to him than any self-interested politician colluding with other self-interested politicians when it comes to the future of my species.