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CONSULTING IN SUSTAINABLE TOURISM & HOSPITALITY DEVELOPMENT, LECTURING ON CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT MITIGATION, TRAINING, PUBLIC SPEAKING & MARINE CONSERVATION
- HELPING OTHERS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE -
Oh dear...
The delayed Conference Of the Parties, or COP26 as it is better known, has just finished. In diplomatic parlance, "the parties" refers to the 197 nations that agreed to the environmental pact, The United Nations Framework on Climate Change, at a
meeting in
1992
So for 30 years the world has known that something menacing was coming at us like an express train and has done nothing about it… actually, to be fair, that's not quite true. Activities such a coal mining and de-forestation have been accelerated and the nations most res-ponsible have been avoiding coming to the meetings altogether. Rest assured, I'll deal with them later!
As before, the conference has produced a number of pledges and resolutions, most of which fall considerably short of what is needed, so hey! ho!, sit back, relax and prepare your children for a meeting with
THE GRUMPY GRIM REAPER.
THE GRUMP
Issue 9 - November 2021
Of course, there's an entirely opposite view about CO2 emissions and it's effect on climate change, presented by Ian Rutherford Plimer, an Australian geologist, and professor emeritus of earth sciences at the University of Melbourne. He suggests that large volcanic
eruptions, such as the one currently doing its thing in Las Palmas, has emitted more CO2 than mankind has in its entire history (you can read the full article here). Who can one believe?
Whatever your views, I can't help feeling that this
Michael Jackson was as good an advocate as any for drawing attention to the
is a
whole lot
better than this
problems facing the planet in his 1995 classic, 'Earth Song'. Whether you loved him or loathed him, give this a try.
GLOBAL CHALLENGE
To start with, I think the titles 'Global Warming' or 'Climate Change' are too limiting for what needs to be addressed. On the one hand we have the likes of the Brazilian president encouraging the decimation of the Amazon rain forest for profit,
and on the other hand we have the Indian President whining that it's not fair to cut the use of coal in his country because it will hold their progress back. And then there were the significant 'no-shows', whose absence was lamentable.
The net result of this conference seems to have been a watered down pledge, sided by many nations not directly involved and with limited ability to check up on the commitments of others, to try and do something by 2050. By this time, we'll have all gone down the storm drain!
It's a bit like the man who, when told by his doctor that he had to stop smoking and drinking or the combination would kill him, declared that he would stop, but only by 2050!
Countless numbers of people have done, and are doing, so much work to try to steer things in the right direction, it is utterly shameful that so many world leaders are failing the planet. Whether it is saving the oceans and the creatures within them (something that received very little mention), or making the case for alternative energy sources or stopping the destruction of the rain forests (yes I know, pledges were made, but who will police these undertakings - certainly not America). Whether it is preparing for the inevitable mass migrations and relocation of millions of people fleeing their sea-swamped towns and communities, re-assigning the vast amounts of money spent on war mongering, or taking a fundamentally different approach to food supplies, nothing has been addressed with the brutal and uncomfortable measures that are required for our survival.
Greenpeace came up with a novel approach to challenge people's thinking on the various issues. Click on the logo and have a look at this.
Climate activists, environmentalists and many others feel, understandably betrayed by their leaders. We've witnessed their incompetence in handling the Covid pandemic and are we are now spectators to a global catastrophe, the prevention of which is being criminally circumvented for short-term political conveniences and cravings for individual power, aka megalomania .
Heaven help us, because we certainly are incapable of helping ourselves.
POLITICIANS
Traditionally, when a nation is in trouble, the preferred course of action is to wage war against one's neighbour. This has the effect of distracting one's own restless population and blind-siding the world community. It's a win/win situation; if you lose the conflict, you'll get international financial support to rebuild and if you win, you pillage the vanquished enemy of everything they have and share out the spoils to your now grateful populace. At least, that was the theory. Regrettably, there are rather too many world leaders who seem to be preparing themselves for just such a scenario and a very watchful eye and state of preparedness needs to be exercised.
WATCH
OUT EU & NATO
Like father, like son - Lukashenko inspects his troops as Poland, NATO and the EU
procrastinate. This happened to Poland once before and given the right opportunity, this man is equally dangerous. And he's even got the moustache to prove it!
Ukraine Pakistan Taiwan USA
Amazonia Because we always have fought each other
"WHERE SHALL WE INVADE NEXT?"
It all rather puts the Climate agenda onto the back burner, doesn't it?
SOCIAL MEDIA & IT
The problem with Social Media is that it is completely out of control. Politicians want to legislate and control it in all its many manifestations, but because they do not understand the subject from a technical standpoint, people like Mark Zuckerberg are able to run rings around them. And as an aside, is it just me, or is there anyone with such a high profile that looks quite as unforthcoming and awful as him?
Of course, we the people, are our own worst enemy. Our obsession with Twitter and Facebook is simply extraordinary and perhaps one day, psychologists will be able to explain why so many people feel compelled to share everything about themselves all of the time to the public at large.
While many politicians feel impotent to control social media, others revel in their new found opportunity to distract and manipulate their voters and so we are no longer able to trust what we read and hear in the media.
Anyway, back to control; I suppose the only solution is to persuade a high-tec wizard to turn in a
sort of modern day version of 'poacher to gamekeeper'. But we 'd better get a
shift on before 'META' takes complete control over all of us and our brains get scrambled !
Another outfit that's really ticking me off is the company that must be obeyed, Apple. For those of you who have an iPhone, a Mac laptop and/or iPad, you are forced to keep buying their latest hardware as their older versions no longer support the upgrades they make on their programmes. I was very happy with my iPhone 5 but it became increasing-ly difficult to use because of the up- grades, so I had to buy a new one.
The other thing making me grumpy is that there seems to be an obsession with passwords. I understand the basic reasons for this, especially with financially related matters, but really I feel it's going too far, especially as I get older. I can still remember our telephone number when I was a child, but nowadays, unless I write it down in some password protected "password" file, I can't for the life of me remember the password I was forced to create for something yesterday!
DRIVING
Maybe it's because everybody is getting steamed up with politics, covid, climate matters, and so on, but it seems to me that the quality of driving is generally deteriorating. It has never been that good anywhere and in Pakistan, where I live, it is appalling.
I've actually seriously considered installing something like this on my car, but I reckon people would just drive even closer to read it!
Meanwhile in the UK, migrants are on to a winner...
"This week, Boris Johnson is paying me £500 a day to drive the damn thing. I love UK!"
Apart from ranting, here's an idea to try if you get caught speeding...
Anyway, as they say, the weakest part of any car is the nut holding the steering wheel!
COVID UPDATE
Cases of Covid 19 are on the rise again. Hardly surprising, really, when so many countries have thrown caution to the wind and failed to impose firm and sensible measures to enforce vaccinations. We do not have draconian measures here in Pakistan, but if you want to visit a cafe or restaurant or shopping mall or museum or go on public transport, you have to show proof of vaccination. Everybody working in a public roll, for example, hospitality and medical staff, teachers, transport, etc, have also to be vaccinated. This is not rocket science, so why are so many governments Molly-coddling their people and bowing to push-back from the cantankerous minority? Even vampires are taking the matter seriously!
Mankind is pretty clever. We can perform technological miracles, travel through space and explore the deep oceans, show love and tenderness for each other and the things around us - we are really quite extraordinary. But conversely, we tolerate the mass slaughter of intelligent animals, even each other, and seem set to destroy our precious home.
Just how weird is that?
Take care and keep safe
Charles
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