Yesterday was a black day with an attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah, exacting a terrible toll in human lives and suffering. Yet, as dreadful as these kinds of occurrences are — and nobody can deny that terrorists are, indeed, a global and worsening plague — one wonders whether the Bush administration should concentrate on this to the exclusion of all others, in particular the urgent need to curtail global warming.
According to statistics published by the US CDC, Americans have a one in 88,000 chance of dying from a terrorist attack. Compare this with a one in 55,928 chance of death by lightning; a one in 10,455 chance of dying in the bathtub; and a one in 9,396 chance of death due to excessive heat.
In spite of almost universal condemnation, President George W. Bush has consistently refused to sign up to the Kyoto Protocols — even though his predecessor Clinton had agreed in principle to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent.
Carbon dioxide levels are currently the highest in more than 420,000 years, prompting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to warn that unless carbon dioxide levels are severely reduced the Earth average temperature will rise by as much as 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100.
The situation is already dire. The UN World Meteorological Organization states that last year was the third warmest since records were first kept in the 1860s.
Over the past 100 years Earth’s temperatures have risen by an average of six degrees C?entigrade, while ten out of 18 of the warmest years on record have occurred during the past 14 years.
Changes in our environment have already occurred. Since 1900, there has been a 50 percent reduction in glacier ice in the European Alps, while the Arctic ice pack has already lost about 40 percent of its thickness during the past 40 years.
These trends are partly responsible for rising sea levels, which have risen three times faster in the past 100 years than they did during the previous three millennia.
The environmental group WWF has predicted that billions of people will face severe water shortages as glaciers around the world melt, with Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia among the worst affected.
Scientists warn if our Earth continues to heat up, we could face catastrophic consequences. Among the most severe will be major floods, devastating cyclones, hurricanes, heat waves and droughts, resulting in a scarcity of drinking water, the destruction of lives and property, the devastation of wildlife and the spread of infectious diseases, carried by insects and rodents. The world’s poorest will, as usual, bear the brunt of these cataclysmic events.
Although the US boasts a mere 4.5 percent of the world’s population, it is shockingly responsible for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Many of the worst offenders in the US are members of a powerful coalition of oil, power, logging and auto companies, which deny the harm they cause. These major polluters — often Bush-Cheney campaign contributors — have shelled out millions of dollars in an attempt to discredit the scientific evidence concerning global warming.
According to an article by Geoffrey Lean in the UK’s Independent titled “Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws”, the already distressing situation is set to worsen.
Lean expresses the fears of environmentalists over the proposed emasculation of the Clean Air Act and highlights a review of the Endangered Species Act for the protection of wildlife “the main obstacle to the felling of the US’ remaining endangered rain forest”.
Australia — another heavy polluter — has shamefully gone down the same “I’m all right Jack” route. Australia emits one of the highest per capita levels of greenhouse gas pollution in the world.
On the other hand, America’s closest European ally Britain has been trying to gently nudge the US on the route to environmental friendliness, thus far with little success.
The issue is also of grave personal concern to Queen Elizabeth who, in a break from usual protocol, is reported to have asked Tony Blair to lobby the US after observing the damaging effects of changing weather on her country estates.
The queen has been practicing what she preaches. Her cars have been converted to run on eco-friendly fuel and water turbines will soon bring hydroelectric power to Windsor Castle.
Blair admits America’s failure to sign up to Kyoto is a bone of contention between himself and his US counterpart.
On a positive note, Russia, which accounts for 17 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions, finally agreed to ratify Kyoto at the end of September despite fears this would negatively impact the country’s economy.
Russia’s signing-up effectively puts the pact into practical effect beginning Feb. 16, 2005 when 30 industrial nations will be subjected to its mandates.
It is a shameful indictment as to the self-centerdness of Uncle Sam’s economic interests that America, the world’s wealthiest nation and heaviest polluter, will not be among them while populous emerging Third World countries, such as China and India have behaved responsibly.
If the environmentalists, the meteorologists and the scientists are correct, while the pockets of the US administration’s crony corporations grow ever fatter, our once beautiful Earth remains tragically and needlessly under siege.
— Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback.
