May 23rd, 2007 by John
The battle to slow down the rate of climatic change by reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) seems to be going badly. Climate change is bound to have a serious effect on food production just at the time when other major problems are looming.
A report in www.newKerala.com says, “Between 2000 and 2004, worldwide CO2 emissions increased threefold compared to the 1990s, and the acceleration of emissions was greatest in the exploding economies of developing regions particularly China, even though they contributed only about 40% of total emissions, according to a new study published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The rate increased from 1.1 percent per year during the 1990s to 3.1 percent per year in the early 2000s, the study said.
The study also found that the accelerating growth rate was largely due to the increasing energy intensity of economic activity and the increase in population and in per-capita gross domestic product.
“No region is decarbonising its energy supply. Despite the scientific consensus that carbon emissions are affecting the world’s climate. we are not seeing evidence of progress in managing those emissions in either the developed or developing countries,” said Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology and co-author of the study.
“In many parts of the world, we are going backwards,” he said…”
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Critics of the Iraq war often say that it was all about oil, and I suppose that they are correct. However, I don’t believe the coalition ever intended to steal the oil.  What they wanted was to make sure the oil kept flowing by removing Saddam Hussain who had previously attacked two of his neighbouring countries, and install a pro-western democratic government.
This they thought, would have brought some stability to the Middle East, serve as a warning to other rogue states not to step out of line, and create a military base right in the centre of things. Unfortunately, it’s not turned out this well. Iraq must be delighted that the coalition has removed its main enemy, Hussain, and installed a Shi’ite government.
Iran and the many terrorist groups in the Middle East, while hating each other, will work towards removing all Western troops from Iraq and then the entire region. The day that the last troops pull out is the day we should fill every available tank or can with fuel and start stocking up on food.
War could quickly break out between Shi’ite and Sunny, Arab and Israeli and Al-quida and the House of Saud. For many, the destruction of the oil infrastructure to deny the West oil would be a major aim.
With the West increasingly dependent on imported oil to operate, shortages could lead to a collapse of the economic system and failure of food production.
George Bush and Tony Blair have long been aware of how disastrous it would be if oil slows or stops from the Middle East and were did what they thought was right to protect their own people.
In retrospect, a better policy would have been to introduce drastic fuel saving legislation to make us less dependent on the Middle East, but such measures would have been less popular with the electorate then a successful war.
