MORTGAGING OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE

Navjot Kaur Rajiyal
indegenious_88@yahoo.com

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.

The Copenhagen Summit has disappeared the Humpty Dumpty way. Almost so. President Barack Obama has once again missed the golden opportunity to emerge as the global leader. With a George Bush legacy around his neck with America not a signatory of the Kyoto Agreement, Obama thought it politic not to play to the world media gallery by committing to cut US carbon emission to laudable levels that a sense of equity demands. By not doing so, he has arrested the already sliding popularity rating at home. Asking comfort-loving fellow-Americans to tighten the belt is a sure way of inviting a political disaster. The second best option is to let China and India play the global leader and America playing the role of the first among the equals.
China was truly playing the global leader and relished every moment at Copenhagen. The efficacy of Chinese diplomacy lies in knowing when to be friendly and when to be hostile. An unusual warmth developed between India and China notwithstanding Dalai Lama and Arunachal Pradesh, which has nothing to do with camaraderie. In the Belgian city, the two Asian giants felt helpless without each other in fighting the onslaught of the rich nations. In an article in the Guardian, the British climate secretary, Edward Miliband, accused China and other leftwing countries of trying to hijack the UN climate summit and "hold the world to ransom". Meanwhile, scientists and environmentalists were critical of rich countries which need to put up three times as much money and cut emissions drastically if they want to save the world from a climate catastrophe.

The self-styled conscience-keeper of climate change, Yvo de Boer, who is also the head of the committee for negotiations, commented:
The Marxists are using Climate Change to promote a Proletariat agricultural revolution;
The Maoists are using Climate Change to get us back to year zero;
The Corporates are using Climate Change to promote carbon trading;
The Governments are using Climate Change to tax us until the pips squeak;
The Vegans are using Climate Change to promote vegetarianism;
The One Worlders are using Climate Change to promote one government with a single point of tax and control;
The West is using Climate Change to dump pollution on the Third World;
The Eugenicist/Malthusians are using Climate Change to cull the population;
The Greens are being used by all of the above, and they don't realise it.
It’s one world, many universes!
And finally what will be remembered of the Copenhagen summit is the grim picture of the statues installed in front of the venue.

Tailpiece:
To preserve the Amazon, we need to stop eating meat. The president of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society, Ms Marly Winckler, says more than 80% of the Amazon's destruction is caused by cattle rearing.