What with all our attention transfixed on the genocide unfolding in Gaza – that’s pushed the war in Ukraine to, at best, a footnote, it ain’t surprising that nobody’s talking about us and the 1.5 degrees Centigrade tipping point in global warming. But from the temperatures we’ve been experiencing for the last few months, your Eyewitness is pretty sure we’re there already!! That is, the overall rise in global temperature since we humans have been belching out more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as we burn fossil fuels to fuel (pardon the pun!) our jet-setting lifestyles is past tense!!
However, we’re told that our heat is due to some regional weather pattern called El Niño. So, we shouldn’t worry about being inundated by the Atlantic rushing in to reclaim all the land the Dutch seized from her?? Sadly, we’re long past that point of no return with five of the nine “tipping points” reached: including the collapse of the Greenland ice cap – the one that will cause the sea rise; disruptive rains causing havoc with agriculture across the world and melting of the permafrost to release gargantuan amounts of carbon dioxide in a whoosh!!
Your Eyewitness has already made it very clear that for a pipsqueak state like Guyana which has been in the Stone Age till 2019, our policy gotta be “drill and burn, baby; drill and burn”!! What are we compared to the ten top polluters: China, with more than 10,065 million tons of CO2 released annually; the US with 5416; India, 2654; Russia, 1711; Japan, 1162; Germany, 759 and Iran, 720 million tons??
And to make matters worse, rather than those big boys cleaning up their act, they’ve decided to buy their way out of their responsibility!! Like paying us “carbon credits” to keep our forests standing to soak up the carbon dioxide they’ll keep on producing to live high off the hog!! It’s like the fella who knows smoking causes cancer, but continues to smoke and pays you to inhale the smoke so you could get his cancer!! But you see the fallacy, don’t you, Dear Reader? The carbon dioxide is still being produced in an absolute sense and brings us closer to other tipping points!! We’ll all get cancer!!
But one of the ironies that jump out from the list of mega polluters is China being number one. That’s due to the US exporting all its manufacturing jobs to that country and just printing and handing over pieces of paper which it calls “dollars” in exchange!! Could you imagine America’s position in the carbon dioxide hit parade if they were manufacturing all the doodads they need to enjoy the good life??!!
So why worry??
…to bomb Paul
They say history repeats itself – first as tragedy and then as farce. The “farce” ain’t of the “ha ha” variety, but arises from the irony of knowing what the ending will be – tragedy – but yet going full steam ahead!! Well, the farce unfolding in Gaza has played out countless times before – but the one your Eyewitness remembers is the 1968 Tet offensive by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese against the mighty US military during the Vietnam war.
The American political directorate and their Armed Forces had just assured the American people that everything was under control and the 500,000 American troops would soon be coming home. Their overwhelming superior technology and weapons had won the day – and the war!! Little did they know the enemy would launch their low-tech offensive to catch them napping and take huge casualties!! The N Vietnamese would lose the battle – but win the war, since the American people refused to commit the 200,000 additional troops demanded!!
History repeating??
…for Venezuelan overseas vote
For the first time, Venezuelans from the 7.7 million who’ve fled – but are on the voter’s list – can vote in next year’s elections. So, is the local Venezuelan Embassy making arrangements to help throw out Maduro??
