COP27 was just completed over in the Egyptian desert. The “27” means it’s the twenty-seventh time the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – pretty much the entire UN – met to “do something” about this planet of ours being baked into oblivion!! The first COP was in Berlin in ’95 – not long after the Cold War was over, so a new war could’ve been declared?!! The first few years were dedicated to getting the big-oil boys to concede it was the burning of fossil fuels that’s causing global warming. The temperature was raised through the production of Carbon Dioxide – and emission of methane – into the atmosphere and is trapped to produce a “greenhouse effect”.
And that set off a domino effect. The glaciers on the two poles and on the Himalayas, etc, started to melt ever faster to raise sea levels and threaten low-level coastal areas – like ours and several islands sprinkled across the world. The weather patterns were disrupted and intensified producing the record heat waves in Europe and the US; extended rainy seasons like the one that just flooded one-third of Pakistan and is washing over huge swaths of Africa right now. It isn’t a matter of arguing about a “theory” of Climate Change any longer – the evidence is being provided daily by Mother Nature herself!!
Anyhow, a few COPs ago, the rich countries – which had produced most of the fossil-fuel-emitted gases since the 19th century – agreed to cough up (get it?? Cough up? ) US$100 billion a year to help poorer countries cope with their profligacy. But – surprise, surprise! – they never reached that sum!! Neither did they make the cutbacks in burning fossil fuel that would hold the rise to below 1.5 degree Celsius – the tipping point!! But here were Guyanese Climate Activists – who live in those countries – who’re demanding WE should leave our oil beneath the Atlantic to save the planet!!
Anyhow, what happened at COP27? Well, there’s no new agreement by the big ones to cut back on fossil fuels!! And that’s what it’s all about to hold the fort on Climate Change, isn’t it?? So your Eyewitness rather suspects that’ll galvanise our local woke brigade into another frenzy of screams to stop pumping oil here!! But the meeting in the desert – to remind the participants as to what the entire planet could become?? – extended the meeting two full days to announce a “historic deal” had been struck!!
Rich nations have agreed to pay – a yet-to-be-determined amount – to the countries facing inundation or desertification for the “loss and damage”!!
Meaning they’ll keep on burning – but pay us to cope with the results!! Justice!!
…world order
Your Eyewitness has already explained that the War in Ukraine is a symptom of a deeper underlying disorder in the world system. And that disorder is the “settling in” of that world system as it moves from a uni-polar to a multi-polar reality. And just like when the earth itself settles in and we get earthquakes, the equivalent in the nation-state status quo will be wars – hot and cold ones!! But while all eyes have been fixated up north, there are just as seismic changes down south!!
Countries in Latin America, Africa and Southern Asia are being forced to “pick sides” between the US – the #1 hegemon that’s about to lose its pole position – and the Chinese Dragon, which it nurtured into the giant it’s become!! So “what is to be done?” as a notorious fella asked some time ago?? Well, your Eyewitness suggests that like the US did with its US$1 billion Line-of-Credit to us, that it doesn’t stress militarisation, but become a catalyst for southern economic growth!!
Win-win!!
…truth telling!
The new right-wing Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, she told it like it is to France’s Macron. She pointed out if the old colonialists would quit exploiting their former colonies’ people and resources, they wouldn’t have to emigrate!!
