Climate Change and Terrorism
The idea is to cap the rate of global warming at 2% Celsius compared to the current 2.5 – 3 % C., by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and shifting towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.
by Victor Cherubim
( December 1, 2015, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The fights against terrorism and global warming are closely linked according to French President, Francois Hollande, as he opened the “Big Circus” of 145 World Nations’ Leaders, including President Maithripala Sirisena and some 195 participating nations at the “Conference sur les Changements Climatiques, at Paris –Le Bourget this morning 30 November which lasts until 11 December 2015.
Many of us know that the 2009 Copenhagen Accord on Climate Change was too ambitious, trying to cobble up a process of obligations on nations both large and small, with diverse economies and requiring vast sums of money involved in compensatory damages, that it was unworkable. We also know that US was not a party to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Thus some agreement at this UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, the 21 yearly session of the Conference of Parties (COP 21) to the 1992 UN Framework Convention, is eagerly awaited.
The Two Big Global Challenges today
Many experts agree that Climate Change can contribute to an uncertain world order where terrorism can thrive. This is because no single government can on its own tackle floods, drought, rising sea levels which are likely to increase as the Earth warms, due to man-made emissions of Co2.
A recent report on Sustainability states:
“There are dangers in the world, these always have been and there always will be. Politicians are quite adept at identifying a dizzy array of possible threats, but they are lousy at putting those threats in perspective”
H.L.Mencken stated: “the whole aim of practical policies is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
Imaginary or not?
Imaginary or not, tell the farmers in Bangladesh inundated with salt water from their rivers, the flood victims of Sri Lanka, the Maldivians with sea level rising, or the drought stricken people of Syria, that Climate Change has not exacerbated the damage to their way of life, and you will hear a different story.
Tell the same story to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and he will tell you that the crisis in Syria was not primarily caused by Climate Change, but the devastating drought over years in Syria clearly made a bad situation a lot worse.
UK Chief Scientific Advisor, David King has warned that the most severe problem that we are facing today is Climate Change, and he says more serious than the threat of terrorism.
Why Jobless?
Large numbers of young people all over the world are jobless and frustrated. Climate Change triggers severe disruption with ever widening consequences for local, regional and global security. Droughts, famines, weather related disasters could and do more than aggravate already existing tensions within and among the youth of nations, possibly threatening the survival of low lying island nations, destabilising global economy and inciting violence among the young.
Why Survival?
I need not hasten to state that Climate Change affects life support systems on which both human and other species are dependent on survival. Global surface temperature no doubt, has risen about 0.8% in the last 125 years. Since the beginning of time, creatures adapted to changes in their environment. Such adaptation has always meant survival of the fittest. Evolution no doubt works that way. But mankind has the advantage of being able to think ahead and prepare for the changes to come.
What needs to happen at COP 21 at Paris?
The idea is to cap the rate of global warming at 2% Celsius compared to the current 2.5 – 3 % C., by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and shifting towards cleaner energies such as wind and solar power.
That’s what needs to happen? Will that happen?
