A very dangerous Gordian knot of illusions, expectations and emergencies is quickly developing in Copenhagen. It is becoming clear that the developed nations are willing to commit to much less than what is needed both in ecological terms and in terms of global justice and equality. The Americans are willing to commit to a 17% reduction over the 2005 levels. It is like a bad joke, or worse a slap in the face of the vulnerable. They are the politics of genocide by starvation.
On the other hand, there are the poorer nations and their representatives who think this may be their moment, now or never. They think the rich are still rich and Obama is a cool guy, and they are willing to fight for a real commitment. But the cards are stacked against them. Increasingly they have only a few tools left: civil unrest and demonstrations is one of them as evidenced in Copenhagen, but also in the more spontaneous and unpredictable food riots that have happened in the last few years.
Once more some of the developed nations made a secret attempt to circumvent the international forum of Copenhagen (and the Kyoto Protocol). A memo was leaked out that indicates that the US, Great Britain, Denmark and others, agreed on (weak) emission standards for themselves, and make a 'grand' gesture of $10 billion dollar per year in wealth transference to make up for the climate harm done mainly to developing poor nations.
The implication in this leaked memo is that inequality will be institutionalized, with people in the developed nations being able to consume twice as much energy than people in the developing nations, with poor nations expected to make the sacrifice.....this is a question of power. Obama will try spin this laughable farce as a victory when he finally arrives in Copenhagen......this is plan B......
The expectations of the developing countries and continents are so much higher. Why ? Because they have to deal with the immediacy of the global climate crisis and poverty all at the same time. Crisis are everywhere you look: Sub-sahara, Maldives, Philippines, Mekong Delta, Syria, the Amazon, one way or another all these areas and so many others are suffering from Global Weir-ding.... The Erratic Times.....Or as Vandana Shiva calls it "Climate Instability". Millions are on the run from hunger and desperation.
Unfortunately these emergencies are rarely seen and remain unacknowledged in the American Media and politics. Any deeper analysis of the 'Gestalt' of climate change -- droughts followed by floods -- is simply missing. People in America have to start speaking louder in solidarity with the poor and alleviate poverty and hunger.
What perhaps a lot of the delegates from the developing nations in Copenhagen don't realize is that Poverty and hunger are not just their fate. In the USA, which still calls itself the richest nation on earth, there is a growing gap between "haves" and "have-nots". The "North and South" divide is happening within America itself, with fifty million people suffering from hunger at times here, including 18 million children.
Meanwhile the government is financing it deficits and its bank buddies by printing money, some of it reluctantly underwritten by China....I say to the delegates in Copenhagen: you can do that yourself -- print money all you want! I don't want sound cynical, what I mean is this: Don't count on America to make any significant contribution --the value of money either comes from gold, from real economic activity or.....from military power. America is a military power financed by borrowed foreign money and an absolute need to control resources for its insatiable appetite --the spiral of debt and military aggression is rooted here. The US feels vulnerable because it is.....It realizes, perhaps more than the rest of the world, that it has become what Mao called a paper tiger, more than ever before.
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