A small but important point. There is no substitute for first hand experience of seeing devastation brought about by significant fluctuations in climate and human activivity in regions of the Earth. There are 150 world leaders at the Climate Change Conference this week. Why on earth is the conference held in Paris?
The world leaders could hold the conference in Bangladesh. The leaders could go on a tour to witness the impact of floods and listen to those who suffer.
They could go to India and see the outpouring of pollution from the huge coalmines and listen to the hardships of workers and hear their respiratory problems.
They could go to Brazil and hold their meetings on barren land, formerly luscious rainforests, teaming with diversity of plants and creatures. They could witness the savage destruction of much of the Garden of Eden and the cost to indigenous communities.
They could go to the Artic or Antarctic and listen to scientists on the consequences of melting icecaps.
They could hold their meetings in iPhone or Microsoft factories in China where workers slave on benches exposed to a range of metallic substances. They could listen to the stress and pressure on workers to reach demanding rates of production while working for pathetic wages.
They could go to Russia and hold the conference near Chernobyl, where a catastrophic nuclear accident took place in 1986.
They could hold the climate change conference in the remote regions of Australia or the USA where fracking tears deep into the earth in the demand for gas and profit.
Sadly, the world leaders and their teams of advisors, along with the small army of consultants in the corporate world, prefer to hold their meetings in Paris, the epi-centre of the bourgeoisie. Presidents, prime ministers et al abide in a comfortable and luxurious environment, utterly detached from the impact of climate change.
You would hardly know though from the international media that Paris currently hosts the International Climate Change Conference attended by 200 governments. The conference finishes next Friday, December 11, 2015.
The conference failed to get off to a good start when the French Government banned the Climate Change March in Paris that would have probably ensured worldwide attention on the conference. After the massacre last month of Parisians and others by ISIS, the French government decided to cancel the march rather than allow millions of people to make their own mind up about participation in the demonstration.
People from around the world had booked their journeys to Paris to impress on 150 world leaders of the urgency to take action to protect present and future generations
World leaders were no doubt relieved that the world’s spotlight has moved away from the conference since leaders have expressed in the past an insipid record for take affirmative steps in this crisis facing the Earth.
Citizens worldwide were left with a photograph in their newspapers of hundreds of pairs of shoes left by thoughtful French citizens in a square in Paris to symbolise the Government’s disregard of the significance of the march.
Our political leades and CEO’s of global corporations need to spend time together in regions hard hit by weather conditions and see for themselves the exploitation of people and resources. They could be taken on flights to some of these locations. It would be a worthwhile use of aeroplanes.
MAY ALL BEINGS BE IN TOUCH WITH REALITY
MAY ALL BEINGS DEVELOP SKILFUL MEANS TO MAKE CHANGES
MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE WITH WISDOM AND COMPASSION