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March 7, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Imagine this: a beautiful room, everything the best: all of it costing more, much more than such furniture, such lamps, carpets, glasses – luxury ever costs. This pleasant sanctuary is in the home of a Prince of the desert, of huge wealth, coming from deep under the ocean, a source that has paid for this room and the needs of his country’s citizens.

Picture that, at the table sit a dozen very wealthy men, all from different parts of the world but who have in common the source of their wealth, the backing of an industry that readily pays for the wonderful lives they lead and the fine possessions they own.

They have been attending a world conference on a delicate issue: the global climate crisis. Secretly they have known for decades their industries are very much the cause of the harm.

The conversation is tinged with anger that this enormous source of riches should be vilified, challenged as it is, a worldwide call to end it with alternatives: weak monsters merely standing on fields, their blades spinning, hoping to provide the world with electricity.

“Ridiculous,” one of the dozen called them. 

The maps were not there to demonstrate the extent of harm; their purpose was to define the strength and longevity of the money to be gained by them.

“It is only by continuing to access these sources that we can be sure of providing good jobs and maintaining our own status quo,” another declared. “After all, gentlemen, none of us is interested in relinquishing the main source of our own incomes. It could be decades before the alternatives will keep us as comfortable.” 

No matter what the official press told the world, money won again that day.

* * *

I learned today that the first wind turbine used to generate electricity dates from 1887, a mere five years “after Thomas Edison developed the first electric power station running on coal. Scottish professor James Blyth built a wind turbine to store electricity in a battery that lit his home. In 1895, Poul la Cour of Denmark created the first wind turbine-driven power plant, providing electricity to a local village.” (Treehugger.com)

Somehow, coal, the filthy source of energy that it is, beat out wind power, a clean and safe source of energy, as it is. Coal versus wind – can we believe it, 137 years later.

At COP28 in Dubai in December 2023, a “compromise” of “transitioning away from fossil fuels” as opposed to “phasing out fossil fuels” was reached with the bang of COP28’s president, Sultan al Jaber’s gavel, who delivered a jubilant speech, saying the conference “should be proud of our historic achievement.”

Nearly 200 nations attended the conference in the United Arab Emirates for almost two weeks with the intention of making progress to tackle climate change after months of seeing record-breaking extreme weather during 2023.

Yet, Mr. Jaber opened the conference by stating categorically that there is “no scientific evidence to show that the phasing out of fossil fuel is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C.” (BBC)

We long for optimism until we understand the pushbacks. Saudi Arabia assured the world that the resolutions and intents of “transitioning away from fossil fuels” would not affect its sales of such fuels. The pull and push of the compromise and promises leave little belief that anyone in the business is serious about cutting back, phasing out or even seriously transitioning away from fossil fuels.

There is simply too much money tipping the balance as it has done, so it seems, since 1887.

This is not a matter of debate nor for many years, truth be told, any more than if the earth is only 6,000 years old or if it is flat or if the turning of the earth will stop us from seeing the sunrise in the morning.

Recently, I grieve to see, we are told that 1,600 scientists are denying that there is a climate crisis. While they are only making headlines in dubious online publications like the Epoch Times, still their voices are heard elsewhere. The issue is not about opinions; it is about fires in B.C. that are called zombie fires because the land in the forests of B.C. are so eroded and dry that fires continue to burn all winter. Come the now anticipated and acknowledged fire season in B.C., the smoke is frequently overwhelming and temperatures can rise into the 30°Cs

This is about low-lying countries dealing with terrible floods while elsewhere, droughts are extinguishing crops and killing livestock and wildlife. This is about what is to predictably to come.

This is about any of us pretending anymore that there is no crisis.

It is good to see stories about the efforts of individuals, groups and local communities to make their stands against the danger but there will never be enough pressure brought to bear on governments and thence to industry, as long anyone considers that the climate crisis we are facing is only a matter of opinion.

The trick now is for us to find solutions that will not simply lead to other problems. As a species, it is time to get things right.

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