stephanie
12-27-2008, 12:43 AM
ran across this tonight
Written by Evo Morales Ayma, President of Bolivia
Today, our Mother Earth is ill. From the beginning of the 21st century we have lived the hottest years of the last thousand years. Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of
glaciers and the decrease of the polar ice caps; the increase of the sea level and the flooding of coastal areas, where approximately 60% of the world population live; the increase in the processes of desertification and the decrease of fresh water sources; a higher frequency in natural disasters that the communities of the earth suffer; the extinction of animal and vegetal species; and the spread
of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases. One of the most tragic consequences of the climate change is that some nations and territories are condemned to disappear by the increase of
the sea level.
Everything began with the industrial revolution in 1750, which gave birth to the capitalist system. In two and a half centuries, the so called "developed" countries have consumed a large part of the fossil
fuels created over five million centuries. Competition and the thirst for profit without limits of the capitalist system are destroying the planet. Under Capitalism we are not human beings but consumers. Under Capitalism mother earth does not exist, instead there are raw materials. Capitalism is the source of the imbalances in the world. It generates luxury, ostentation and waste for a few, while millions die from hunger. In the hands of Capitalism everything becomes a commodity: the water, soil, the human genome, ancestral cultures, justice, ethics, death, and life itself. Everything can be bought and sold and under Capitalism. Even "climate change" itself has become a business. "Climate change" has placed all humankind before a great choice: to continue in the ways of capitalism and death, or to start down the path of harmony with nature and respect for life. In the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries and economies in transition committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% below the 1990 levels, through the implementation of different mechanisms among which market mechanisms predominate. Until 2006, greenhouse effect gases, far from being reduced, have increased by 9.1% in relation to the 1990 levels, demonstrating the breach of commitments by the developed countries. The market mechanisms applied in the developing countries have not accomplished a significant reduction of greenhouse effect gas emissions. Just as well as the market is incapable of regulating global financial and productive system, the market is unable to regulate greenhouse effect gas emissions and will only generate a big business for financial agents and major corporations. The earth is much more important than stock exchanges of Wall Street and the world. While the United States and the European Union allocate 4,100 billion dollars to save the bankers from a financial crisis that they themselves have caused, programs on climate change get 313 times less: only 13 billion dollars.
read the rest...
http://thecirclenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=34
Written by Evo Morales Ayma, President of Bolivia
Today, our Mother Earth is ill. From the beginning of the 21st century we have lived the hottest years of the last thousand years. Global warming is generating abrupt changes in the weather: the retreat of
glaciers and the decrease of the polar ice caps; the increase of the sea level and the flooding of coastal areas, where approximately 60% of the world population live; the increase in the processes of desertification and the decrease of fresh water sources; a higher frequency in natural disasters that the communities of the earth suffer; the extinction of animal and vegetal species; and the spread
of diseases in areas that before were free from those diseases. One of the most tragic consequences of the climate change is that some nations and territories are condemned to disappear by the increase of
the sea level.
Everything began with the industrial revolution in 1750, which gave birth to the capitalist system. In two and a half centuries, the so called "developed" countries have consumed a large part of the fossil
fuels created over five million centuries. Competition and the thirst for profit without limits of the capitalist system are destroying the planet. Under Capitalism we are not human beings but consumers. Under Capitalism mother earth does not exist, instead there are raw materials. Capitalism is the source of the imbalances in the world. It generates luxury, ostentation and waste for a few, while millions die from hunger. In the hands of Capitalism everything becomes a commodity: the water, soil, the human genome, ancestral cultures, justice, ethics, death, and life itself. Everything can be bought and sold and under Capitalism. Even "climate change" itself has become a business. "Climate change" has placed all humankind before a great choice: to continue in the ways of capitalism and death, or to start down the path of harmony with nature and respect for life. In the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the developed countries and economies in transition committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% below the 1990 levels, through the implementation of different mechanisms among which market mechanisms predominate. Until 2006, greenhouse effect gases, far from being reduced, have increased by 9.1% in relation to the 1990 levels, demonstrating the breach of commitments by the developed countries. The market mechanisms applied in the developing countries have not accomplished a significant reduction of greenhouse effect gas emissions. Just as well as the market is incapable of regulating global financial and productive system, the market is unable to regulate greenhouse effect gas emissions and will only generate a big business for financial agents and major corporations. The earth is much more important than stock exchanges of Wall Street and the world. While the United States and the European Union allocate 4,100 billion dollars to save the bankers from a financial crisis that they themselves have caused, programs on climate change get 313 times less: only 13 billion dollars.
read the rest...
http://thecirclenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=34