Wildlife Group Presses Poor Nations on Carbon Emissions

Third world countries’ carbon emissions are rising fast, but they’re insistent that they have a right to continue expanding their economies via cheap but dirty fossil fuels as long as their emissions don’t reach the higher per-capita emission rates of industrialized nations.  But, by some reports, countries like China and India may already be surpassing the world’s industrialized powers in terms of CO2 emissions.  Valli Moosa, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), told delegates at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona that poorer nations need to take responsibility.

From Dot Earth:

“It is not good enough for big developing countries to take absolutely no responsibility just because the biggest contributors to climate change are the developed countries,” Mr. Moosa said at the opening ceremony of the congress, held every four years under the auspices of the IUCN.

“America and industrialized nations must lead the way,” he said. “Developing countries like my own must become part of, and abide by, the same set of transparent and enforceable rules,” he said. Mr. Moosa’s comments came ahead of climate-treaty talks in December in Poznań, Poland, that are aimed at pushing forward negotiations on a new global agreement on cutting emissions – and where concerns about allowing emerging economic superpowers like China and India to pollute as much as Western countries is almost certain to be a key stumbling block.

It’s understandable that nations like China and India are putting concerns about carbon emissions on the back burner, since they’re simply trying to improve their economies and by extension, the lives of their citizens.  And, cheap fossil fuels probably seem like the only option for them – after all, that’s how industrialized nations like the U.S. got to where we are today.  But, Moosa is right – developing nations can’t go on as they are without doing major damage to the earth, and we’ve got to give them a better example. It’s definitely time to start showing developing nations that they can be prosperous without harming the environment, and we can only do that by aggressively implementing green energy technology in our own countries.

Link [Dot Earth]
Photo credit: Flickr user Wolfiewolf

Does Microcredit Hurt the Poor More Than it Helps?

Bangladeshi Mohammad Yunus, along with Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago for their concept, ‘microcredit’, which offers ‘a helping hand, not a handout’ to poor people who want to start businesses. Grameen has partnered with big businesses like yogurt giant Danone to give small loans to impoverished Bangladeshi residents, with the hopes of helping them get on their feet. The concept seemed promising, as many poor Bangladeshis were able to make incomes up to twice as much as their fellow countrymen.

Unfortunately, all is not as rosy as it sounds. Instead of prospering, many of the people who received loans are simply deep in debt. They’ve had trouble making enough to pay Grameen bank back, and Grameen has reportedly been less than accommodating.

From France 24:

The villagers here who have taken a loan are unable to reimburse their credit, and claim to be harassed by Grameen Bank representatives. Korshed Alom, a former debt collector, was put into early retirement for having questioned the Grameen Bank’s methods: “Their technique is to scare borrowers and insult them. We tell them to sell their clothes, that they have no other choice. I’m not proud of myself, but several times, I had even been obliged to say ‘sell your children.’”

The bank, which has more than 100 million clients in the world’s poorest countries, hasn’t responded to the accusations.

Isn’t this just the way it always seem to go? The poor get screwed over, and the rich get richer. No surprise here.

Link [France 24]

Excuse Me, I’m Going to Need This to Run My Car, Or The Insanity of Food Based Biofuels

I think this comic pretty much sums up the stupidity of using corn and other food crops to create ethanol to run in cars.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez