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The climate change issue is a real and present danger

Dec 24, 2009 Letters

Dear Editor,
I offer this response to Leon Suseran’s letter on climate change and the Copenhagen summit (Kaieteur News, December 21, 2009).
First, I wish Mr. Suseran to note that the internet is an open forum for all. Cyberspace could not have been kinder to those who have their axes to grind. There are those who wish to rewrite history for their own ulterior motives.
For instance, if Mr. Suseran is interested, he can find lots of material on the internet that cast doubts on the Holocaust. If he reads enough he might be convinced that the Holocaust did not happen at all.  Does Mr. Suseran have a belief in UFOs? One can find literature that betrays American cover-up of ‘real’ and ‘documented’ encounters with aliens. Did man actually landed on the moon? Read the ‘right’ stuff and you will begin to have doubts. How about this: aliens were there when earthlings touched down on the moon for the first time. Those aliens menaced our astronauts and forced them to flee like frightened rabbits.
The Americans launched a massive cover-up to 1) hide their embarrassment and 2) prevent an epidemic of fear enveloping the world. Depending on what one reads and listens to, it is quite possible to believe that on that fateful 9/11 day, not a single Jew was in any of the WTC buildings.
The point I wish to make is that readers have to be careful these days. It is not easy to distinguish mischievous misinformation from authentic material. While there is some debate among scientists on the relative and absolute contributions of different factors to climate change, this should not detract from the fact the ecosystems on our planet are faced with harsh challenges created by human activities.
The climate change issue is a real and present danger.
While I disagree with Mr. Suseran’s posturing that climate change is a farce, I am inclined to support his contention that the Copenhagen summit was largely a waste of time and money, especially for the poorer countries like Guyana. World leaders need to set their sights on the roots of the problems that humanity currently faces. It is projected that if existing trends continue, the human population will exceed nine billion by 2050. We need to prevent this from happening.
The human population is already way too large for planet Earth. Apart from our toll on the environment, the social and economic fabrics of human society are in peril. Unemployment and underemployment rates are ridiculously too high already. Things can only get worse with advancing technology coupled with an oversized human population. Is there any serious effort to curb human population growth?
The matter of population size and its implications for the capitalist economies of the developed countries versus the underdeveloped world entails extensive discourse. Suffice it to say that developed countries are nurturing their selfish materialistic drives by conveniently ignoring the issue of population size.
It is up to leaders in poorer countries to educate the masses and implement effective programmes to bring birth rates down to optimal levels. This will require that the underdeveloped nations support each other with skills and resources and, collectively, show less dependence on the developed bloc.
Peter Pritipaul

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