The plight of Pakistan, the other side of fossils

Aug 31, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Readers might be surprised that our editorial today travels to the devastations flooding Pakistan, given our consistent focus on oil matters, and as it impacts our own troubled nation. There is so much more than meets the eye behind those extremely damaging floods, and the human tragedies that accompany them in Pakistan. It should not surprise, but what is wrenching Pakistan today has its origins in what may be unexpected to some.

The damage from the floods needs little repeating, for it is globally known. A third of the country underwater, many dead, millions in agony, from want of food, medicine, shelter, and safety. Though a distant world away, the wretchedness is as close as if next door. We know about floods because we have had them, and probably the worst one of all just recently so we can empathise, almost feel the nearness of the unceasing torrents of water. All this has some connection to the business of fossil fuels. It is a ferocious, callous, and rapacious enterprise with profits being paramount priority, and at any cost. Pakistan is paying a bitter price for that relentless pursuit of profit, by any means, and regardless of the scientific evidence, the drumbeat of warnings, and now the horrendous human tolls. All this fits rather neatly, almost innocently, under the banners of climate change, atmospheric damage, and the beast of global warming.

As an oil and gas producer, Pakistan is what could be safely termed a minimal presence, with less than half of a billion barrels of oil. But it is a victim of the long running oil exploits of bigger brothers and sisters of the world’s oil industry. Now consider this: Pakistan is the home of glaciers, and by accepted count, the most in the world with a staggering 7,532 of these works of nature (or the divine). Where there are glaciers, there are deep freezes, which must be maintained with a narrow range of low temperatures. By now, we think that the arcs of the circle should be coming together, as the floodwaters rise and spread with relentless energy, maybe even fury.

Fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere, the holes poked into the canopy above our heads, and that genie that the world now grapples with to contain somehow and, if it could be achieved, stuff back into its rightful place for a healthier balance of human existence. The bad, wicked genie now roaming almost at will around the world is climate change, and in its now everyday use, but nots still welcomed with universal acceptance, and its hurtful offspring, global warming. Consistent warming caresses those 7,532 glaciers of Pakistan, and puts country and citizens at risk of what is happening there today. Over 1,000 dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, and US$10B (and rising) in damage, with horror on what awaits agricultural production.

The profits were and continue to be made from oil. We at this publication are all for that, but within limits of what is conservative, represents balance, and is protective. From the hundreds of billions made and accumulated by those countries with oil resources, especially those from the West, pools of funds exist in the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pakistan has been struggling to get some relief money prior to the destructive floods, but that was held up, which has been the long experience of exploited poor countries caught in the traps of big powers, big visions, and big games. Now the same IMF is readying to release US$1.2B in emergency relief funds to strapped, hurting Pakistan. Though the circle closes, it continues to revolve along the same oil axis, as it has always done. That is, exploiters and exploited, creditors and debtors.

Poor, wretched societies are taken advantage of, and even those that don’t have much of oil’s riches to talk about, they pay dreadful prices. Today, Pakistan is the latest casualty of climate change and global warming, and the pain is unbearable. For all of its positives, there are these downsides to fossil fuels, which Guyanese would be wise to absorb and appreciate. It is not all honey and milk, and a single catastrophe can lead to cursing of the very wealth that means so much.

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