19 – Environmental Concerns

Industrially Developed Nations–rich nations–are concerned enough about the environmental choices poor countries make that they’ve taken steps such as using satellite imaging systems to monitor the amount of rain forest being cut down in the Amazon each year. It was 18,000 square kilometres in 2001. In 2002, it had gone up to 26,000 square kilometres. Throughout the tropical world, rain forest is currently being eliminated at a rate which would result in its complete eradication within a hundred years if steps aren’t taken to prevent that from occurring.

The elimination of rain forest has already resulted in the extinction of many animal and plant species, reducing the planet’s bio-diversity. And it has also been identified as contributing to climate change because the destruction of rain forest releases carbon into the atmosphere, increasing the tendency towards global warming.

Of course, rain forest destruction is only one of several factors contributing to climate change. Industrial emissions and transportation emissions release hundreds of thousands of tons of CO² and other gases into the atmosphere every day. The result is that the Earth’s atmosphere is getting thicker, retaining heat–in the same way that a greenhouse retains heat–which is why these gases are called “greenhouse” gases.

This isn’t an issue that one nation or even a group of nations can address effectively. Control of greenhouse gases is something that it is essential for all nations to address. And a failure to do so will have an inevitable impact on Canada. Environmentalists have suggested that potential effects might include droughts which could result in the development of desert-like conditions in the Canadian Prairie provinces; also the spread of diseases which had previously been found only in warmer climate–such as the West Nile virus which has already appeared in Canada. A rise in sea-level as a result of melting polar ice could have a devastating impact on the coastline of the Maritime Provinces.

Only fringe conservative groups seriously question the reality of Global Warming, and one suspects that even their denials are wilful. And yet at Climate Change Conferences, Developed Nations have refused to curb their own output of greenhouse gases unless Developing Nations make similar commitments. To act unilaterally, they argue, would put them at an economic disadvantage.

So the representatives from Northern Nations recognize that concern about environmental issues links both Developed and Developing Nations. However, their primary concern appears to be not the impact environmental policy will have on the well being of the planet but the impact that policy might have on local economic output. The fact, of course, is that Northern Polluters bear much more responsibility for the current global situation, and they also have greater technological capacity to address the issues.

Canada, lamentably, is the world’s greediest consumer of energy per capita – 96,000 kilowatt hours per person per annum (compared with 48,000 for the European Union).

Both governments and industry are complicit in the continued damage being done to the environment, and neither are being held to account. It is for that reason that there is an intriguing effort to have “Ecocide”—extensive damage to the ecosystem of a particular region—declared an “International Crime Against Peace.” As such, corporations—and their directors—could be charged with “ecocide” and would be tried in the International Criminal Court.

To learn more about the campaign, visit its website at: http://www.thisisecocide.com.