We just watched a comedy news show clip of Pres. George H. W. Bush giving a speech on climate change and how we, the United States of America, as a nation had to start addressing climate change now… or then in the 1980s.
From the show we learned that evidently the Koch brothers, who were invested heavily in oil, funded scientists and politicians to deny climate change. Until then most politicians and scientists knew human-made climate change was a fact. Wow.
Two arguments I hear the most about the problems of climate change are:
• Over population… poor people keep having babies…
• And poorer nations have no regulations (next week, I address this).
Aren’t the poor such an easy scapegoat for almost every problem? Why?
Because they have no voice.
Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. The poor do not fly anywhere, nor do they drive much… unless there are three on a motorcycle1 … mostly they ride the public bus or their bicycles or walk.
They don’t have computers, air conditioners, freezers, washing machines, dryers etc. - all those electricity eating appliances.
They build their little houses out of trash… left-over zinc pieces, pieces of wood they have gathered, etc.
They don’t throw away clothes, food, etc., unless it cannot be worn or eaten or used in any way. They are not wasteful.
They take bottles they reuse to the market to buy that day’s oil and other needs. They rarely eat meat, chicken, or fish. And on what land they do have they plant herbs, vegetables, and trees. No lawns.
In other words, they do not consume the earth’s resources like the rest of us. A whole small village of poor children do not consume the earth’s resources or contribute to greenhouse gases like two well-off children2 in the United States.
Over population is not the problem… over consumption is.
The poor do not over consume… ever.
-Kathleen*
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1 About 10 years ago, I once saw a family of five on a motorcycle…father driving
with 2-year old in front of him, 4- year old between him and mother who was
sitting side-saddled nursing her baby! Scared and impressed the bejeezus out of
me!
2 Consider…the driving to and from school, the heated or air-conditioned house,
the prepackaged foods that are eaten for snacks and taken for lunches, the
closets and dressers full of clothes, the televisions, dishwashers, washing
machines, dryers, and kitchen gadgets. The
video games, the going out for recreation to the movies, the mall, the arcades,
or driving to and from play dates….and it goes on and on. The mountains of trash and recycling.
*If you want to give online to our work with the poor: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca
*If you want to give online to our work with the poor: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/jhc-cdca
