At the COP16 climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, Bangladesh Minister Hasan Mahmud responds to GOP claims that there are not any threats from climate change to the developing world- as Think Progress' The Wonk Room reports which I will get to below the video.
First, a full transcript of what Mr. Mahmud says:
"According to our findings, and according to the reality -- what we are observing, what we are encountering, we are facing -- that is, we are struggling with the impacts of climate change in Bangladesh. There is salinity intrusion, increased natural calamities that is a symptom of desertification in the northern part of Bangladesh, there is more frequent and more devastating flood, and erratic rainfall. All of these are negative impacts of climate change. In Bangladesh, this is very much visible, and we are encountering and facing the problem. I don't know about the United States and how -- In Bangladesh, this is the reality."
Think Progress goes on to say:
The crowded, poor, and low-lying nation of Bangladesh has long been recognized as one of the most vulnerable nations on the planet to global warming pollution. Independent consultancy Maplecroft rates Bangladesh as “the country most at risk due to extreme levels of poverty and a high dependency on agriculture, whilst its government has the lowest capacity of all countries to adapt to predicted changes in the climate.” Dara International’s Climate Vulnerability Monitor finds that Bangladesh is acutely vulnerable to the health impact, economic stress, habitat loss, and weather disasters caused by global warming pollution. The most vulnerable nations are already suffering and trying desperately to adapt to a more dangerous reality, no matter what Inhofe believes. But their fate does rest, at least in part, in his hands.
"Their fate does rest, at least in part, in his hands." That's a golden emotionally charged closer. They also warn, “the country most at risk due to extreme levels of poverty and a high dependency on agriculture, whilst its government has the lowest capacity of all countries to adapt to predicted changes in the climate.” Here's the funny thing about that. They rely on agriculture in horrid agricultural environments because the very same people who push a 'global warming' doomsday scenario also block any chance of development in the impoverished lands. I mean, just sit back and ponder this: Who are the ones protesting and stopping development in third world countries who could care less about the poverty and well-being of the civilians? Who are the one’s against using DDT to combat malaria? I wonder if any of these beliefs have anything to do with the most extreme of environmentalists believing the world is overpopulated? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see organizations like GreenPeace and their ilk inhibit them of actual meaningful development. In reality, they could care less if the people live as peasants or not. While I was working with Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney on the documentary Not Evil Just Wrong, I compiled a list of the “top 10 most outrageous things ever said by environmentalists." I am going to post the comments for your viewing pleasure.
10. ‘Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental.’ – Dave Forman, Founder of Earth First! 9. ‘If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower population levels.’ – Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund 8. ‘We, in the green movement, aspire to a cultural model in which killing a forest will be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of 6-year-old children to brothels.’ – Carl Amery 7. ‘I suspect that eradicating small pox was wrong. It played an important part in balancing ecosystems.’ – John Davis, editor of Earth First! Journal 6. ‘The extinction of human species may not only be inevitable, but a good thing…This is not to say that the rise of human civilization is insignificant, but there is no way of showing that it will be much help to the world in the long run.’ – Economist editorial 5. ‘The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans’- Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project 4. ‘Cannabilism is a “radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation.” – Lyall Watson, The Financial Times, 15 July 1995 3. ‘To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem.’- Lamont Cole 2. If radical environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human populations back to sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS- Earth First! Newsleter 1. ‘We have wished, we ecofreaks, for a disaster or social change to come and bomb us back into the Stone Age, where we might live like Indians in our valley, with our localism, our appropriate technology, our gardens, our homemade religion– guilt free at last! – Stewart Brand (writing in the Whole Earth Catalogue)
Notice how the paragraph above from the Wonk Room is very 'humanistic' in nature. Well, the same policies they advocate are the same policies that tend to be the most 'anti-human.' It's beyond me how any person can view extreme environmentalists as actually an 'aide' to the poor and underdeveloped in third world countries when, in reality, they are the biggest enemies of the poor.