A changing world : Who is responsible?

By Hon. Gary Juffa 

White sandy beach Tufi, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea; Photo by Gary Juffa

Most recently, about perhaps a fortnight ago, the learned people on the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a committee set up by the United Nations to review the effects of Global Warming have informed us via their latest report of the fact that global warming is now no longer just a notion and may indeed become an irrefutable fact and some of its effects will be irreversible - or words to that effect. Substantial studies carried out by scientists worldwide reviewing and analyzing volumes and volumes of data worldwide proved this beyond reasonable conclusive doubt. It is quite sobering to say the least, for everyone who wishes to take that panel seriously.

Not everyone does take this report seriously, especially the very elitist rich and their supporters who more or less control the global economy and have constructed a matrix of sorts for the rest of us to live in, who range from their own wealthy kind to poverty-ridden souls.

They of course rubbished the report along with their exclusive club of raging Capitalists worldwide who were not fazed in anyway and certainly did not check their pace as they fired off instructions and swiped credit cards to pay for a rebuttal. Yes, in expected fashion, these characters who would rather throw food away then to feed starving people and have been doing exactly that, and they immediately reacted in expected fashion by sanctioning an “independent” study of their own using their own “eminent” and “learned” experts that dismissed the claims as being merely a sinister plot by the UN to regulate global trade and therefore increase the costs of doing business for them.

These corporate pirates also dismissed rising sea levels and claimed it simply wasn’t happening. Profits were good, banks were greater, jets and expensive champagne and whatever they wanted bought and consumed and discarded, material and luxury goods, emotions, experiences, living and non-living, marriages and divorces and empires built and dismantled continued unabated.

Meanwhile, as if Nature intended to prove a point, the world erupted in several places with an 8.1 earthquake in Chile on Tuesday April 4th this year that claimed 5 lives and destroyed many buildings and before that the previous week another in California and Nevada that shook those states and traumatized people there. Hawaii suffered similar shocks on around the same time. Nearer to home, Oro experienced severe strong winds that caused a blackout of the entire township of Popondetta for several hours and caused panic amongst the good townsfolk of Popondetta, winds destroyed a school in Kokoda and rising sea levels made coastal communities nervous. Many reported thereafter an inexplicable sense of danger and anxiety. Waves raged, winds whipped coconut palm trees, creatures nervously moved about all over Papua New Guinea.

Regardless, much of the world went about completely ignorant of the battle between the scientists of the UN and those contracted by the ruling class of the corporate world. People the world over struggled to survive the matrix that our world has become: a world where banks control economies, governments their puppets, corporate entities their shareholders and the people their victims all dancing to the tune of the horrid cacophony of sounds of the globalization music and lights in the form of entertainment provided by mainstream media.

Ignorance went about ignorantly stumbling through developing economies and not a few developed ones too infecting the ordinary people with the need to be consumerists, urging them to be surging to earn a living so that they could pay for essentials and things they didn’t need too and as they, the ordinary masses, made extraordinary people richer then they already needed to be.

Somewhere in some tiny pacific country, in Collingwood Bay, home of the New Guinea singing dog, Birdwing Butterfly and many other amazing creatures found only there, a people gathered around their fireplace and spoke about their concerns for their rainforest and the creatures that lived in it. The night was quiet save for crickets and the occasional night bird. They were fighting a battle against corporate giants and their selfish agents who intended to take away 300,000 hectares and remove all the forests and plant oil palm. The determined people stood up to fight and fight they did. Engaging a lawyer and raising funds and joining hands with their political leader they took the matter to court - and started winning every battle, every step of the way. The Oilpalm giant involved threw substantial monies to prime lawyers as they strived to correct what was wrong by claiming it was right.

Would it be worth it?

Scientists worldwide rang alarm bells declaring gloom and doom, joining those who merely preached it from a spiritual standpoint had to make many wonder. Meanwhile, many laughed and giggled and cynically poked fun. Interestingly, the movie Noah was showing around most parts of the world just this month. Are these the days of “Noah?” Unlike Noah, the scientists don’t have a solution or an escape. Well they say stop ruining the earth…but that’s perhaps too late. We have gone way past the point where and when we should have stopped it seems. More scientists tell us that. The population of mankind is out of control, the consumption of non renewable resources is voracious, wars and famine break out everywhere, bitterness and anger from many pockets of the world oppressed and suppressed for too long are exploding in violent fits in every corner of the world.

Are humans the major factor here or is the world merely undergoing its usual changes regardless of the actions of humans? Regardless of those who support the views of the IPCC or their antagonists, the changes to the way of life brought about by unusual weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased seismic activities are very real.

Meanwhile, in Papua New Guinea’s Collingwood Bay, where they possessed a share of the world’s third largest rainforest, complete with exotic flora and fauna and immense breathtaking beauty, the people went about their uncomplicated lives in an increasing complex world with little notion of the events worldwide that foretold certain doom for earth and all in it…thanks to Man and his footsteps. On a night when the moon shone bright above, they told their simple stories uncomplicated by competition for salaries and materialism. No power, no internet connection nor barely any network for mobile phone coverage distracted them as they sat content, sipping black sweet tea and laughing at outrageous tales told by the village entertainer. The fire danced and crackled and several dogs snuggled close, enjoying the heat and the company of their people. The melody of waves softly caressing the black beach could be heard. The villagers discussed their dreams of growing cocoa on a portion of the land while preserving the rest and how they wished for a tractor so that they may be able to transport their cash crop to their small jetty several hours away from the nearest township where they sold it and made enough to purchase salt, soap and other such essentials before they fled the township with its noise and madness and angry looking peoples struggling to survive.

Several thousand kilometers away on the Catarets Islands, Autonomous Region of Papua New Guinea, the remaining citizens of that atoll laid their weary heads down to sleep. Each night a treasure as they prepared to leave their home, their island, no longer inhabitable and disappearing under rising sea levels. Many had already ben transported to the mainland where they were settled on Government land amongst the rest of the population of Bougainville.

They would be the first global refugees but certainly not the last. The entire nation of Maldives has already planned for that day, purchasing land in Singapore and Australia to resettle their people within 30 years when they are certain that small flat tropical resort island would be remembered in history.

As I wrote this, reports came in just this few days ago of a flashflood in the Solomon Islands…several people killed…in Ecuador, a cyclone warning for coastal areas of Milne Bay…a volcano rumbled and threatened to erupt…and I had a brief conversation of sorts with a person who believes that it is merely inevitable, species die and survive all the time and such changes are always occurring…interesting view and one can understand that too…but does that mean that Man should just go about doing as he pleases cutting down forests, digging giant holes, churning horrible emissions into the atmosphere? Certainly this may be natural occurrences in the long history of earth but never have they been so accelerated by unnatural forces such as those developed by Man I am certain…My conversation left me wondering...I could not imagine what a life it must be to accept everything as if they were just mere occurrences and wait to die…that is existence…not living…what a waste of breath, of a lifetime…I thought…but like everything about anything, there are always two extreme opinions and a variety that fall in between…so in the case of climate change, a gathering of people including experts armed with vast data claim it is a fact and another equally determined and armed with their data and proposals claim it is merely inevitable…and not a few claim Man has no part in it at all…who do we believe? I cannot believe the massive oil spills, the rising sea levels and pollution in the air is just happening, these are all horrible situations that directly involve Man…

Well, I guess it’s a matter of opinion…what can we do? That’s a matter of choice… on the one hand just ignore these activities and do whatever we want in a careless and irresponsible manner or make an effort to be environmentally considerate…

Parents of varying economic backgrounds put their children to sleep, tucking them in, switching off lights, hurricane lamps, snuffing candles and kissing the soft cheeks in many homes worldwide, unaware of the possibility of a world imploding and disappearing, leaving behind only a light shone over thousands upon thousands of kilometers through still eternal darkness to be seen by whoever wherever…

Perhaps we have seen such a light…in our night sky…at some time…paying only scant attention…a light shone from such a world…from such a planet that may have existed as this...where such people as us once lived and thrived…but no longer existing…somewhere far, far away…

There is but one certainty about our Earth, Man cannot do without it...but it can certainly do without Man...