The narrative on the Copenhagen climate summit coming out of the developing world might be summarized this way: on the one hand you have the destiny of the planet as a whole, and on the other, the capitalist financial system. Which is more important to save? The vast majority of comment in the third world finds the sum spent on Western bankers to be obscene when compared to the resources offered at Copenhagen to protect life on earth.
According to Ali Bahmane of Algeria’s El Watan:
“The rescue of the financial system that underpins economic liberalism seems to have become more important than saving the planet itself. This is the historic limitation of the Copenhagen Summit: the mighty of this world have neither the capacity nor the will to change the course of history, convinced as they are that the absolute and perpetual pursuit of profit is still the only path likely to lead the human species toward well being and happiness. The collapse of the communist bloc and the spectacular turnabouts of China and Russia comfort them in their convictions. Such blindness leads directly, in the near term, to the planetary loss of millions of plant and animal species and the submergence of large amounts of land, resulting in millions of refugees and dead; and in the medium term (the end of the century?), to the outright extinction of all life on earth.”
By Ali Bahmane
Translated By Lisa Cabral
December 18, 2009
Algeria – El Watan – Original Article (French)
Everything leads one to believe that Copenhagen will leave behind a bitter taste – particularly for those who nursed the illusion that the grave environmental peril that imminently menaces the planet would suffice to transcend ideology or the selfishness of the well-off.
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