Report #7 from Cancun - COP 16 - ZERO Carbon Emissions Produces Abject Poverty, Sabotages Hope
From Cathie Adams
for Sovereignty Int'l
Dec. 9, 2010
The industrialized world needs to realize that the radical environmentalists’ demand for a ZERO carbon economy by 2050 is a cruel hoax being perpetrated upon the poor. Succumbing to the unproven theory that burning fossil fuels is warming the climate robs the poor of the hope to improve their lives. Instead of feeling guilty for enjoying their energy-produced modern lifestyles, developed nations should encourage the undeveloped world with the knowledge to produce their own energy.
On Wednesday, I left Cancun’s paradise, where tourists enjoy running water and electricity, to visit a small village called La Libertad that has none of those amenities. It was like visiting an alternate universe, an extreme contrast to what is being taken for granted by delegates to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties 16 in Mexico.
About 20 delegates holding various U.N. credentials boarded vans and traveled about 30 minutes to La Libertad, a field trip organized by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, CFACT.
Christopher Monckton, a British politician and journalist, joined our party. Since 2010, Monckton has been the deputy leader of the UK Independence Party and was formerly a member of the Conservative Party. During the 1980s, he served in Conservative Central Office and worked for Margaret Thatcher's Number 10 Policy Unit.
A well known critic of “global warming,” Monckton spent most of
the prior night reading the conference’s working document. His critique of it during our drive provided a potent basis for what we were about to see.
Villagers in La Libertad have absolutely no modern conveniences: no running water, no indoor plumbing, no natural gas to cook with and no electricity to light their homes. The light of day shined through multiple gaps in the ceiling and walls of a home we visited that was built of leftover political signs, natural stones and various materials that had been obviously discarded by previous owners, including an old ironing board placed atop a 55-gallon barrel used for outdoor cooking.
We then visited a local school that likewise had no electricity or other conveniences. It was just as repulsive to witness energy poverty that robs individuals of the dignity to provide basic human necessities for themselves, as it was heartrending to witness children living without sanitation or access to simple hygiene.
My visit to La Libertad emboldened my belief that Americans need not apologize for our standard of living; rather, we must confront the hypocrisy of radical environmentalists who demand ZERO carbon emissions by 2050!
I agree with CFACT’s Executive Director Craig Rucker that, “For villages like La Libertad if there is energy, there is hope.”