man must begin to understand how tiny he is in a vast universe at times he is nature’s master at times he is nature’s slave at times he harnesses the storm at times he chases the wind he can harness and fashion nature but he can also cower in helplessness when nature seeks vengeance against his greed and lust eastwind wisdom is chasing the wind – ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, all things are vanity rivers go to the sea yet the sea is never full words are eloquent yet empty of meaning what is crooked cannot be straightened what is missing cannot be supplied the greatest wisdom i have learned is that all wisdom is chasing the wind in much wisdom there is much sorrow he who strives for wisdom strives for grief ecclesiastes 1:1-8, 14-18 REQUIEM FOR THE PARIS CLIMATE CONFERENCE The Climate Conference in Paris was an exercise in futility. The agreement of 175 nations to optionally make their own targets on reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions has no teeth. 82% of these gases are human-catalyzed carbon dioxide. Is climate change irreversible and beyond human intervention?
To reverse the situation before it is too late, we have to abolish cars, industries, stop energy generation or simply reduce population by 80%, in other words, commit global suicide. US, China, and India are the three largest greenhouse-gas culprits. With their faltering economies, survival is first national before it is global. The US did not sign the Montreal Protocol under pressure from big business, which is stifled as a result. Greed is viewed by environmentalist as the foremost catalyst to a climate-change global crisis. In the next few years, trillions of dollars will be spent to address climate change, and the dent may be very small. Continued They were in frenzy in Paris, celebrating a seemingly monumental achievement, the planet standing united against climate change. True, there are and will be creative innovative solutions. But most may be very expensive for an ailing global economy. And their overall impact may not make a real dent. Many say we can do something about it even on the backyard level. But will that ‘something’ matter or do we just want to feel good that we are not giving up without a fight?
An increase in global temperature of just two degrees Celsius means unimaginable global disasters, that the sea level could rise a few meters in a few decades, drowning tthousands of cities and millions of people. Extreme climate change is already happening – floods, droughts, famines, forest fires. These are not predictions but a reality.
Scientists pose that, on the macro level, with hundreds of variables, climate change is so complex that it is still essentially a mystery today. It defies a central solution. They say it is, like El Nino and earthquakes, partly caused by inter-planetary alignments of the Earth with the sun and other planets. Man, even if he had deep scientific knowledge, has no control over these cosmic forces. They talk of a cycle of tens of thousands of years of ice ages that have come and gone. They say our brand of climate change had been determined as far back as the last ice age. It is useless to point fingers. Whether it is Man or cosmic forces or both that cause all this, the situation may be irreversible, beyond understanding and intervention.
There is one school of thought that says we can do it, we can fight, and we feel good we have a sense of achievement. But are we really achieving or is it an illusion? There is another school of thought that says climate change is inevitable and beyond human intervention, that we are trapped and are helpless. Yet it does not mean we just sit in the dark. Somewhere in between perhaps lies an answer if there is truly one.
IS THE EU REFUGEE CRISIS IRREVERSIBLE? NATO’s vast resources is not enough to contain the flood of refugees. NATO cannot police the entire Mediterranean. No EU-Turkey deal can stop the refugees. They can build walls, set up barb wires, but they cannot contain the refugees, who would rather die than go home.
Already the refugee crisis has polarized brother against brother in the host nations. They are fighting each other in the streets for or against the refugees, who stand at the roadside watching in awe and silence. A new type of deadlier war is evolving, not nation against nation but nation against itself. Will EU nations implode soon? Is the EU Refugee Crisis beyond human intervention? Continued Despair is the catalyst to a flood of unstoppable suicidal humans, an irresistible force and there is no immovable object yet. It is the law of equilibrium. Heat seeks cold. Poverty seeks wealth. Despair seeks hope. War-torn people seek peaceful places. Chaos seeks harmony. Even if there are really no terrorists among refugees, the earlier benign migrants who have been in Paris for 15 years are suddenly fired up by western drones killing women and children. Ordinary waiters are radicalized and become instant jihadists. Terror technology transfer is rapid and easy through the Internet. The cry for the caliphate spreads across the globe like wildfire. Terror technology grows more sophisticated by the minute. Is this one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse? Is this the era of tribulation that precedes the thousand-year peace prophesied in the Book of Revelation. If the refugee crisis is beyond human intervention, is this God’s way of showing His wrath for our greed and corruption and indifference and cruelty? Or is it simply Mans self-destruct nature? eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com
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