Dear Editor,
Mr. Walter Wirtz has opened the door for me to make an observation with his letter captioned, “The pollution is generated in the developed countries”. There is much more to add to what Mr. Wirtz wrote. Mr. Gore has a private jet and he would not park it to save the planet. A lot of his democratic colleagues would laugh at any suggestion for the personal reduction of their carbon footprint. In fact Mr. Gore’s carbon footprint is considerable but instead of personally reducing his negative impact on the planet he would tell you that he will plant some trees instead. That’s called carbon credits.
Mr. Gore has set up a company, which makes lots of money from carbon credits. Persons who are concerned about the impact of their carbon footprint can have Al Gore’s company come in, make an assessment and have them pay an amount of money so that Al Gore can plant some trees.
Guyana should be concerned and should guard against global warming but it must be understood that there is no conclusive proof that man is responsible for this phenomenon. It is said that Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” has about nine scientific inaccuracies.
Mankind does pollute and has the potential of destroying itself but let’s not confuse this with global warming and destroying the planet. If we stop all the pollution the planet will still continue to warm and if we should detonate all our nuclear bombs we will destroy ourselves (and still maybe not all life forms) but not the planet.
I also want to bet that after we have destroyed ourselves and as time goes on, another life form will occupy our planet. There is the possibility that this new life form will be more intelligent than we are. So it is absurd and egotistic to suggest that we are the best thing to happen to this planet.
Guyanese leadership has got to wake up and understand these schemes that the developed world are using to keep us in place. There are talks about donating more of our forest to conservation with the hope of getting carbon credits. While we must try to work towards the longevity of our prime wood species and must do replanting. More conserving of our forest is like saying that Guyana is destined to poverty.
Let me give you a hint to where I am going with this. American businesses are terrified by the impact of Chinese goods and Indian services. They are hoping that the mass toys recall will create consumer doubt and tilt the balance in their favour. They wanted to be the big players and pushed the global market place concept, now that there is a two way street the going is getting too tough to handle. There are voices calling on the US government to stop the influx of cheaper imported goods, mass off shore production and the outsourcing of services.
Now. Guyana has one of the best collections of quality wood species in the world. If we could get our act together do you know what an impact our lumber industry would make on the world market? A lot of foreign timber business could stumble or fall. I would be extremely suspicious of anyone or interest suggesting further forest conservation. I would also want to have an open mind and look far beyond the comfort of the pitiful and inadequate conservation credit.
Yours faithfully,
F. Skinner