10th February, 2010
Letter-to-the-editor
Dear Sir:
I have previously attacked the premise of man-made global warning, explaining in detail my
convictions that we are, in fact, experiencing a natural global warming phenomenon.. I do
believe, however, that it is wrong to be just negative since it is important we put our minds to
work to seek answers to the potential problems confronting our fellow citizens across this planet.
There are ways through which we might be preparing for the effects of such a natural occurrence and I will share my thoughts on methods we could, and perhaps should, adopt.
Imagine how much money has been expended on travel, hotels and food for the hundreds of politicians,
and their entourages, who have travelled to distant lands, on the taxpayers’ dollars, seeking ways
of changing nature, looking for answers to a so-called man-made global warming problem. It must be
a phenomenal amount. So what if the oceans rise and the Arctic, once more, becomes forested – the
scenarios the eco-terrorists are spreading fear about. No, I am not forgettting all those people
who live at the present ocean level and will be endangered because there may be a solution.
The Arctic has been melting for more than a century, remember the Titanic being sunk after hitting
an iceburg? That iceberg and all the others that have littered the Atlantic Ocean, for more years
than many of us can recall, are the evidence that the weather patterns of our planet have been
changing for a very long time. We knew this but what did we do about the evolving problem? Our
politicians and scientists just sat on their collective thumbs awaiting the day they could be
motivated by eco-terrorists seeking to serve their own ends rather than to work for the people in
need.
Eco-terrorist attention seeking exercises, such as banners on our Houses of Parliament, that
provide excitement for the few at the expense of society by causing increased restrictions to be
placed on all other citizens, are their modus operandi. This type of action should, at least, warn
the politicians they should be looking over their shoulders but no, that would mean the number of
political junkets, funded by we the taxpayers, might be diminished .
In our perpetual need for ever more petroleum fuel the companies that profit from such endeavours
build refineries and lay down thousands of miles of pipe-lines to feed the refinieries. We, the
public, eat up the costs of the petroleum companies so they might make even greater profits and few
really complain because they know it would be an exercise in futiltity. Even the Russians with
their socialistic tendencies are into the act of piping oil or gas to distant lands so they might
profit.
My solution would be to copy this process but using sea water and piping the product to the
countries, or regions of the world, that are without natural sources of water. It is said that it
is too costly to develop the desalination plants. The same argument could be made for oil to be
refined and we already use pipelines to transport oil across continents.
Why not have desalination plants feeding clean drinking water piped overland to those countries or regions in need? The money presently being squandered on fruitless junkets to other lands could be diverted to fund this type
of pro-active solution.
Imagine the money spent on US 1 transporting President Obama and his entourage from Washington, USA to Copenhagen, Denmark. Add to this the cost of our Prime Minister and 180 people on board his official flight from Ottawa to Copenhagen. To the flight costs must be added the cost of food and accommodations. Importantly, what was gained? Nothing.
There was no resolution for there is no resolution yet the money was spilled into the venture like
water passing over Niagara Falls just to satisfy the whims of the politicians. In the mighty USof A
they have an increasing problem in their ‘me’ society. Lake Mead, the largest dam in the US, has
one third less water from the Colorado River and it looks as if it the lake will actually dry up
before many more years have expired.
Despite this if one were to visit the Coachella Valley, California, where Palm Springs is situated, one would see endless greenery, lawns and shrubs in abundance and the entire area is littered with golf courses [water spraying everywhere]. Yet this is the desert. The water they misuse, diverted from the Colorado River, is so drastically abused
that it is saline and sewage loaded by the time it continues on its way to Mexico, where it enters the Gulf of California or as it is known in Mexico, the Sea of Cortez.
It is likely the mighty USof A will ultimately resort to military means to get water from the Great
Lakes rather than to manage what they have. The cost of such actions would far exceed the cost of a
good water management plan and the latter would not endanger the relationships between two
neighbours.
Unfortunately, the ability of this mighty nation to think on its feet has proven to be lacking. An identical situation exists in many countries of the world, for example, Pakistan and India, the countries through which the Nile flows, the countries bordering the Mediterraean Sea, inland African nations. I could go on listing the regions of the globe that would profit from a world-wide water strategy and the placing of many internationally owned desalination plants with
networks of pipeline to countries and people in need.
The needs of the people of Haiti have shown us that those of us who do have the natural resources
really care and nations abound who would cooperate if a leader were to emerge. The country that
could lead this effort is Canada because the Conservative government has already shown it does not
believe in the global warming concept so let us earn the Brownie points by doing something positive rather than a vague “take care of the women and children in need”. My plan would go a long way to helping the women and
children in need at the same time as it would provide an essential ingredient for living, clean and
abundant drinking water.
The first and most primary need of people is to have clean drinking water and this need exceeds the
greed of the ‘me’ societies and the politicians who spend our money on useless junkets and selfish
desires. My thought is that through the use of desalination plants we would be using the waters of
the ocean thus lowering the levels of those vast areas of water, no matter how minimally, at the
same time as we provide a valuable life-saving resource for those in need. Areas such as the
Coachella Valley, in California, USA, can have their endless supplies of fresh water but they must
pay the cost plus a little towards the heavy cost of helping others.
This idea would be worth examination and would profit more people in need, in the USA alone, than
say, does the cost of their space program. Unfortunately, our societies appear to have their
priorities all upside down. It would seem the governing bodies are more intent upon throwing money
around than looking for answers.
Can the readers imagine how many jobs would be created if our own Conservative federal government were to apply its wasted funds on helping those in need? The present federal government appears to be ignoring the povery stricken because nothing is happening to diminish the numbers of our home grown poor. Obviously, the Conservative politicians do not want to recognize the poverty that surrounds them – they, individually, have more than enough so why tax their brains with sound concepts that might just work in the interest of others.
John E. Milnes, retired environmental scientist
South Stormont
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