OUR leaders, the world over, are quite a unique breed of politicians, but sometimes an exciting and a complicated lot too. Is it because they are moulded and carved from the slippery and dicey substance of politics? The very substance that make them undisputed strangers to the truth. Their expertise number one is being masters of glib and doublespeak. Despite their massive statures, it’s not easy to locate them even when they hide behind the smallest finger. When it comes to the subject of climate change and fossil fuels, their craftsmanship in dodging the truth and disappearing into thin air is second to none. What is it that our leaders are hiding from us when it comes to the issue of severing ties and all that burns, produce thickets of smoke and damage the environment?
By PETER MAKWANYA
Besides their urgency and appetite for international climate change conferences, where their palms would be significantly greased and where they try so hard to gloss over their standpoints in the adopted name of overnight stewards of the environment. Our leaders still dream of the overflowing black gold as their most priced possessions. Their relationship with fossil fuels is still strong and growing from strength to strength, but they would want to be seen as if they no longer want to be associated with fossil fuels. In actual fact they are not yet ready to let go their firm grip on fossil fuels.
In their hidden beliefs and agendas, fossil fuels emit lots of carbon into the atmosphere, only on paper, but in reality the energy-mix still plays a major role in dominating the global energy discourse and consumption. The developed countries are still home to the high-powered diesel and coal-driven industries. Their lavish lifestyles and strong economies are a result of their sound investments in fossil fuels. That fossil fuels are dirty and a threat to humanity and the environment is for the newspapers, magazines, the poor and the gullible, while in the hut of their hearts they still celebrate the exploration and excavations of fossil fuels. Yes, they have acknowledged their mistakes in leading the oil revolution, but they can no longer straighten a sweet potato. As such, they have designed ways to play Tom-foolery to the world through manipulation of language and misinformation. According to one of the COP21 resolution, ‘let us go back and emit more carbon and then come back to make a review after some years.’ Really? When the time comes, we shall see who will be fooling who. Truly indeed, our leaders are not telling us something about fossil fuels but sooner, we shall find out.
If we are to revisit the discourse of renewable sources of energy, the hype and frenzy behind their appreciation of these alternative forms of energy, one would be forced to think that fossil fuels will be gone by tomorrow morning. But the painful and plain truth is that, the large clouds of smoke and emissions shall still be caressing the atmosphere for quite some time. Even up to this day, in this country, Zimbabwe, not quite significant pilot projects have been introduced so as to orient the local people about the benefits of renewable energy sources. The majority of people in this country still view these alternative forms of energy sources as elitist in nature, which do not concern them. As such, the leadership in this country is not taking significant steps in making these local people renewable-energy compliant. This scenario saves to communicate chilling messages that our leaders are not telling us something about fossil fuels.
The point that fossil fuels should have a permanent place under the ground is either “green-spin”or misplaced rhetoric contributing to linguistic disharmony. As it stands, the consumption of coal, oil and gas around the world is about 87%, meaning that alternative renewable sources are an infant 13%. That is the inconvenient truth that our leaders do not seem prepared to hear because they are not telling us something about fossil fuels. Even in the developing countries, besides their enormous rhetoric, they are still to let go their association with fossil fuels, yet they want the developing countries to forgo the little fossil fuels they have discovered. Why? Because they want them to buy hot-air in the form of carbon trading.
Imagine the millions of people employed in the fossil fuel industries and those companies and organisations with strong links to fossil fuel industries around the world. Imagine the billions tonnes of crude oil being shipped from Africa and the Middle East to the developed countries to refuel their industrial expansionist agendas. Imagine our leaders crying for developed countries to fund their Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and other adaptation agendas, yet they cannot craft their own homegrown initiatives for the good of the local communities. Surely, these leaders are not telling us something about fossil fuels. People from developing countries cannot just wake up one morning to find themselves employed in renewable energy companies that are never there. As a result, the transition from dirty forms of fossil fuels to clean sources of energy is going to be cruel and painfully slow. People from the developing countries cannot have anything significant to say on renewable energy, if after all they don’t have any forms of tangible energy.
Despite the guise of demanding green funding from the developed countries as well as pressurising them to honour their pledges, the truth of the matter is that our leaders need money from the developed countries. This money, even if it comes, it will not be used for green-growth, but for what they are not telling us about fossil fuels. Our leaders are also not telling us that fossil fuels remain the cash cow, not only for the developed countries but also for the developing countries, that is if they are developing at all. Our leaders are not telling us that our current and modern civilisation was built with money from fossil fuels.
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Unless the developing countries invest meaningfully renewable energy sources, the vast deposits of fossil fuels will burn, non-stop and global warming will be compounded. With the amount of destruction and land degradation currently taking place in developing countries, the generation of carbon capture will be difficult to realise. We shall also want to see the how much plants and foodstuffs will be used for bio-gas generation against the background of poverty and mass starvations. Unless something dramatic happens and unless our leaders start telling us the truth about fossil fuels, this is going to be a sad triumph and dominance for the fossil fuel-industries.
Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his own capacity and can be contacted on: [email protected]
