Speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly, 73-year-old U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, fresh from a trip to Pakistian, blasted the G20 countries for contributing to the pollution that hit Pakistan like a nuclear bomb with widespread flooding. “The sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis. Gutteres isn’t hat old to remember the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami that killed some 220,000 ins Sumatra, Indonesia. Politicians or scientistS didn’t blame the death toll on climate change back then but it’s fashionable for every weather event on the planet to be blamed on carbon dioxide emissions. Guterres talked about the 1,300 deaths in Pakistan, more a function of poor infrastructure, not having the building codes, proper drainage and technology to withstand extreme weather events. But Guterres used his time to blame the rich G20 countries.
Guterres returned from Pakistan to deliver a message to the U.N. General Assembly. “I have just returned from Pakistan, where I looked through a window into the future,” Guterres said, not realizing the 2004 tsunami caused far more devastation to Indonesia. “A future of permanent and ubiquitous climate chaos on an unimaginable scale, devastating loss of life , enormous human suffering, and massive damage to infrastructure and livelihoods , , , ,Guterres told the General Assembly. President Joe Biden just allocated in his “Inflation Reduction Act” some $350 billion to climate change spending. “What is happening in Pakistan demonstrates the sheer inadequacy of the global response to the climate crisis, and the betrayal and injustice at the heart of it,” blasting the G20 countries. But Gutterres says nothing about the impoverished villages all over Pakistan are unable to cope with natural disasters.
Guterres uses his bully pulpit to admonish richer nations into doing something about poverty and poor economic development all over the planet. Blaming everything on climate change cheapens Guterres’ argument, putting blame on more developed countries. When you look at the hardest hit areas in Pakistan, it’s clear that poor rural communities lack the infrastructure necessary to cope with extreme weather events. Extreme weather events may happen more often with climate change but they were always part of Mother Nature’s revenge on the planet. It’s easy to take the claptrap blaming everything on carbon emissions when there’s always been climate disasters all over the planet. No every country has the resources to transition to carbonless emissions in automobile use and industry. Developing countries have always born the brunt of extreme weather events.
Guterres is on the climate change bandwagon, not realizing that many of the climate disasters are a function of poor infrastructure. With proper drainage, infrastructure and building codes, it goes a long way in mitigating the adverse effects of extreme weather events. “Whether it’s Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, the Ashel, small islands or least developed countries, the world’s most vulnerable—who did nothing to cause the crisis—are paying a horrific price for the decades of intransigence by big emitters,” Guterres said. Guterres logic breaks down when he says more industrialized countries are responsible for the lion’s share of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. What does Gueterres expect the G20 to do, de-industrialize, go back to a pre-industrialized way for life? All developing countries seek a more advance infrastructure to improve their standard of living.
What kind of argument does Guterres make when he blames the G20 for causing the 80% of the carbon pollution that causes climate change or warming? “G20 countries are responsible for 80% of the emissions . . . If one-third of the G20 countries was underwater today, as it could be tomorrow, perhaps they would find it easier to agree on drastic cuts to emissions,” Guterres said, not addressing other factors like infrastructure and more stringent building codes that deal with the effects of extreme weather. Fiery rhetoric like Guterres delivered to the U.N. General Assembly plays well in the developing world but not in G20 countries. Working on carbon emission reductions has been the urgent walking order coming out of the Dec. 14, 2015 Paris Climate Accords, then the Nov. 12, 2021 Glasgow Climate Summit. Most G20 have made strong carbon commitments.
Guterres hurts the cause of encouraging G20 countries to do more for climate change by pointing fingers at the rich countries the contribute too much of the world’s pollution. Why doesn’t Guterres do more to end the Ukraine War, putting pressure on Ukraine to go toe the Istanbul peace table? Saying no one’s ready for that is not enough, nor is blaming only Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Ukraine War. As long as 79-year-old President Joe Biden funds his proxy war against the Russian Federation, how’s the world supposed to get back to the business of climate change? With poverty widespread over Africa, Asia and other parts of the planet, economic development is key to building better infrastructures to deal with extreme weather events. Whatever happened in Pakistan with extreme monsoons and flooding was only partly related to climate change, more to failed infrastructure.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
