She adds, “Yet Africans are told the biggest threat they face is global warming. Conferences, news stories, television programs, class lectures and one-sided ‘dialogues’ repeat the claim endlessly. They are told using oil and petrol, even burning wood and charcoal, will dangerously overheat our planet, melt ice caps, flood coastal cities, and cause storms, drought, disease and extinctions.” Africans are told climate change threatens humanity more than all the diseases listed above.

Will Alexander of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, points out that since the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988 not a single person in South Africa has died as a result of provable climate change. But thousands have died from poverty-related starvation, malnutrition and disease. He says, “How dare those who call themselves scientists deliberately suppress this information? How dare they ignore the suffering of all these people? How dare they steadfastly refuse to participate in multidisciplinary studies where their alarmist theories can be demonstrated to be without foundation?” (2)

Africans are being told that carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere from coal burning power stations and transport are a far greater threat to national welfare than unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and disease. Alexander reports, “Nowhere in the climate change literature will you find a balance between humanitarian concerns and environmental concerns. Instead, while our people are starving, powerful and influential bodies such as the G20 discuss the situation over delicious meals and refreshments.” (2)

The average African life span is lower than it was in the United States and Europe 100 years ago. But Africans are being told they shouldn’t develop, or have electricity or cars because developed countries are worried about global warming. Not having electricity means millions of Africans don’t have refrigerators to preserve food and medicine. Not having electricity also means disease and death. It means millions die from lung infections because they have to cook and heat with open fires; from intestinal diseases caused by cholera, measles and other diseases that could be prevented if they had proper medical facilities. (1)

An interesting paper study was done by the Copenhagen Consensus, a group organized by Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg. They looked at ways to address ten of the most serious challenges facing the world today: access to education, climate change, communicable diseases, conflicts, corruption and governance, financial instability, hunger and malnutrition, migration, sanitation and access to clean water, subsidies and trade barriers. The group was asked to answer the question: What would be the best ways of advancing global welfare, and particularly the welfare of developing countries, supposing that an additional $50 billion of resources were at governments’ disposal?

The results: Compared to other issues such as communicable diseases, malnutrition and hunger, sanitation and water, and the rest, climate change ranked last on the list.(3)

Indur Goklany echoes this finding: “The argument that we should shift resources from dealing with the real and urgent problems confronting present generations to solving potential problems of tomorrow’s wealthier and better positioned generations is unpersuasive at best and verging on immoral at worst.” (4)

Too bad the Copenhagen Consensus was only a paper study because the folks in Africa could use some help now and their problems clearly aren’t related to climate change.

Jack Dini was a materials engineer and Section Leader at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He is a past national president of the American Electroplaters and Surface Finishers Society, author of more than 250 papers on electrodeposition and the book, Electrodeposition: the Materials Science of Coatings and Substrates. Since 1998 he has been writing a monthly column titled “Fact or Fiction?” for Plating and Surface Finishing (P&SF). He has also written for the American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News (The Heartland Institute) and Hawaii Reporter. His book, Challenging Environmental Mythology, was published in 2003. Reach him at mailto:jdini@comcast.net

References

• 1. Fiona Kobusingye, “Africa’s Real Climate Crisis,” SPPI Commentary & Essay Series, September 3, 2009

• 2. Will Alexander, “Climate alarmism is a runaway fire,” Memo 25/09, August 21, 2009

• 3. Global Crisis, Global Solutions, Bjorn Lomborg, Editor, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004), 605

• 4. Indur Goklany, “What to do about climate change,” Policy Analysis No. 609, Cato Institute, February 5, 2008

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