Just when you thought that ubiquitous carbon credit peddler Maurice Strong had left the international stage forever, just like this winter’s bitter wind, there he blows again.
Not only is climate change destined to destroy Mother Earth, according to the former United Nations under-secretary-general, it is now a worldwide “security” and foreign relations issue.
How climate change has become a worldwide “security” threat was never explained when Strong spoke to the world from the China Foreign Affairs University Forum. But there were few details from Strong and Al Gore when climate change climbed to the top as this century’s new religion.
“China has its responsibility of tackling global warming, but the real solution lies in cooperation at the highest international level, in which the developed countries should take the lead.” (China Daily, March 12, 2008). “Instead the developed countries are shying away from their responsibility.”
“What I see today is a tendency among some industrial countries, notably the US, to shift the onus on China, India and other developing countries to divert attention from their own commitment,” Strong said in his address to the Forum.
“I predict there’s going to be tremendous additional pressures on China, and some of them will be unfair,” he said, because the per capita carbon footprint of China is very
low.”
Why the Canadian-born strong is concerned with additional pressures on China must remain as another one of those international mysteries. But in this latest lecture on environmentalism Maurice Strong style, the Chinese media thought it noteworthy to point out that “Strong is a distant relative of the famous U.S. journalist and writer Anna Louise Strong. “
The late Anna Louise Strong was buried with honours by the Communist regime of the day.
“No country can do it (solve the problem) alone. China is right to expect that the US, Canada and other countries that created the problem in the first place should take the lead in helping resolve it,” Strong said.
The 78-year-old veteran environmental activist was gushing in his appreciation of China’s policies to fight climate change. Asked how can the Chinese people’s environmental protection awareness be raised, he said: “I am delighted (to tell you that) your leaders are already doing this.”
Because Beijing’s environment is improving, Strong said he hopes more people from other countries come to live in and experience this dynamic city.
Not everybody is buying into the improved environment of Beijing.
Marathon world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie will not be competing at the Beijing Olympics because China’s air pollution could damage his health.
As National Post scribe Peter Foster points out, “Maurice Strong, is apparently confined, for health reasons, to his home in Beijing. Since Beijing is one of the smoggiest cities on earth, and Mr. Strong is a severe asthmatic, this is a somewhat strange hidey hole for Chairman Mo. Presumably it is the bracing air of Communist rule in which his lungs rejoice rather than the ambient pollution. Beijing is also probably attractive as being a long way from any echoes of that unfortunate UN oil-for-food fandango in Iraq, in which Mr. Strong so inexplicably found himself embroiled. Still, we wish Mr. Strong a full recovery. The world would be a much less interesting—if considerably safer—place without him.”
Meanwhile, when you happen to be in the carbon footprint game, some environmentally improved countries are far more equal than others.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
