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Monday, September 8, 2008

Misdirection: Environmental issues

Amazon idea

As I stood next to one huge forest fire, I thought of all the times I have been urged to unplug my phone charger, turn my TV off standby or turn the thermostat down by a couple of degrees.

Yet I cannot remember ever being told that the fires burning down the rainforest are responsible for 20% of worldwide carbon emissions, the same amount as all the transport in the world combined.

The leftist blog 'The Standard' bangs on about political misdirection so much that I decided to steal the term to highlight the substantial issue of environmental misdirection.

With attention focused on carbon emissions, other environmental issues like deforestation of the rain forest and reduced species biodiversity are left by the wayside. 

While celebrities lecture us about reducing our carbon footprint to achieve a non-specific goal, species are becoming extinct and forests are being destroyed.  

It's very easy to measure success with saving a species e.g. increase the kiwi population by 10,000 birds.  But you can never fail if you're advocating climate change because how do you know if you succeed?

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