A Dark Day for Elephants (and Africa besides)
- Ashmead Green
- Nov 16, 2017
- 2 min read
News emerged yesterday from COP23 in Bonn that even if swingeing cuts in global emissions were immediately effected, a rise in temperature beyond the 2°C is highly likely, if not inevitable.
A group of 15,000 scientists have come together to issue a dire “second notice” to humanity, 25 years after a group of scientists issued the “first notice” warning the world about climate change.
A major new study says European governments have drastically underestimated the methane emissions from gas. The report finds European Union nations can burn gas and other fossil fuels at the current rate for only nine more years before these countries will have exhausted their share of the Earth’s remaining carbon budget necessary to keep temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius.
One of the most disturbing facts is that about 50 percent of global emission has come from just 10 percent of the global population.
It is an unfortunate (some would say unforgivable) consequence that those likely to be most affected are those countries and regions responsible for the lowest emission levels.
Africa is likely to see great swathes of its continent subject to desertification, and this a continent that is heavily reliant on agriculture for the sustenance of her peoples (and ironically the 10% of us who are the highest emitters).
On the other side of the planet, if the risk of losing the Great Barrier Reef wasn’t bad enough, a new study has found that climate change could have a devastating impact on the fish populations of the Pacific Islands. A new study has found that Pacific Island Nations could lose between 50-80% of all marine species in their waters if the ocean continues to heat up.
The US is now the only country not signed up to the recent climate change accord following Trump's withdrawal.
And in a further display of his complete disregard for the planet Trump has announced today that big game hunters - like his sons Donald Jr and Eric - will be allowed to import the heads of slain elephants into America. The new White House regulation overturns an Obama administration ban on elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia.
This despite the fact the animals have been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 1978.
Trump's move sanctioned by Chris Cox, Executive Director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. who so profoundly declared “This is a significant step forward in having hunting receive the recognition it deserves as a tool of wildlife management, which had been all but buried in the previous administration,”
There seems no bounds to certain segments of the American populations lack of concern for the world that surrounds us all, a world we are reliant on for our very survival.
It is incumbent on us all to take a stand against such short-termism and eco-terrorism and to take that stand now.
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