Terrorist Attacks by the Weather

Monday, 07 January 2013 15:47 GFP Columnist - Rattan Mann

Wake up world leaders and answer the question of a poor, insignificant, powerless, and unemployed person in the clutches of economical meltdown, and tossed around like a leaf by the evil witch Sandy!

Alternative Norwegian King’s New Year’s Message 2013 - Noble Cybercitizens, this year again I will talk on only one topic – Terrorist Attacks by the Weather.

One or two cold, wet, and therefore normal, summers in one or two small countries like Norway and Denmark have sent the world leaders back to a warm and cozy winter sleep, sweeping the nasty issue of climate change under the very bed on which they are sleeping so comfortably.

By doing so the world leaders are acting like that stupid guy who was cutting the very branch of the tree on which he was standing. What they have swept under their bed is a new monster called Climate Change who would soon start shaking them the way King Kong shook sky scrapers, because this monster is on his way to conquer the earth.

As the world leaders sleep, a lot under their cozy beds is melting away and disappearing altogether. I am referring to the rapid melting of the ice in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. The situation is worse than the world leaders want to imagine. Tell-tale signs of climate change are multiplying by the year and on all the five continents. The world’s leaders’ snore as the world under their bed disappears, just as Emperor Nero fiddled as his empire turned into ashes. What could be more tragic than this?

To bring home to world leaders the urgency of dealing with climate change, I explain the issue in terms they understand best.

My Thesis 2013 is: There must immediately be a preemptive strike against possible terrorist attacks by the weather.

The purpose of this thesis is to kill all useless and academic debate as to whether the climate is actually changing or not. This is not the right question and the debate on this question is being misused by vested interests as a passport for inaction.

The right question is: Yes, it is true that we are really not sure if the climate is changing or not. But what if it is?

Now you see the relevance of my Thesis 2013, because this question is exactly the same as another question which world leaders are never tired of asking.

Yes, it is true that we are really never sure that some terrorist attack will take place somewhere like on a plane, train etc. But what if it does and leads to may be a dozen deaths?

No world leader will advise you to wait for this attack. They all too happily order the police to take all preemptive measures, even preemptive strikes.

And that too for may be just a tiny dozen deaths!

Now my hair-raising question to world leaders: Why on earth are you treating climate change any differently from any other terrorist attack?

In both cases we are not sure whether it will ever take place or not. But if climate change does take place it will lead to the death and destruction of millions upon millions, not just a small dozen. Then, honourable men, is it not logical that preemptive measures against climate change are needed million upon million times more urgently?

Wake up world leaders and answer the question of a poor, insignificant, powerless, and unemployed person in the clutches of economical meltdown, and tossed around like a leaf by the evil witch Sandy!

So my Christmas and New Year 2013 wish is: Words like heat wave, cold wave, storm, hurricane, floods etc. should be erased from human mind and human vocabulary.

They should all be replaced by one common and comprehensive phrase: “Terrorist Attacks by the Weather”.

Only then will we realize that the issue is not whether climate is changing or not, but what if it does, just as the issue is not whether a terrorist attack will take place or not but what if it does. This and only this attitude can lead to concerted and preemptive measures against Monster Climate Change.

I “predict” that this paradigm shift will lead to a new era in human civilization and a new marriage between man and nature.

(I had to predict something. How can I close my New Year’s Message without great predictions?)

Thanks for listening, brave Cybercitizens. I salute all of you who have survived the End of the World in 2012 and welcome you to a Brave New World of 2013 poised to kill the Dragon of climate change.

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