Responding
to the moratorium on geoengineering
This article (click)
contains some
details of the insufficiently publicized moratorium
voted in
October 2010 at
the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity
in Nagoya, Japan, by
virtually all the world's states apart from the the United States of America -
certainly all the states of the European Union - on implementation of most forms
of geoengineering including what is known as Solar Radiation Management.
Solar Radiation Management has, particularly since the setbacks
encountered at the United Nations Climate Summit at Copenhagen in December 2009,
begun to be canvassed with increasing urgency by scientists and official bodies,
including in Europe Britain's Royal Society, as a necessary and politically
feasible response to the problem of anthropogenic global warming. The
situation is complicated beyond the understanding of most citizens by the fact
that many of the same foundations that are advocating geoengineering as a response
to anthropogenic global warming also fund organizations that deny the reality of
anthropogenic global warming.
If implemented, Solar Radiation Management would result in phenomena in
every respect identical to a kind of aerial spraying from aircraft that has been
observed virtually everywhere on the planet with increasing frequency for well
over a decade and has been the subject of questioning of politicians, scientists
and official spokespersons by concerned citizens in very many countries,
including Greece and other member states of the European Union.
The question was also raised in the European
Parliament in 2007 and answered
by the then Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas.
The answer provided by official spokespersons to such questions from
parliamentarians and other concerned citizens about the spraying have inevitably
and everywhere taken the form either of denials that any such spraying is
occurring or denial of any relevant knowledge (from authorities whose duty it is
to possess the relevant knowledge).
The comments on this phenomenon of denial that were made last May at the symposium on geoengineering in Ghent, Belgium, by the reputable scientist Dr. Coen Vermeeren, are extremely pertinent.
The
sole partial exception is recent: in Cyprus the Green party has begun to pursue
a policy of inquiry that distinguishes it favourably from all other Green
parties in Europe and indeed in the world. Perhaps in response to this, the
Cypriot government has begun to show enough respect for its citizens'
intelligence not to issue the routine denials of the reality of the spraying
that have until now been the rule everywhere.
For
relevant details see here
(in Greek)
The
policy of denial of the spraying has been a contributory factor to the spread of
rumour, particularly among ordinary citizens who question the reality of
anthropogenic global warming. Such rumours centre on the charge that the
spraying serves a variety of sinister and criminal purposes. One such allegation
is that aerial spraying with aluminium is aimed at causing damage to crops that
would necessitate use of Monsanto's new generation of aluminium-resistant seeds.
If only a quarter of the allegations of this type that are in circulation were
true, this would amount to exposure that a war has been declared on the human
race.
Given this situation, the questions we
ask, and the demands we make, of the Greek government, should be asked by the
citizens of all countries that have signed the moratorium on geoengineering at
the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, as well as by the citizens of the
United States, whose government has not.
Unfortunately
many citizens, particularly in the United States, who are most concerned about
the aerial spraying, are also opposed to the existence of the United Nations,
and therefore have mixed feelings about a United Nations moratorium, even on an
activity to which they are strongly opposed. Not wishing to concede the United
Nations the status of intermediary, they allow their opposition to the United
Nations to override their opposition to the aerial spraying.
We do not share their hesitancy and we would like to declare
unequivocally that we do not accept official assertions that the aerial spraying,
for Solar Radiation Management and/or other purposes, is not occurring. All the necessary data for refutation of the official misinformation is to be
found in the Case
Orange
Report
issued at the Belfort Group symposium on geoengineering in Ghent last May.
We
invite the Greek government to explain, if rationally defensible purposes are
being served by this spraying, what those rationally defensible purposes are. We
also invite our government to answer the question of why it has signed a
moratorium on geoengineering that it is evidently not respecting or observing.
The health of the citizens of Greece, both
physical and mental, is very convincingly represented as threatened by the
unexplained, and often extremely intense, aerial spraying.
The
widespread
concern being
articulated by citizens should
be sufficient grounds in itself to justify the
questions we have posed, and the demands we have submitted.
Enouranois