Dictatorships and Environmental Issues. Power and needless Dominance game in the opposition camp in the face of the serious environmental issues that Eritrea is suffering

                                                    Introduction 

Today, I will share with you The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, which 192 countries, just about all UN members, are part in.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3QNSN1T1AiwSklSRi1tM01oLXc/view?usp=sharing

I will quote some of the most important parts of the convention relevant to where Eritrea is at. I will then share a workshop presentation text done by Tewelde Siratu, from the Department of Environment of Eritrea 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3QNSN1T1AiwWC1MNjg3NWJzc2c/view?usp=sharing, only the parts that explain the climate changes and their impact on the country should be of interest. This is because one cannot trust what the department says it has done to fight the environmental issues Eritrea faces. For a realistic insight on the general conditions of Eritrea (that touches the environmental issues merely indirectly), I suggest you take a look on Sengal Woldetensae´s assessment of the Eritrean Economy the last 25 years with the current illegal regime of the country.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9q6uHLc_i4&feature=youtu.be 

                         My thoughts on the subtitle of today´s blog

I experience that Eritrean politicians today, in the oppositions camp, are more concerned with power game, dominance and competition of who takes the lead in the DIA and HGDEF liberated sovereign Eritrea. 

A part from the fact that power game is inherently natural behaviour for animals like human beings, apes, dogs, cats etc, human beings have the advantage of being able to worship a higher being that we call God or Allah that gives all of us guidelines on how not to behave towards other fellow human beings, animals and nature at large. Any act that is in disaccord with such universally acknowledged and accepted guidelines, has normally negative consequences in our lives. Each time we act against the well being of all around us, we normally pay the price of being either guilty feeling, losing advantages, losing the credibility of our name in our surrounding, you can add anything to the list of negative consequences. It´s a famous losing game. For this reason, human beings have throughout time been concerned with the meaning of life and the meaning of being good and do the good. All prophets, imams/priests, philosophers, artists, writers and even merchants that co-created civilisations, hence culture, have been concerned and moved by such questions that we today try to learn from in various ways. This in order to enhance our quality of life. The meaning of life itself is connected to these questions. 

If the value and meaning of life is connected to such guidelines of being good, then our many politicians´s power game (within the opposition line) is taking us towards a road that is futile to the enhancement of life and the well being of the Eritrean people that they intend to lead post DIA. 

It is indeed incredibly sad, if not disgusting, that certain people have the audacity to be concerned with power hunger and dominance when the Eritrean people in Eritrea, in Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Yemen, Egypt and Libya are in some of the most extreme life situations that the world has ever seen. 

It is this kind of selfishness and ego-centrism that, in accumulated form, has taken humanity to on and on with histories of catastrophe. Some catastrophes are better than others, and some are worst than others. But, it doesn´t really matter, it is meaningless to compare historical catastrophes with each other. Why? Because they all have the same root; self-absorbedness and narrow-mindedness. Hence, it is more important that we scan ourselves from such behaviours than waste our useful time in comparing events that will only lead us to new catastrophes. This is simple common sense. The old peasant, nomad and fisherman´s wisdom are applicable in any situation; they always think of what is useful, sustainable and most positively predictable for their way of making a living. Because, they know they are powerless in the face of, at times, unforgiving nature. They don´t have time for nonsense. 

                                      

           The United Nations framework on Convention on Climate Change 

This agreement is an incredibly success as it is the most effective environmental convention ever done to secure environment a positive legal statues. It is effective in such a way that it has positioned itself as an applicable guarantee that can be demanded at any level of state and regional institution and in the private sphere. The other side of this is that states have managed to agree that human interference with the climate system is seriously threatening the well being of our planet and the future existence of human beings as a race. For this reason, justice system as such, is changing focus from being a human protector agains the evil of man to nature protector against the evil of man. 

As you can see in the quoted parts of this convention, it places more responsibility on developed countries than on developing countries, as it´s considered evident that it is the nations of the northern hemisphere that have disturbed the balance of nature (more than others) ever since the industrial revolution started in England in 1700s. 

For Eritrea´s part, as impart explained in Siratu´s workshop presentation, mainly Ethiopian dictatorships, followed by vicious wars have exhausted the Eritrean nature´s ability to, let alone renew itself, sustain itself. This brings us back to the quarrelling politicians in the opposition camps who are more hungry for power than solving the dire condition of the country and the people that they intend to lead. At some point, life stops to be a game. If they fail to see the no game, then they are no different than the current and the previous dictators that the Eritrean people and its environment have suffered in absolute unforgiving cold blooded selfishness.

Quoting from the preamble (p. 2-3, 4-6 ) as it lays the foundations (hence informative) for the legal guarantees 

"The Parties to this Convention, 

Acknowledging that change in the Earth's climate and its adverse effects are a common concern of humankind, Concerned that human activities have been substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, that these increases enhance the natural greenhouse effect, and that this will result on average in an additional warming of the Earth's surface and atmosphere and may adversely affect natural ecosystems and humankind, Noting that the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries, that per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low and that the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and development needs,

Aware of the role and importance in terrestrial and marine ecosystems of sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases, 

Noting that there are many uncertainties in predictions of climate change, particularly with regard to the timing, magnitude and regional patterns there of, 

Acknowledging that the global nature of climate change calls for the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and their social and economic conditions, 

Recalling the pertinent provisions of the Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, adopted at Stockholm on 16 June 1972, Recalling also that States have, in a accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law, the sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental and developmental policies, and the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other States or of areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction,

Reaffirming the principle of sovereignty of States in international cooperation to address climate change,

Recognizing that States should enact effective environmental legislation, that environmental standards, management objectives and priorities should reflect the environmental and developmental context to which they apply, 3 and that standards applied by some countries may be inappropriate and of unwarranted economic and social cost to other countries, in particular developing countries,

(p.4-6)

Conscious of the valuable analytical work being conducted by many States on climate change and of the important contributions of the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme and other organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations system, as well as other international and intergovernmental bodies, to the exchange of results of scientific research and the coordination of research,

Recognizing that steps required to understand and address climate change will be environmentally, socially and economically most effective if they are based on relevant scientific, technical and economic considerations and continually re-evaluated in the light of new findings in these areas (my bold), 

Recognizing that various actions to address climate change can be justified economically in their own right and can also help in solving other environmental problems (my bold),

Recognizing also the need for developed countries to take immediate action in a flexible manner on the basis of clear priorities, as a first step towards comprehensive response strategies at the global, national and, where agreed, regional levels that take into account all greenhouse gases, with due consideration of their relative contributions to the enhancement of the greenhouse effect,

Recognizing further that low-lying and other small island countries, countries with low-lying coastal, arid and semiarid areas or areas liable to floods, drought and 5 desertification, and developing countries with fragile mountainous ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change,

 Recognizing the special difficulties of those countries, especially developing countries, whose economies are particularly dependent on fossil fuel production, use and exportation, as a consequence of action taken on limiting greenhouse gas emissions,

Affirming that responses to climate change should be coordinated with social and economic development in an integrated manner with a view to avoiding adverse impacts on the latter, taking into full account the legitimate priority needs of developing countries for the achievement of sustained economic growth and the eradication of poverty (my bold), 

Recognizing that all countries, especially developing countries, need access to resources required to achieve sustainable social and economic development and that, in order for developing countries to progress towards that goal, their energy consumption will need to grow taking into account the possibilities for achieving greater energy efficiency and for controlling greenhouse gas emissions in general, including through the application of new technologies on terms which make such an application economically and socially beneficial,

                                     Eritrea Climate Change Impacts

                                     from page 3 in Siratu´s presentation:

"• Eritrea has a mostly arid climate with about 70% of its land area classified as a hot and arid and receiving average annual raifall n a of less than 350mm. 

• Ambient average temperatures vary considerably, with the eastern lowlands having an annual mean f 31oC i h i f 48o of 31 C i h hi hl d oC with maximum of 48oC., in the highlands annual mean is 21oC with a maximum of 25oC, in th t l ld it i 29oC ith 36o the western lowlands it is 29 C oC with 36oC maximum.

                                    Vulnerabilities to Climate Impacts 

• Eritrea is a developing country with more than 70% of its population depending on subsistence agriculture and livestock. 

• Natural resources degradation is massive due to the destruction visited during the long drawn war of independence, recurrent drought and unsustainable use

• The harsh climatic conditions, human induced and natural calamities, the geographical location in the arid and semi arid region and low adaptive capacity renders Eritrea vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. 

• The vulnerability to climate change is manifested on desertification/land degradation; diminishing biological diversity; emergence of new pests; incidence diseases like malaria in new areas due to atmospheric temperature rise; exacerbatian of infectious / parasitic diseases and nutrition related health problems due to floods and recurrent drought. Coastal areas and islands, because of sea level rise are exposed to shortage of fresh water due to salt water intrusion.

• Assessments on climate change impacts and vulnerabilities revealed the most affected sectors namely‐ agriculture, forestry, water resources, coastal and marine environment, and public health."