Sunday, December 19, 2010

Malek el Battikh

"Desertification and land degradation is "the greatest environmental challenge of our time" and "a threat to global wellbeing", according to the UN's top drylands official, Luc Gnacadja, who says people must be paid via global carbon markets for preserving the soil. The executive secretary of UN's Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), will today launch the UN decade for the fight against desertification in London.
"The top 20cm of soil is all that stands between us and extinction," he told the Guardian. Conflicts and food price crises all stem from the degradation of land, he added." (Thanks Laila)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/16/desertification-climate-change
That's pushing it a bit too far. The greatest environmental challenge of our time is global capitalism and this isn't going to improve with global carbon markets, quite the opposite. And I wish, I really do wish all conflicts and food crises were caused by the degradation of land. At least we know how to deal with that. In what world does this guy live? In what world does all the UN staff live, anyway? 

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