>From an editorial by an African named Kofi Bentil at AllAfrica.com: "Few people in Africa will get to see Al Gore and his troupe of rock- star ecologists strutting their stuff during the series of Live Earth concerts this weekend -- because most have neither television nor electricity. That's just as well, because they would be aghast at LiveEarth's bizarre message. In Africa, we have much more serious things to worry about than climate change. Indeed, if they achieve their objective the concerts will have done harm to the people of Africa. Britain's former Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, recently said that the rest of the world cannot aspire to the UK's standard of living because: 'If the world were to have the same living standards as we have in the UK, then we'd need three planets to support us.' Presumably Mr Miliband would disagree with Indira Ghandi, who famously said, 'poverty is the greatest polluter.' Miliband was replaced by Hilary Benn, who as Minister for International Development ran the Department for International Development (DfID). One might have thought that [that department] would have supported economic development as a means of escaping from poverty and pollution.
"But in its Rough Guide to a Better World it advocates 'Development by Dung' and claims that 'As poor countries develop, it is essential that they do not follow the same failed patterns of energy use.' So it's dung not diesel for Africa -- while India and China soar ahead because they are too big, and nuclear-armed, to stop. Even if we accept that global warming may have a significant effect on our climate, limiting the use of fossil fuels in Africa would be counterproductive. Respiratory infections are the leading cause of childhood deaths on my continent, mainly from inhaling the smoke produced by burning wood and dung in our quaint mud huts. Why do we burn these 'renewable' but very dirty fuels? Not because we have some desire to save the Earth. No, sir. It is because we don't have access to natural gas or electricity. The second leading cause of childhood deaths is not malaria or AIDS, it is diarrhoea [sic], caused by drinking dirty water. Why is our water dirty? Mainly because we lack cheap, efficient means of pumping and cleaning it. That requires fossil fuels -- either directly or to produce electricity," and the world doesn't want Africa to have any of that. "An underlying cause of many health problems in Africa is malnutrition. This is a consequence both of inefficient farming and poor food distribution. To rectify this situation will mean using cheap and relatively clean fuels, such as gasoline and diesel," but if Live Earth were ever to succeed, we would never be able to do that. We would have to continue burning dung and wood! It's a great piece.
