In today's Victoria Times Colonist, along side CanWest News Service
article "Environment front and centre as MPs get back to business", is
yet another CanWest piece entitled "B.C. police fret over potential
disasters"
Apart from the fact that CanWest is owned by corporate concerns, and
like most mass media has most often taken the government's official line
on everything from Columbus to 9/11, it seems we are further being
manipulated to accept the necessity for an increase in security, both
locally and nationally, now because of potentially disastrous situations
around climate change.
If only this foresight were going to be applied in helpful, peaceful
ways. The notion of a true peace force may cross hopeful minds, yet if
we examine some of the concerns cited in a report called "External
Trends Influencing Policing in B.C.", prepared Sept. 05 for senior B.C.
Mounties attending an annual planning meeting, it appears the call is
for measures to suppress mass emotional response and survival reaction,
both within and beyond our border. The report was obtained through the
Access to Information Act, like so many other sensitive stories these days.
First, the report acknowledges climate changes evident in B.C. weather
patterns, with wetter winters and drier summers resulting in greater
risk for flooding and forest fires. It states that global warming will
likely lead to more natural disasters, severe weather, as well as
increased spread of disease and waterborne pathogens. And those natural
disasters, the report says, calls for "extensive preparations for
mitigating the effects and public disorder problems that attend such
disasters."
Concerns for the future therein suggest "Canada's North could become
warmer and more hospitable to marine traffic, posing new security
challenges" that determine "climate refugees a potential issue."
According to William Rees, U.B.C. ecologist, the fears raised in the
RCMP report pose a credible scenario. He uses the example of a possible
one metre rise in sea level, suggesting that tens, possibly hundreds of
millions of climate refugees will emerge globally. Rees stated that the
current illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border will be like "a
picnic compared to what might be ahead."
My first thought about the US border issues had been, apart from a
typical attempt to distract from the war in Iraq, a security issue that
would eventually enable feds to keep US citizens and their financial
holdings within the US borders in the event of a drastic drop in the
dollar, or outright federal bankruptcy. It would also enhance the
security requirements around a possible internal US currency. Now,
increasing climate change offers a brilliant new spin on the need for
tighter border security, particularly for the US. The rationale can now
be that climate change refugees will deluge both borders, but the fact
that US citizens would be trying to leave the US will be downplayed.
Hundreds of $billions will eventually be spent on police and border
security, rather than on emissions reduction programs, alternative
energy solutions, or protection of natural resources whose alteration
and exploitation lead to environmental disasters. Such expenditures will
deal only with containment of some symptoms of the effects of
corporatization, rather than address the global threat of destructive
corporate agendas. They will merely serve to perpetuate the misbegotten
understanding that the police state is the solution to all of our
problems. Again, those who invest heavily in security related industries
will guide future government spending, and government will merely
pretend to be doing something for the environment with its token
contributions to but a few new programs.
If we could only freeze time in order to clean house inside first; to
revise our definitions of safe, healthy and prosperous living, then
present this sustainability to the rest of the world before we attempt,
in vain, to overcome a fearful future by applying the ineffective
methods from the past.
Has anyone else observed similar manipulative strategies on the part of
law enforcement, military or government with respect to climate change?
Katrina victims come to mind.
Natalia Kuzmyn
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