Truth and trolls
With the publication of the new, fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the climate change denial trolls are predictably crawling out of their hiding places for one last round of regurgitated lies (“International climate change report says human cause ‘likely’, ” Oct. 1, page 9; “Climate change report is devastating, but skeptics see a conspiracy,” Oct. 1, page 9).
Scientific evidence is now so overwhelming and unequivocal that every scientific academy in the world and more than 95 percent of climate scientists agree with the conclusions of the IPCC that, without meaningful reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will rise by 2°C to 5°C by the end of the century, freak weather events will increase and the oceans will become more acidic.
Laudably, the Taipei Times which used to print articles and letters by climate change deniers like Bjorn Lomborg, Jason Lamantia or Taiwan’s very own denialist supremo, Michael Fagan, has stopped printing such flat-earth
nonsense for the last couple of years. Nevertheless, the usual denialist claptrap has been pushed around the globe, produced by the right-wing media and the other usual neoliberal, free-market suspects.
Their logic is easy to understand: Every year which passes by without meaningful global legislation on curbing greenhouse emissions is a few more trillion dollars in the bank accounts of the fossil fuel companies. Now, wouldn’t you lie for a few cool trillion in the bank?
Owners of fossil fuel companies like the Koch brothers and Gina Rinehart certainly think so.
Soon, humanity will reach a breaking point. Will it make lying about and inaction on climate change a crime (http://tinyurl.com/2cu4pza, http://eradicatingecocide.com)? Or will humanity continue to look the other way and let future generations pick up our bill?
Let’s hope humanity will embrace a healthy, low-carbon future for its own sake and the sake of all the other species it shares the planet with.
Flora Faun
Taipei
On Sept. 3 in Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) rolled out a parade of new weapons in PLA service that threaten Taiwan — some of that Taiwan is addressing with added and new military investments and some of which it cannot, having to rely on the initiative of allies like the United States. The CCP’s goal of replacing US leadership on the global stage was advanced by the military parade, but also by China hosting in Tianjin an August 31-Sept. 1 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which since 2001 has specialized
In an article published by the Harvard Kennedy School, renowned historian of modern China Rana Mitter used a structured question-and-answer format to deepen the understanding of the relationship between Taiwan and China. Mitter highlights the differences between the repressive and authoritarian People’s Republic of China and the vibrant democracy that exists in Taiwan, saying that Taiwan and China “have had an interconnected relationship that has been both close and contentious at times.” However, his description of the history — before and after 1945 — contains significant flaws. First, he writes that “Taiwan was always broadly regarded by the imperial dynasties of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will stop at nothing to weaken Taiwan’s sovereignty, going as far as to create complete falsehoods. That the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has never ruled Taiwan is an objective fact. To refute this, Beijing has tried to assert “jurisdiction” over Taiwan, pointing to its military exercises around the nation as “proof.” That is an outright lie: If the PRC had jurisdiction over Taiwan, it could simply have issued decrees. Instead, it needs to perform a show of force around the nation to demonstrate its fantasy. Its actions prove the exact opposite of its assertions. A
A large part of the discourse about Taiwan as a sovereign, independent nation has centered on conventions of international law and international agreements between outside powers — such as between the US, UK, Russia, the Republic of China (ROC) and Japan at the end of World War II, and between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) since recognition of the PRC as the sole representative of China at the UN. Internationally, the narrative on the PRC and Taiwan has changed considerably since the days of the first term of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic
RSS