I respect Vladimir Putin for many reasons. I have defended him from the lies told by imperialist politicians and the corporate media. The war party, which is made up of democrats and republicans, wants regime change in Russia. Simply put, the crumbling empire can't sustain itself without controlling this enormous energy rich country which spans two continents. Russia has been turned into an enemy because it insists on exercising its rights as a sovereign nation. It has also stepped back into the breach and foiled America's regime change plot in Syria. That is one of the reasons it is being condemned daily and blamed for the democratic party's self-inflicted wounds.
Having said all of that, I must say that I was extremely disappointed to read Putin's recent remarks on climate change. In the past he did acknowledge that humans were impacting the climate and correctly called the situation a dangerous crisis. But a few days ago he said that climate change was irreversible and besides not caused by humans and what the hell, a melting arctic will give Russia new economic opportunities.
Of course human CO2 production is responsible for dead coral reefs and blistering heat and methane gas bubbles threatening to explode in Russia itself. But it is also important to point out that the world has reached this point because other world leaders feel as Putin does. They may talk a good game but every so-called climate agreement results in sleight of hand and more global warming.
At Black Agenda Report we have been writing about this hypocrisy for a long time. See here, here and here too. Barack Obama marketed himself as an environmentalist, but he made sure that the Copenhagen and Paris agreements gave rich nations the right to keep spewing fossil fuels. What good is a climate change agreement that allows temperatures to keep rising? The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and India have all managed to give the appearance of lowering CO2 emissions when they have done just the opposite.
I call Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau the Obama Clone because he is also a photogenic errand boy for the 1%. Under Trudeau Canada has failed to meet even the weak emissions reductions targets set by his conservative predecessor. And yes, when Trump announced he was going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, the phony progressive Trudeau showed his true colors and called it a good thing.
We may defend or condemn world leaders for particular reasons but in the end few of them make decisions based on the interests of humanity. Those who do are the true revolutionaries.
Margaret Kimberley
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