It’s a mad, mad world

A friend of mine got very upset at a recent news item in Wall Street Journal. Obviously, US bankers have just begun discussing development of lending guidelines similar to the new “carbon principles” that make it tougher to build coal-fired power plants. The carbon principles pledge the banks to investigate and analyze the risks associated with CO2 emissions and integrate that analysis into lending and underwriting decisions. The rise of global warming hysteria leads to one brainless decision after another. Perhaps all entrepreneurs will soon have to factor in climate change when seeking private funding.

Many seem to think that going back to the Stone Age is the only right resolution. In Minneapolis, for example, all lights in municipal buildings will be turned off for one hour on a Saturday evening as part of the Earth Hour, initiated by WWF. Earth Hour is an initiative “to finding solutions for climate change”. I tell you one thing - it will be damn hard to find any solution in complete darkness.

In Petaling Jaya, showing some extraordinary intelligence, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency shut down all electrical appliances in its premises for 2.5 hours as part of efforts to combat global warming. All computers, printers, scanners, lights and air-conditioners were switched off. As if prayer and contemplation rather than technology and invention would save the planet.

It is also amazing how global warming is overheating the brain. In an instantaneous poll, the Wall Street Journal asked the audience to select the most pressing societal problem from a list of five that included infectious disease, terrorism and global warming. Global warming was the most popular response, receiving 31 percent of the vote, while infectious disease came in last with only 3 percent of the vote.

My mother, a very wise woman by the way, can’t understand how we can speculate over what might happen in 50 years from now while 854 million people go to bed hungry every day. While every five seconds, one child dies from hunger related causes. The world today is more prosperous than it ever has been. New technological advances create opportunities to improve economies and reduce hunger and poverty. Why, oh why do we keep insisting on financial sacrifices that are a pointless waste of money?