In recent weeks, as friends and foe alike discussed the American elections, fate and fortune have landed me into some very searching discussions about climate change, Africa, the Global North, and Biden!
An argument can be made that climate change has become, by itself, a full subject of study. If so, it is worth examining how that subject has been formed. What, in detailing the archaeology of knowledge, Michel Foucault described as the process of discursive formation.
We must be unapologetic and unambiguous about what the development priorities of Africa are. It seems clear to me this must be: the liberation of our productive forces, in order to improve the livelihoods of all our people. Ending mass misery, that is the number one historical task of this generation of Africans! As argued before, on another occasion, not even the rising sun is more important than this.
Let us first leave no doubt about this: I support, with every bone in my body, the urgent call for action to be taken to save the planet. Wanton and irresponsible greed, neoliberal capitalism, shareholder primacy, egregious short-termism, and such other contradictions, have put us all at the precipice of collective self-annihilation. Human greed may just take down everything; flora, fauna, land, sea, sky!
But to tackle this problem sustainably, systematically and successfully requires democratic participation by all stakeholders – poor, rich, weak, powerful. A discursive formation, to be credible – argued Foucault – must emerge from a genuinely representative discursive constellation. This is where the problem begins for those of us who believe in multilateralism!
The roadmap for tackling climate change seems to have been generated by the powerful, for the weak. It reflects the discursive dominance – if not the discursive monopoly – of the Global North. Something to be done TO, not WITH, the Global South.
In pointing out this contradiction, one risks sounding like a climate change denialist. A Trumpian clone. But we must risk even that mislabelling to pursue the historical task of development before us.
Biden rode on clouds of glory, in some circles, that he – unlike his erratic, climate denying predecessor (and now successor), stood by the climate change agenda. This was done to thunderous applause.
The Biden that emerged signing this treaty, and that treaty, did not always then follow through with committed action.
African countries, are being asked to cut emissions they hardly emit. The fact that poverty is an established causal factor of global warming, is conveniently ignored. The pledges of huge funds to support poor countries in climate transition, remain on camera. Another miracle promised, that led nowhere.
How in the name of all that is good on this planet, can anyone ask Nigeria, for example – in a precipitate manner – not to exploit its oil and gas resources?
The country hardly has a functioning grid for electricity supply. It is a cause for celebration in Nigeria, when, out of the twenty four hours in a day, the grid supplies five hours of electricity. So what will follow an abandonment of fossil fuels today – darkness and poverty!! And tremendous misery, even worse than is being experienced now.
Yet, some African scholars and policymakers, ignoring our concrete conditions, parrot such unexamined positions as the new development gospel.
This is Neoliberal balderdash! Are we trying to reverse global warming so that we may die of hunger and poverty in Africa?
We scream about the peasant that must use sticks in the forest to light a fire to survive another day. But ignore the fact that the weapons being detonated – needlessly and fatally – in an avoidable war in Ukraine, issue carbon too. Not oxygen!
American exports of gas to Europe increased (not decreased) post Trump, during the Biden era. The arms industry in the US, last year grew revenues in double digits – it produces much carbon. The carnage in Gaza, which Biden always vetoed when concerted action was attempted, by most countries of the world to stop it, at the UN, issues much more carbon than we care to admit.
If Biden and the Democrats were serious about asking the world to use renewable sources of energy, why did they increase the tariffs on electric vehicles from China, way beyond what (even) Trump placed? Is market development no longer accelerated by competitive and affordable pricing? On whose side then are they – ordinary people of the working class, or the billionaires in Detroit?
This piece can go on till I begin to swear, so I had better stop. Biden and the Democratic party had the rhetoric, their deeds left much to be desired. And now we are here.
Donald Trump may not be the needed alternative, but the Democrats must also be asked: how long can you pretend to love us, and then mess up the world like this? You dropped nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, carpeted Vietnam and Laos with bombs, and then constructively wiped a functional Libya off the modern map of the world.
It is not just up to the Global North though. Akufo-Addo, as president of Ghana, saw no contradiction in doing precious little about the devastation that illegal mining (galamsey), has unleashed on Ghana’s ecology. Yet he too stood, like a “Mohammed without a Koran”, at that recent summit, and sermonised on the need for urgent action to stop global warming. By who?
Galamsey is a palpable accelerator of global warming! It destroys forests, water bodies, embeds long term poverty, and many more destructive patterns.
I had better stop here, I am tempted to speak in the Ga language at this stage. But this necessary task to save the planet must be democratised, returning its focus to the people. Only this can ensure that it does not peter out and continue to hang in mid-air.
November 26 2024
