As Barack Obama spends his first days in office, it is worth contemplating a passage from his book "Dreams from My Father." It reveals a lot about the way we view the world's problems.
Obama is in Kenya and wants to go on a safari. His Kenyan sister Auma chides him for behaving like a neo-colonialist. "Why should all that land be set aside for tourists when it could be used for farming? These wazungu care more about one dead elephant than they do for a hundred black children." Although he ends up going on safari, Obama has no answer to her question.
That anecdote has parallels with the current preoccupation with global warming. Many people - including America's new president - believe that global warming is the pre-eminent issue of our time, and that cutting carbon-dioxide emissions is one of the most virtuous things we can do. To stretch the metaphor a little, this seems like building ever-larger safari parks instead of creating more farms to feed the hungry.
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05 February 2009
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