There Once was an Island Called Malta Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Times of Malta has a great piece on the threat of global warming to that country. Apparently the Maltese are think they're too small a country to make a difference, and the author is calling for this attitude to change:

Only last week there was an article in this paper saying that southern Europe is going to become a desert. That includes us too I suppose... or doesn't it? I have not come across any study as to how precisely Malta will be affected by global warming. Nor have I heard of a plan to become more eco-friendly. The chimneys of both the power station and St Luke's Hospital, among others, belch forth their noxious fumes periodically. We are still totally dependent on the burning of fossil fuels to obtain the energy we need to provide electricity and water at the lowest level and to the propelling of the thousands upon thousands of cars to ply us back and forth across the couple of miles from one destination to the next. Nobody has opened their mouth about using an alternative source of energy, notably harnessing the wind and capturing the sun, both of which we are abundantly blessed with. Not a squeak from any official quarter.

Are we under the impression that we are exempt? We seem to imagine that we live a charmed life and that the woes that affect other nations will never affect us. We will probably let other nations take appropriate action to stem the devastating tide that is the consequences of global warming while pretending that we in Malta are too small to do anything significant and will in time-honoured fashion carry on regardless, till... till that fateful day when it will all go pear-shaped... when we will shriek and lament as another town or village is engulfed by the sea while we choke with thirst.

This is not a Jeremiad lament but a warning. God helps those who help themselves and the battle to stem climate change and minimise the effects of global warming must become our national top priority before it is too late. Malta, in its smallness, with a little help from our large and powerful EU neighbours, can become a prototype, a shining example of which way the world should go in future to save the planet.

—Times of Malta, There once was an island called Malta

Alarmist? Maybe. But I think it's only human nature to put off that which does not immediately impact us. And sure, even in Malta, it may be a hundred years before there's any real impact of the sort he's describing, but the point is that we need to start making changes now, lest our children inherit an even greater calamity.