“As fires continue to smoulder in Indonesia and El Nino heightens anxiety about global warming, hundreds of the world’s scientists, economists, lawyers, and policy makers have come to Washington this week to work on protecting the planet’s ecosystem.”
No, the apocalyptic vision captured in the above lines is not from a Greenpeace or Earth First! news release. It is the opening paragraph in the October 9, 1997 issue of World Bank News, which describes itself as a “fortnightly newsletter for journalists and the developing community.”
Not content with pouring billions of taxpayers’ dollars annually into what some consider to be, at best, dubious development projects in the Third World, the World Bank appears to have turned its talents to promoting the UN-sponsored conference in Kyoto.
As even the editors of World Bank News must know, the fires in Indonesia were triggered by a drought, strong winds, and the failure of local fire-fighting officials to act promptly. And El Nino is a natural phenomenon that stirs up the world’s weather every few years. Neither has anything to do with the burning of fossil fuels, said by global warming advocates to be contributing to a projected rise in global temperatures.
The next issue of World Bank News (October 23, 1997) kept up the drumbeat by quoting World Bank President James Wolfenson as telling a Washington audience that, “Climate change affects the developing world disproportionately although it is a problem created to a large extent by the developed world.” The newsletter goes on to say that in a recent global study on climate change (which was not cited), “scientists concluded that human activities, especially fossil-fuel combustion and land-use changes like farming and deforestation, are increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, and altering the Earth’s climate.”
Are members of Congress responsible for appropriating money for the US contribution to the World Bank aware that they are also bankrolling a global PR firm?
