Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Greens attacking Bangladeshis for trying to build a better future for their children.
From Paris to Bangladesh, how the climate change accord is imploding
By Divya Rajagopal
The onslaught of a new power plant on the fragile ecology of the Sunderbans is fresh proof of the futility of climate reforms. A ground report from ET.
Until two years ago, 28-year-old Sajjad Hossain Tuhin, a student of forestry, would walk up to the banks of the River Rupsa in Khulna, Bangladesh, to capture the moment of dusk, when the setting sun left the sky lit up like fireworks. In romantic Bengali literature, it is described as the moment to catch a glimpse of a new bride. But Tuhin doesn’t do this anymore. The sun now sets behind the boundary of an upcoming LNG power plant. The banks of the Rupsa are astir with vehicles ferrying rocks and cement to speed up the completion of the plant that will fire up Bangladesh’s economic growth.
…
At Rampal, a village 14km off the Sundarban forests, four-lane roads are being dug up by construction lorries to make way for a 1,350MW power plant, a joint venture under the Bangladesh India Friendship Project. Linked to the Mongla port, Rampal is expected to light up the entire upcoming industrial belt around the region, and holds the key to Bangladesh’s leap out of the LDC group. It is also a strategic investment for India as it strives to keep its influence intact — and immune from China — with its closest ally in the subcontinent.
Meanwhile, environmental groups are convinced the power plant will destroy the pristine ecology of the Sundarban mangroves, which act as a natural cover against the frequent cyclones and flooding that the Bay of Bengal brings. A drive from Mongla port to Rampal reveals why the environmentalists are edgy. On one side are lush green paddy fields, mangroves, and banana trees that are distinct to the Sundarban ecology. On the other, are giant gas cylinders and cement factories eating up the green cover.
…
Read more (paywalled): https://prime.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/67446220/environment/from-paris-to-bangladesh-how-the-climate-change-accord-is-imploding
When I read articles like this – how could anyone with an ounce of humanity express outrage that the people of Bangladesh are trying to build a better future for their children? Who gives a stuff about a bunch of Mangroves, when human lives are at stake?
Only a green could attack the economic efforts of some of the poorest people in the world, and think they are doing the right thing.
Update (EW): The original link stopped working (and contained a typo anyway), but Steve Case found a working link, unfortunately now paywalled.
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Some perspective is required here, what percentage of the mangroves is being replaced by the power plant? Probably a tiny insignificant percentage, but heck “greens” have to eat, so they peddle their wares regardless, and the useless MSM gives them a free pass.
The Sundarbans are six times the size of Greater London, located on a river delta, and is crawling with tigers, somehow I doubt that a power station is going to have a significant impact, and any impact is likely positive, as many people will no longer need to get eaten by tigers as they scratched a living from the forest.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/16YVSCSkb48sfJ6F03MWDdd/sundarbans-bangladesh
My god man! Think of the Tigers? They’ll have to use the McDonald’s drive through now!
Jeff Alberts
Judging by the current vegan campaigns in the UK just now (the latest promoted by a former glamour model and her multi billionaire husband, who like travelling the world on their £20m private jet) the Tigers won’t be served unless they order vegetables.
Good excuse to feed them greens!
Greens are quite happy to utilise Bangladesh as a poster child of a population under threat from rising sea levels ( despite 90% “sea rise” there being land sinkage and nothing to do with “global warming.”)
but when it comes to have a “clean” LNG power station to drag them up a notch out of poverty … Oh No! We can’t have that.
While that plant may significantly improve live in this ruin of a country, it will not make on iota of difference “climate” in a million years. Total hypocrisy, they really show how deranged and inhuman they are with this.
if theyre as smart as they could be, theyll leave as much mangrove as they can and run the warm discharge waters into either hydroponics or some other land use.
the issue with mangroves being trashed is real a lot of migratory birds rely on them and they DO help hold land together. theyre stinky and buggy but they do serve a purpose
The implication is that the locals CANNOT have BOTH an LNG power plant … and … mangroves. Rubbish. I’ll tell you what they really cannot have … is mangroves and a forest of wind turbines. Now THAT would despoil the view
I visited Hunterston Nuclear Power station in Scotland when I was a kid.
The cooling water from it was pumped into the Firth of Clyde.
One of the visitor attractions was to see the truly mahoosive fish which flourished in the warm water around the station.
That was around 1973 or so and the place was opened in 1964. So a little exercise in raising sea temperatures over a short, nine year period proved beneficial to aquatic life, brought employment to the area, maintained a stable grid, and never suffered a major accident before it was decommissioned in 1990.
Scotland has some of the most beautiful countryside in the world and, OK, it wasn’t ideal to have a power station built on the banks of the Firth, but drive for five minutes in any direction and you would not know it existed.
Travel past it by ship, ferry or boat and one marvelled at it’s sheer insignificance in the landscape it was situated. Yet it provided thousands of people with cheap, reliable electricity 24/7/365.
Travel through Scotland now and one marvels at the sheer destruction of a pristine, wild landscape littered with wind turbines that provide intermittent, non reliable electricity for a few thousand people, for a few days of the year.
The green blob is a societal cancer.
So sad to hear, mate. Truly awful. I had so looked forward to a trip to my mothers peoples homeland … stark pristine and gorgeous.
I took a cross country trip several years back and drove west out of Jackson Hole WY (where I have a relative … yes, it IS the playground of Billionaires) … as I am crossing Idaho through beautiful farming valleys with snow capped mountain vistas … ugh … I come upon the biggest, ugliest, “wind farm” I have ever seen. Straight from beautiful landscapes, most of which had been “manipulated by man” with crops, livestock that still maintained the breathtaking beauty of the land … to these manmade contraptions that dominated and obscured the landscape in the most hideous way. How such an installation can EVER be sanctioned by an “environmentalist” is beyond me. And what’s worse, is that when the rotors stop spinning, one by one, they won’t be repaired (too expensive … no more subsidy $$) and they’ll sit idle … rusting and despoiling the environment. How do I know this? Well the exact same thing happened to a local Bay Area “wind farm” on Altimont Pass (yes … THAT Altimont). More than half of those blades have not been spinning for DECADES … yet we all get to “enjoy” the vista they provide as idle relics of the 1970’s. Seems as though the Altimont Pass is the scene of multiple horrors over the years.
I had the opportunity to visit that part of the country (Jackson hole, Grand Tetons, Southern Idaho, etc.) a couple times back in the late 1970’s. Beautiful, loved it, would love to go back,except I would hate to go back to see the area destroyed by windmills. 🙁
These are the same people that will scream “racism” because we would rather they develop their own country, than have then come here. They are ideologs, possessed by their Ideology. Their arguments are those of emotion and passion. Dangerous, delusional and the antithesis of reason, there is no way to enlighten them until they throw off their addiction. It gives them an endorphin rush when they pat themselves on the back for “ saving the earth” . And they vote. That’s how democrats and liberals get elected.
“They are ideologs”
Is that what you put in the fireplace to clean the chimney? Oh, you meant ideologues.
I believe Thomas was wryly implying their ideas are wooden … nice wordplay *snicker*
They are block heads.
I might add “idealogs” to my personal lexicon.
The Greenies biggets fear is: Healthy .Happy. Prosperous.
Dark- skinned people..’
I say this as one who had a cousin sterilized for the crime of “Native while fertile” -at 12..
Can’t have those people indigent and drunk.
She is neither..
It is that the green blob thinks most people should be either dead, or peons. Paul Ehrich and his followers expressed the basic ethos of the movement.
Environmentalism is another way of saying Marxism, the terms can be used interchangeably.
Thanos is a rabid Environmentalist but at least he had the conviction to murder the only thing he loved in the Universe – his adopted daughter.
Until the politicians and so-called climate scientists come to terms with that in the final interation of achieving their goal of pre-industrial levels of CO2 emissions requires the elimination of at least 5.8 billion souls we will continue to have this fight.
The left accuses the right of being heartless. They say we should think of the grandchildren. At the same time their proposed policies condemn the third world to grinding poverty.
Fossil fuels lifted the first world from grinding poverty. The third world is now similarly being lifted from grinding poverty. Of course the left doesn’t want people to hear the good news. link
The left loves theory and by their theory, they are trying to make the world a better place. Viewed in the light of cold reality, the left is doing anything but making the world a better place. They are actually the heartless ones.
The arrogant, elitist, eco-Westerners … HAVE … everything. Every benefit of an industrialized, technological society … all powered by (primarily) fossil fuels. Because they HAVE everything … they imagine LESS would be somehow “better”, more “noble”. Funny thing is that all the 3rd worlders who have NOTHING … would dearly love to HAVE a tiny fraction of what the tone deaf eco-Westerners take for granted. Not to worry, the eco-Westerners will condescendingly TELL these poor natives what’s “best for them”.
hatelovesabortion
Those who lament the modernization of Bangladesh are free to adopt their current living conditions for themselves. Al Gore, DiCrapio, Weepy Bill, that goes double for you.
It seems a majority Californians love Dark Green only, so why not let them swap places with an equal number of Bangladeshis? They will get a wetter so more attractive – warm – climate in return. Lots of cheap labor “refugees” around too !
The read more Link
http://https//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67594611.cms
doesn’t work.
Maybe this works:
https://prime.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/67446220/environment/from-paris-to-bangladesh-how-the-climate-change-accord-is-imploding
Thanks Steve, updated.
“how could anyone with an ounce of humanity express outrage that the people of Bangladesh are trying to build a better future for their children”
Because they are friends of the earth… and enemies of mankind.
“Until two years ago, 28-year-old Sajjad Hossain Tuhin, a student of forestry, would walk up to the banks of the River Rupsa in Khulna, Bangladesh, to capture the moment of dusk, when the setting sun left the sky lit up like fireworks. In romantic Bengali literature, it is described as the moment to catch a glimpse of a new bride. But Tuhin doesn’t do this anymore. The sun now sets behind the boundary of an upcoming LNG power plant”
Nice poetry sir but BD needs electricity more than it need poetry and if you don’t mind reading plain old prose take a look at the UNFCCC. It says that BD is a nonAnnex country with no climate action obligation and allowed to increase emissions for economic growth.
Duh!
Couldn’t Sajjad walk up the banks of the River Rupsa a few hundred yards upstream or down?
My thoughts exactly, MarkW.
What was left out of the poetic image were the piles of rotting trash, discarded refuse, and broken items Sajjad had to wade through and around to stand to admire the setting sun.
I recall R. Reagan saying nothing was more frightening to hear than the words, “I’m from the federal gov’t and I’m here to help.” Likewise, must scare the hell outta third world folks to hear “I’m an environmentalist and I’m here to help.” Greens love to say that the significance of Paris was not its direct result (nil) but the fact that all nations came together blah blah blah. A careful read of this article couldn’t make it more clear- Greens got “all nations to come together to prevent third world development. Because third world folks don’t know what’s good for them, and Greens do.
“It is also a strategic investment for India as it strives to keep its influence intact — and immune from China — with its closest ally in the subcontinent.”
I would support it for this reason alone, although for all the other reasons too. This is an opportunity for India and Bangladesh to work cooperatively together in their own region without China muddying up the waters with their debt trap philosophy, similar to what is going on in Sri Lanka and Pakistan with China in their backyard.
If Sajjad Hossain really wants to see a sunset, he should be able to still walk a bit further along the River where the power plant won’t block his view. That shouldn’t be grounds anyway for blocking a new power plant from being built that will bring additional multipliers to the local economy.
For reliable power nothing could be cleaner for the environment than LNG (except piped NG). Yet the greens still complain.
It’s interesting to watch the greens protest NG pipelines in the US. They are so ignorant they think NG leaking from a pipeline underneath a river can pollute the water.
Seriously, what a nonsense article – weepy, foolish, selfish and uninformed.
This nonsense is standard fare for far-left national news organizations like the CBC, the BBC and the ABC, among others, typically read by a female announcer with a look of dreadful regret etched on her imbecilic face.
A summary of the article would read: “Let poor people stay poor, they don’t deserve what we already have.”
The appropriate response to this selfish nonsense is unprintable.
Indeed. White privileged man and women telling those from the sub-continent that they can’t provide for their children in the way the sahibs do. Neo-colonialism at its worst.
Notice how these greenies have no objections to giant, almost useless windmills (see recent comprehensive study of windfarms and the fraud their proponents have committed with their promised economics).
A power plant of this size (1350MW) runs at near 100% capacity usually, as opposed to the average capacity
of large on shore wind turbines (2.5 to 3 MW nameplate capacity yields average capacity of roughly 0.5 to 0.7 MW, call it 0.6MW) which means you need 2250 turbines, which also requires a reliable power plant for backup, and 50 acres per megawatt (nameplate capacity) or 112,500 acres (175 square miles) for the turbines. Yeah, right, that ugly LNG plant sure ruins the view of those fifty people (of course you’ll need a LNG plant for backup power for all those turbines).
Someone needs to ask the author of this nonsensical pap how these people are going to build a natural looking power system. And where is YOUR natural looking power system, by the way?
“Which also requires a reliable power plant for backup”
Exactly, so even if a bunch of wind turbines were built (think of the Tigers!), BD would STILL need this plant as backup. Or, maybe, just let them go back to the dark ages when nature doesn’t co-operate…
Articles like this are background evidence that C)2 emissions and “climate change” do not hurt the poor the most and that the alarmist hand-wringing over “the poor” is nothing but more hot air.
I imagine rural Tennesseans in the 1930’s were delighted and amazed when the Tennessee Valley Authority brought electricity to their homes. So now Bangladeshis will experience the same thing, flipping a light switch for the first time. BRAVO!
“Flipping a light switch for the first time”
What about those of us in the UK, who will soon have to get used to flipping the switch and staying in the dark…
For anyone that feels passion for the people in Bangladesh, They could install the ZENGCOM™¹ (Zero Emissions Natural Gas Combustion) Process, and only the banana trees required to build the plant will be destroyed. This will start a trend and every natural gas fired power plant in the world will want the ZENGCOM™¹ Process. The cost, according to an experienced cost estimator, would be 1.5-2.0 times the cost of their existing, or soon to exist atmospheric natural gas combustor.
Why on earth would any sane person want to double the cost of their electricity in order emit less of a gas that is good for the environment?
Richard Hood January 19, 2019 at 7:35 am
ZENGCOM™¹ No under no circumstances should this system be substituted. Instead a “Emissions” line should be carefully placed into the mangroves so they benefit from the CO2
michael
Just what do greenies think that poor countries in hot climates are going to do with the climate money promised them? They’re going to build power plants to power the air conditioning units that they’re going buy. IF we really are facing doom, then why is anyone talking about funding that? How much will emissions increase for every dollar sent to Africa? How does that compare with the emissions mitigated for each dollar spent on a windmill? And why not just do neither and come out ahead?
Poor people aren’t getting the climate money. The leaders of the country are, and they will do what they have always done. Build more mansions for themselves and take expensive vacations using the money.
The poor people won’t see a penny of that money.
Given that recipients are too corrupt to have functioning economies of their own, what you say is true to the maximum extent that it can be true. But with the amounts of transfers that people are talking about, there’s no way they could skim off everything.
Whoa, that must be one big LNG plant if the setting sun in Bangladesh is eclipsed by it anywhere you go. Or, does this demonstrate the futility of these climate cultists, unable to step 5′ to the left or right to get a view?
Leftists always expect other people to do the work so that they can have what they want.
My question is: Will the plant survive the seasonal flooding? And will it survive the occasional catastrophic flooding that always has happened there? I can only assume they’re building it high enough, and with seawall protection.
Google Earth is your friend.
The nearest I got to Khulna was Chalna (probably located at ‘Mongla’), the port some miles down river. On either bank was thick jungle. No one in their senses would walk or try to walk in that jungle. Snakes, as well as tigers. Anyone walking there would soon be dead.
About the only way to have the setting sun blocked by the LPG gas terminal would be if you were in wa small boat in the river!
I have checked with Google Maps – which I am assured is accurate. Rampal is on the east side of the Rupsa – or possibly the Pussur – River, and is about 11 km from the river bank. Much closer to the river is the Rampal Coal Based Power Project, (also known as the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project) about 1.5 km from the river. In the vicinity is the WTP @ur momisugly rampal power plant by Ashora.
The ‘G Gas’ LPG plant is on the west bank of the Pussur (or Rupsa) river at the northern point of an island where a distributary takes off to the west. Across the other side of the distributary is the town of Chalna. We did not see the town when I was there so presumably we anchored at Mongla, this was due to the holding ground at Khulna being unsatisfactory. Our cargo – raw hjust and gunny bags – was brought down to us in lighters. Certainly on the east bank of the river then it was think jungle – now on the east bank there is a major industrial area, from the BNS naval base down stream, with oil and LNG terminals, cement mills, and a container port.
This article is definitely of the “Ho Humm” sort.
“Who gives a stuff about a bunch of Mangroves, when human lives are at stake?”
Eric, that’s a very crass statement !
It’s a Cyclone area, without the Mangroves the soil washes away so less land to farm, the fish have nowhere to spawn = no food…
so humans move to the comfort of the city’s where they can have the benefit of living in slums on rubbish tips, urban pollution, drink & wash in fresh sewage water & enjoy the pleasures of dysentery;
That’s “who gives a stuff about a bunch of Mangroves”.
With proper thought & planning you can have both energy & farmland, but without the protection of Mangroves you will lose both.
I live on the subtropical Fraser Coast on the shores of the Coral Sea, so I’m well aware Mangroves help protect the coast. But large concrete sea walls also work. With a stronger economy Bangladesh will be able to do both.
Google street view can take you to this exact river to see the thatch and sheet metal roofed shacks.
And it appears that the majority of the nation’s forests in this region have been replaced with rice patties. As LNG plants and other modern industries move in then the economy can diversify, less people will be required to work on farms and instead go on to receive educations, yields per acre will increase and allow more land to revert back to nature, and quality of life as well as life expectancy will increase.
” replaced with rice patties.”
Can you grill those? Oh you meant rice paddies.
The problem outlined has one real solution, globalization regulation and anti-conception.
You first . Retroactively .
Oh … that’s for OTHER people …those that don’t deserve to live , right ??
If Bangladesh is going to be buried by sea level rise, they’ll need energy to build all their buildings on pylons, like in the Jetsons.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/50-years-of-the-jetsons-why-the-show-still-matters-43459669/
Progressives trying to keep the third world poor and dependant, like they are supposed to be.
Remember when Obama went to Africa to tell young Africans not to bother dreaming of cars, nice homes, and air conditioning? Then he got back in the world’s most expensive private jet to come home for another golf date.
“Remember when Obama went to Africa to tell young Africans not to bother dreaming of cars, nice homes, and air conditioning?”
I don’t remember. Do you have a link?
Here is a youtube with the talk. Not exactly the same tone or context as mentioned here, but still useful for understanding what was said.
https://youtu.be/fBE0RKbRbl4
In this speech, he says “If everyone has a big car, and everyone has air conditioning, and everyone has a big house, then … … … ah … … the world’s gonna boil over”
You can’t get stupider than that
No way.
Thanks Steven.
I remember. I am Australian and I was enraged by that speech. I can imagine how the Africans felt.
How much forest/farm land would be swallowed up for the wind mills/solar plants trying to produce the same power?
In 2005 the Ethiopian Govn’t shutdown all mobile networks in the fear of growing anti-Govn’t support with citizens. Haiti residents who revolted with fuel price hikes, after the big quake, also oppressed by Govn’t. The French last year protesting about fuel tax hikes. And recently the Zimbabwean Govn’t shutdown access to mobile and internet networks with protests and deaths over fuel price hikes, apparently now the most expensive fuel in the world.
Is this the start of the end of the green blob?