Global Warming

The voracious consumers in the streets of New York and their no-less-insatiable compatriots in the shopping districts of La Paz “celebrate” Christmas by buying.

The agreements reached at the recent climate change summit in Cancun, which only Bolivia opposed, have barely been put in place, while the world (excluding industrialized communist countries like China) celebrates the birth of the baby Jesus with greater economic growth. In a brazen act, the Chinese defend their right to destroy the environment in order to grow — they now top the list of countries that threaten humanity’s home on Earth. On the other hand, regardless of nationality, everyone wants gifts, even if they are toys with toxic lead paint or items made by workers in near-slave labor conditions.

I know I sound contrary to the spirit of peace and love of the season. But I can’t help thinking more critically about something so serious. We don’t need WikiLeaks to know that the human species lacks morals when it comes to trade. The real pity is that the consequences are a gift in the vein of the Trojan Horse, not only for future generations but for ours.

A study of the fragile ecosystem of Lake Titicaca carried out by the Florida Institute of Technology has examined sediment spanning 370,000 years and reached conclusions considered “catastrophic,” an adjective that scientists have long avoided when referring to problems in this part of the world.

According to the study, if global temperature continues to rise by 1.5 to 2 degrees centigrade until 2050, 85 percent of the sacred lake will disappear — and with it the cradle of the Quechua and Aymara cultures. Global warming will reduce the fourth-largest freshwater source in the world to a version of Lake Assal, a patch of salty, lifeless liquid.

By that time, I fear the metropolis formed by La Paz and El Alto will be a memory. Glaciologists believed that the ice of Chacaltaya would be gone by 2015, but it disappeared six years earlier. Those same scientists believe that the Tuni and Condoriri glaciers will be gone in 2025 and 2035. If their calculations are correct, many of us won’t be here to see the agony of Lake Titicaca, because there won’t be water off which to live.

However, contrary to reason, we continue consuming, unconsciously contributing to global warming that has local impact. One of every two liters of water treated by the local water company is irreparably lost. We criticize First World consumption, but we do our best to emulate them. For every dollar of GDP that Bolivia generates, it produces double the pollution of its Latin American counterparts.

In addition, the major cause of greenhouse gases at the global level is caused by forest fires, which in Bolivia destroy millions of hectares of trees, putting us in an uncomfortable position in terms of emissions per capita, of which no one speaks.

Recently, a senior official of La Paz’s state government confirmed my suspicions: They know that La Paz and El Alto, along with all the inhabitants of the area’s high plateau, will not be here in a few decades. Nevertheless, there are no serious initiatives to adapt to the crisis. If we are given some of the money allocated by the recent climate change summit, we won’t know how to spend it wisely.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Santa Claus would turn us into consumers of fair trade products and recycled material — savers of water and energy, so that we and our children and grandchildren can celebrate many more Christmases here?