Osama to Obama

Osama bin Laden doesn’t seem to be dead, as former president, George W. Bush had so eagerly hoped he was, with the drone attacks that had been and are still being religiously carried out by the U.S. in the tribal lands that cross the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.

The latest audiotape from “Osama to Obama” has caused a great deal of debate, and not just in the White House and by U.S. national security services.

Al-Qaeda’s number one has once again threatened to launch an attack on American soil, but is that really something to be surprised by? What’s surprising is bin Laden’s new stance in regard to climate change.

In a second tape aired by the Al-Jazeera network on Jan. 29, bin Laden blamed industrialized countries for global warming.

Needless to say, the environmentalists are cringing in horror while those who think global warming is a myth, are so full of glee I’m surprised they haven’t burst yet.

Bin Laden singled out the U.S. and took them to task for not having signed the Kyoto Protocol, saying that both Bushes neglected to do so because of pressure exerted by large American corporations.

The decision by the U.S. not to sign the Kyoto Protocol has long been an international sore point, while environmentalist groups within the country have been trying to get the States to sign on.

But this unwelcome addition to the pro-Kyoto advocates is unlikely to help them reach their goal. The authenticity of the tape is being debated as experts try and figure out whether or not it truly is the man optimists had consigned to the grave only a few years ago.

So far, experts agree that the voice on the tape is indeed the voice of Osama bin Laden, or at least matches his earlier tapes.

The Copenhagen Summit is still fresh in everyone’s minds, and President Obama’s clean energy plan is still relatively new, with the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which took place in February last year.

This Act includes over $80-billion dedicated to clean energy which will cover everything from creating programs for green jobs training, to funding for competitions towards newer power-storage systems, to home weatherization plans, and making federal buildings more eco-friendly.

The most worrying part about this tape isn’t the content itself, but that the man who is saying it is the most infamous person of the twenty-first century.

Refusal by the U.S. to sign the Kyoto Protocol is disgraceful, as is the fact that we are still waiting to see what (if any) good will come out of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change.

It might not be pleasant to hear bin Laden talk about how important the environment is. I mean, this is the guy responsible for the 2001 attacks on the World Trace Center, as well as numerous other terrorist activities the world over, but – and from the bottom of my soul I hate to admit it – he is right about one thing: We need to start looking at ways to reduce the amount of damage we are inflicting on the natural world.