President Obama: ‘Planet Will Boil Over’ If Young Africans Are Allowed Cars, Air-Conditioning, Big Houses
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on July 15, 2013
My Note: I heard exactly the same 15 years ago when a European leader told an African leader in a televised Live debate. The African leader then reacted, “We also want to develop our countries and live the same way as you do there in Europe”. Well, if Western leaders are honest and they really mean good towards the people of Africa, they would have at least supported development projects in a country like Ethiopia that has already found the best way of producing energy by constructing dams on its God-given rivers. They do have the right not to support us, if they don’t want to, but, at least they should refrain from harming us by obstructing our development. I will believe President Obama, if populations across the ‘rich’ nations transform themselves into model citizens by willing to abstain from their fat cars or environmentally notorious way of life.
A blogger rightly put it this way:
“Now I’m going to get back into Air Force One and create more pollution than 10,000 cars driving for 5 years. This is okay of course because I’m the King of America…you little people must suffer and ride bikes to work.’
President Barack Obama said at a town hall event in Johannesburg, South Africa two weeks ago that unless we find new way of producing energy “the planet will boil over” if people in Africa are allowed to attain air conditioning, automobiles and big houses.
“Ultimately, if you think about all the youth that everybody has mentioned here in Africa, if everybody is raising living standards to the point where everybody has got a car and everybody has got air conditioning, and everybody has got a big house, well, the planet will boil over — unless we find new ways of producing energy.”
The president gave short shrift to these more traditional health concerns during his visit to the continent. Instead, Obama implied several times that the U.S. would only encourage growth in Africa should it be grounded in “clean energy strategies” and not in “corrupting” energy economies that gave rise to unprecedented levels of health and prosperity among Western nations. Speaking on the future of U.S. aid to Africa, the president said that it was his goal “to see if we can leapfrog some of the polluting practices of America or Europe, and go straight to the clean energy strategies that will allow you to advance economic growth, but not corrupt the planet.”
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 
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