BOYCOTT COP28
As with everything in the UAE, COP28 is a mirage of green washing. Getting there by plane - the top polluting industry, made worse by private jets, is only the beginning of the paradox of attending. The tourism industry, heavily reliant there on air conditioning, releases GHGs by the tons, food waste and a proliferation of plastics. The ambient air is often at 150 on the AQI, where elsewhere normal levels are at 25. Next is the use of Israeli lobby firms to help the UAE with its human rights record in Europe where EU politicians are allegedly bribed in Red Crescent envelopes, which still conveniently leaves out the sex trade (Porta Potty) and degradation of women albeit - as is always the excuse, renumerated handsomely (for dressing as nuns ripping bibles mid-sex!). Yes, employing human rights offenders to combat its image as human rights abuser is as cynical as the UAE leadership is. But getting at the heart of abuses is what Little Sparta has accomplished in Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, and elsewhere with mercenaries like the Wagner group or with UAE-based nutjob Erik Prince. Muslims killed, starved or displaced by the thousands if not millions to the glory of a leader whose protection is guaranteed by London, UK for services rendered to the (non-Muslim) monarchy by its repression and persecution of all things Arab Spring and democracy... couched in "anti-terrorism". Of course 🙄. This is the place that jailed Jamal Khashoggi's lawyer for "insulting the state" and lured & kidnapped the Hotel Rwanda hero recently released. Its judicial system is at the whim of its leaders. Fast forwarding to the UAE's planned fossil fuel expansion by 2050 and the Paris Accord may as well go to Dubai to die in December 2023.