[00:00:00] The climate change scammers are everywhere, demanding reparations from the West. The biggest scammer of all is Pakistan. See why Pakistan's floods are not caused by climate change, today, on The Tenth Man.
[00:00:14] This podcast is a rework of a previous topic, and there's a special reason. The channel of the Tenth Man is also on YouTube, and you'll be able to find this script with accompanying video there. There's also a lot of new or different material in this edition, but I think it's actually shorter than the previous.
[00:00:39] To find this on YouTube, on your phone, computer, or tablet, search for the Tenth Man, then filter on channels. These instructions will be repeated at the end, along with another method. And note that you get to experience this episode first here on the podcast. It drops a week later on YouTube. But you can see past videos there now.
[00:01:01] And now, on with the program.
[00:01:08] There was a disastrous flood in Pakistan in 2022, even worse than the disaster of 2010. The news media are now claiming every natural disaster is a product of climate change and says the United States should pay the damage.
[00:01:23] Let's take a look, focusing on Pakistan, and ask whether they are victims of climate disaster, or if Pakistan is just a disaster of a country. One third of Pakistan was underwater in the 2022 monsoon season. Around 30 million people were affected. The monsoon rains started early and ended late, and some scientists claim the rains were five times as intense as the average.
[00:01:49] Homes were destroyed, people were displaced, fields were flooded, and crops failed. Pakistan's rivers, originating high in the Himalayas, were flooded in part by melting glaciers. These events, combined with record high temperatures, amount to a climate disaster, or so they say. A climate disaster caused by us, because Western countries, not Pakistan, caused this climate change disaster.
[00:02:19] Climate change theory itself is controversial because the climate change movement continues to present weather disasters as climate disasters. There is enough hyperbole and distortion to condemn this climate change religion to failure, even if it were true. Pakistan's flooding is a case in point.
[00:02:40] According to their own Federal Flood Commission, Pakistan has witnessed 28 super riverine floods in its 75 year history, or every three years. The first one was in 1950, and the only reason this history goes back no further is because Pakistan did not exist before 1947. Pakistan was created in that year with the partitioning of then India into two countries.
[00:03:06] India was divided, in order to create Pakistan, as a Muslim state, separate from India, which is predominantly Hindu. As a Muslim state, its creation drove a vast migration of Muslims into its territory. In the process, there was a tremendous amount of violence. While the West looked on unconcerned back in its early history, these lands experienced genocide in Kashmir and famine in Bangladesh.
[00:03:37] Pakistan is a study in contrasts. With the world's 45th largest economy, it is ranked at 158th in GDP per capita. Pakistan is doing little to advance itself, having one of the most underdeveloped education systems in the world. Barely 60% of the children complete 5th grade.
[00:03:58] Could it spend more educating its children? Well, it might consider reducing its defense budget. It has the world's sixth largest army, and that army has been utilized. India and Pakistan have been battling continuously since the nation was created with four outright wars and many border skirmishes.
[00:04:20] Then there's the bomb. Only nine nations in the world have a nuclear weapons program, and Pakistan is one of them, and nukes are not cheap.
[00:04:33] There's also population growth. When Pakistan was founded, it had a population of 30 million, which happens to be the same number of people suffering from the floods of 2022. Because of those mass migrations after independence, today the population is over 200 million, the world's fifth largest nation by population.
[00:04:55] And 40 million of those newcomers, more than the original population, moved to tiny farms right in the Indus River Valley where all the flooding problems are and where there are no building standards being followed.
[00:05:09] Pakistan has a multitude of water problems. It uses river water on its farms, but their distribution system of pipes and canals is one of the least efficient in the world. Excessive leaks and evaporation mean that only a fraction of the water drawn from the rivers ever reaches the fields. To compensate, farmers have drilled millions of wells to draw upon its groundwater.
[00:05:34]
[00:05:34] But groundwater will make the soil salty in this arid region, so fortunately, periodic flooding of the rivers washes away the salt. Pakistan's flooding is not only natural and inevitable, but also necessary. Yet they build houses in the flood plain and then call the floods considered a blessing in countries like Egypt, a humanitarian disaster, a disaster somehow caused by the West.
[00:06:06] Now let's look at deforestation. More than two thirds of the country's population is burning wood for fuel, a practice which is brutal for the environment. There are 160 million people cutting down trees, and that's at least a four way problem.
[00:06:25] Trees would slow the runoff into the rivers to a rate they could absorb. Slowing the runoff in turn allows percolation into the ground and replenishment of the sinking water table caused by excessive pumping of groundwater.
[00:06:40] Trees absorb water through transpiration, letting it evaporate instead of flooding, providing shade and reducing temperatures. And of course, trees absorb carbon. Yet, this country is cutting them and burning them at a rate of 27, 000 hectares, 70, 000 acres, a year. And they, unlike Brazil or Canada, don't have a lot of trees to spare.
[00:07:06] The climate movement is concerned about burning wood only when it's a cyclical wildfire in Canada or one set by power lines in Maui. If they really wanted to do something about climate change, they would have Australia send a shipload of coal to Pakistan and give it away. We would all be better off if they'd burn coal instead of wood because coal is much cleaner.
[00:07:30] But the climate movement hates coal so much that that will never happen. A shame because we could easily bring Pakistan into the 19th century first, then work from there.
[00:07:42] Pakistan is not a climate change victim. It is just mismanaged and in need of some guidance. They already received billions in aid after their disastrous flood in 2010. They have done little to improve their infrastructure, their policies, or their building practices since then.
[00:08:01] Compare that to attitudes in the United States. Most of the cities in this country have had a disastrous flood at some time. When it happened, our people did not go to another country with a tin cup.
[00:08:16] Pakistan is maybe a few years behind us in economic progress, fine. Americans dug the Panama Canal with coal fired steam shovels, which they invented. The Industrial Revolution, which happened before we were born, built that canal. We then gave it to the world, saving millions of freight miles and preventing the emission of billions of tons of carbon.
[00:08:41] Someone else want to take a turn?
[00:08:44] And their so-called climate disaster of 2022 does not compare to our history. Contrast, the recent floods to the worst natural disaster in United States history. That was the great Galveston hurricane of 1900. It killed between 8, 000 and 12, 000 people at a time when the U. S. population was only 76 million. And they want our sympathy for their 2, 000 or so deaths out of over 200 million?
[00:09:14] And what did the people of Galveston do after that, after most of the city was swept away by storm surge? They raised the city of Galveston 17 feet, or 4 meters, and built a 10 mile long seawall the same height. They did this using mules and wagons, hand-cut timber. Horse-drawn scrapers and shovels.
[00:09:36] That effort included elevating more than 2, 000 buildings and placing land under them. The people of Galveston issued bonds and paid for it themselves. They did this in 1900. How many floods has Pakistan had since then, and what have they done about it themselves?
[00:09:56] Pakistan's people are not inferior to Americans. They are just a few years behind. If they are not catching up, it's because of their failed government practices, not climate change. Sending them more money will not fix that problem. The climate change movement needs to stop making excuses for poor government and start treating all people with respect by holding all nations accountable, not just the United States.
[00:10:25] What Pakistan needs is universal education, elimination of corruption, and investment in infrastructure. Because the best way to prevent flooding is with a shovel, not with a tin cup.
[00:10:41] I hope you liked that message, and if you want to see it with videos, just find the Tenth Man on YouTube. I'll tell you two ways. One you can probably memorize just in case you're driving. Find it like this.
[00:10:54] Open up YouTube and search on the formal channel name, which is at the 10th, man, Y T Y T as in YouTube. Easy. The 10th man is all one word, and just add the letters Y and T to the end. So all one word, all lowercase. 10th is spelled out at the 10th, man Y t. You can also search and filter. Search for the Tenth Man, three words, and here's the tricky part.
[00:11:26] The search results will return every instance of those three words appearing in a movie title, book chapter, poem, etc. So find Filters, wherever it is on your app, and select Channels. Then just scroll down past the ads to the 10th man logo, which is a black disc with the 10th man in white letters. It's should be pretty close to the top.
[00:11:49] So there's two methods, one easy to describe and one easy to do. Thanks. Have a great day.
