The Elusive Humvee Shows Up Again – In a ‘Green’ Place

For months now, the blogosphere, represented by the likes of Sukuma Kenya, have been hunting for one elusive beast: the banana yellow fuel guzzling Humvee with UN plates in Nairobi. This polluter of choice for one UN staffer has been accused of being an insult to the UN’s attempt at being carbon neutral and it’s actions on curbing climate change.

Well, guess what? The Humvee showed up. Not in a dingy nightclub or some dimly lit back road, but in one of the primary ‘green’ places in Nairobi: the Nairobi National Park - at the parking lot. By coincidence, I was there, with a good camera. That is why I am able to present this magnificent picture of one of the rarest and most elusive species of beast in Kenya.

*Note: no attempt made to blur the registration number plates – that would be redundant.

The banana yellow Humvee shows up again

What the Humvee was doing in the one spot that makes Nairobi qualify to be called a ‘green’ city – and perhaps why the UN Environmental Programme has it’s headquarters in this city – is indeed puzzling. Did the seeming flamboyant owner suddenly realize that he cared about the environment? No doubt an oxymoron. Was it just another opportunity to show off his behemoth? Well, we’ll probably never know.

Whatever happens, the blogosphere can now feast their eyes on this beast and continue to ask themselves ‘will the UN Nairobi office ever change their ways?‘ ‘Will they ever practice what they preach?’ One thing is for sure though; the blogosphere will continue to try and bring them to their senses. Whether they’ll ever succeed or not is open for debate. Afterall, the eagles once sang:

And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

-The Eagles: Hotel California

A breathing, breeding, bleeding earth

Do you know how many humans will be born in the next 1 second? Do you know how many people will die in that same second? And how many tonnes of Carbon Dioxide will be released into the atmosphere? There is a place where you can at least see a simulation of this.

I was idly roaming the Web today when I encountered a site that paints a really painful picture…if you care about the planet that is.

Breathing Earth Simulation

In 1 minute I witnessed 199 people being born, and 68 people die. That means the population of the earth grew by 131 people in that short minute. Withing the same minute, 26,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide had been emitted.

Whereas this simulated calculator is not – by all means – 100% correct, chances are that the statistics are below the actual statistics. Meaning that more than 131 people have been added onto this planet this minute and that we have a load of carbon dioxide heavier than 26,000 tonnes.

It is common knowledge that there is indeed a corelation between global warming/climate change and the growth of human population. We really need to think of how we can stop multiplying like rabbits. Actually I think we are worse than rabbits…

In Kenya for instance with a population of 34.3-million humans, we still give birth every 23.2 seconds. China on the other hand has a new birth every 1.8 seconds (and their population is 1,315,844,000).

On matters of contributing carbon dioxide – the key greenhouse gas – to the atmosphere, USA and China are in tandem. The US with 304.9-million emits 1000 tonnes of CO2 in a blistering 5.4 seconds. That’s huge. It is even faster than China which emits 1000 tonnes in 9.2 seconds and China has 1.3 billion people – four times the population of the US.

I wont tell you to conclude anything, just go have a look at the simulation and be the judge…click on the picture above to go straight there.