Monday, July 25: Desperate Times in DRC
What if...instead of solving climate issues...we...made them worse??
The top story today is kind of like if doom and irony had a child and abandoned it. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), long a region known for conflict in the African continent, also happens to be home to some of the largest old-growth rainforests on the planet. Despite this wealth of natural resources, the humans charged with leading DRC have decided to auction off tracts of rich rainforest land in an effort to become “the new destination for oil investment”, which sounds a bit like me trying to become “the new king of heartworms”.
As stated by Congolese officials, the goal for this auction is to earn enough money to help the nation reduce poverty and generate economic growth. This video, posted by an account that I can only assume is the Minister of Hydrocarbons in DRC, narrates and illustrates exactly how much oil and gas could be extracted from these rich ecosystems. Thankfully I don’t speak French, so the exact figures are lost on me, but local rainforest activists put it best:
“If oil exploitation takes place in these areas, we must expect a global climate catastrophe, and we will all just have to watch helplessly.”
Irene Wabiwa, oversees the Congo Basin forest campaign for Greenpeace in Kinshasa
Side Items
2500 Boeing workers are going on strike after their labor demands weren’t met
25 year old Jonas Vingegaard won his first Tour de France, beating out Tadej Pogacar and a bunch of other dudes with smooth legs and hemorrhoids
Elon Musk may or may not have but almost definitely did have an affair with the wife of one of Google’s co-founders. For shame Elon, what will your nine (9) children think??