Dear Editor,
I WRITE with reference to a letter by Gary Girdhari in which numerous personal attacks are levelled against me (Stabroek News, 11/2/2023).

I feel compelled to insist that my reply to this most unproductive man living in obscurity overseas be carried in full. But even more importantly Editor, I will insist that my critique of Melinda Janki’s anti-development crusade be allowed to get the audience that both Janki and her low-energy follower, Gary Girdhari, get so nonchalantly.

Girdhari says: “[Ms Janki] is a lawyer and environmentalist, and is quite able to speak for herself.”

Yet, like a typical man infected with paternalist masculinity, he opts to defend her, no doubt under the contradictory assumption she cannot do so herself. This part of Girdhari’s letter amounts to confused nonsense. Let us now move to the parts where he wallows in patent nonsense.

Rather than defend Janki on the basis of the relevant literature on oil and gas, climate change, and development, Girdhari tells us about his past indulgences in cigarettes and liquor.

Instead of an analytical engagement, he uses his personal regrets and failures in life to make a case about fundamental questions spanning from national economic development to dynamics at the level of world order.

Editor, allow me to pose a few questions to Ms Janki directly, since it is obvious that her wannabe intellectual defender cannot possibly be constructively engaged.

My question to Janki is this: can you state with clarity which countries in the world over the past 100 years have contributed most to greenhouse gas emissions, and especially to CO2? Could you say something about the current top producers of fossil fuels, and also the top countries that consume fossil fuels?

Let us work with the available data. And now a final question: why are you picking on a small country that has a comprehensive green-economy strategy (our LCDS), rather than say Canada, which is now building a pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia to ship some of the most toxic (tar sands) products in the world’s energy supply?

Let me share some relevant data. Here is the per capita motor vehicles for selected countries: USA, 890; New Zealand, 884; Canada, 790; Finland, 790; Australia, 782; France, 668; Guyana, 285, and Haiti, 11.

Some 35 of the top 40 per capita motor vehicles in the world are in the developed world. Transportation sources contribute 27 per cent of greenhouse emissions.

Meat consumption for selected countries per annum, Portugal, 153 kg; USA, 151 kg; Spain, 148 kg; Japan, 97 kg; Guyana, 51 kg; India, 12 kg, and Ethiopia, 7.3 kg.

Meat consumption contributes about 15 per cent of greenhouse gases, and readers should know that while the Third World countries consume about 27 kg of meat per annum, the developed world eats 70 kg.

We can take other quality-of-life indicators such as air conditioning to see who is doing the damage worldwide.

The extremes could not be more staggering here. Some 91 per cent of households in Japan and 90 per cent in the US have ACs, compared to six per cent and five per cent for South Africa and India, respectively.

The US and Canada produce nearly 25 million barrels of oil daily, while Guyana produces a little over 350,000 barrels.

Might I also remind Ms Janki that the US only recently authorized drilling for oil in the Alaskan Tundra, and also gave a licence to Trinidad and Tobago to develop a major gas field in Venezuelan waters (Reuters, 24/1/2023).

Since developed nations are responsible for 79 per cent of the historical carbon emissions, Ms Janki must make a case based on ethics as to why the same developed nations and their energy allies must be allowed to hold a monopoly of hydrocarbon development.

Ms Janki should be campaigning against the world’s biggest polluters, who also happen to be the richest. Anything short will leave her so-called activism against developing nations such as Guyana wanting.

Girdhari made some nasty comments about my career in academia, and I have a right of reply. Gary, in 2022, scholars and students from 359 universities in 91 countries read my work.

Thousands of pages were read, and hundreds downloaded. According to Academia.edu, I am in the top one per cent from their nearly four million subscribers. I can send proof to anyone who cares.

Yours sincerely,
Dr Randolph Persaud