Michael Kile
As COP27 draws to a close – culminating in a vague proposal for the creation of a weather damage and loss fund now considered “historic” and a “game changer” – a UNESCO event has begun. head at Delphi (above), the center of the ancient world. world. It’s a more modest issue, but one of the most instructive, showing how insidious the alarm rhetoric about climate change (CC) has become, infecting every part of the body. regarded – and indeed the modern world – as an incurable cancer or virulent virus.
Before we get there, check out my previous post: In Egypt, climate disaster as usual . As a reporter, possibly recovering from ecstatic relief or COVID-19, as well as US Climate Envoy John Kerry and God knows how many other poor souls were among the more than 30,000 people who attended at Sharm El Sheikh, warning:
Sunday’s COP27 deal still needs countries to come up with details, such as where the money should come from and which countries or disasters are eligible for compensation.. (AFR explainerNovember 20, 2022)
Such important issues have been kicked off on the carbon credit path up to COP 28, scheduled to take place in Dubai in November 2023. Conferences of the Parties (COPS) of course. will go on forever, like weather and human madness.
The results are hardly surprising. A recent estimate of the “climate-related losses” of “vulnerable” countries said they could exceed US$500 billion annually by 2030. That’s more than three shaded areas. stone of Qatar each year.
Meanwhile, Vanuatu has asked the International Court of Justice to issue an opinion on the right to be protected from adverse climate effects. Good luck with that exercise. It’s up there with people who want to sue God; or play games with a gullible developed world that has pleaded guilty to climate crimes it didn’t commit: whenever the lottery of life delivers an unpleasant surprise, meteorology Or alternatively, just call the L&D Foundation.
At first glance, Delphi might seem like an odd choice for Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention 1972: “The Next 50 Generations – The Future of World Heritage Sites in Times of Challenge, Enhanced Resilience and Sustainability”.
After all, there are now 1,154 cultural and natural sites, 43 transboundary regions and 167 member states to choose from across the globe. List of World Heritage Sites (VHL).
UNESCO could have chosen instead of Argentina Quebrada de HumahuacaArmenia Haghpat and Sanahin Monastery, Antigua’s Naval Shipyard and Related Archaeological SitesGabon The cultural and ecological landscape of Lopé-Okandaor closer to home, The Great Spa Towns of Europe or Nice, the Winter Resort Town of the Riviera.
given ideologymaybe it’s a close race with Apocalypse Cave on Patmos in the Dodecanese. The theologian St John is said to have written his Gospel and the Apocalypse there around AD 95. The cave, barely big enough to swat a cat let alone a disaster, would be too small for a workshop. However, the monastery built nearby in the late 10th century would have been the ideal place for what had become an quasi-religious movement.
For Australia, there are 20 WHL properties here, five missions to the World Heritage Committee and 80 State of Conservation reports. The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (2019) there, and of course Great Barrier Reef (1981). Peter Ridd, former Professor and Dean of the Department of Physics (2009-2016) at James Cook University, and Dr Jennifer Marohasy have found that after being classified as “endangered”, it is very difficult to leave the WHL . extensive fact-finding work on the Reef.
Then UNESCO chose Delphi than other locations in Greek and other places. Visited the site, reveling in the Castalian spring in the Papadia Ravine on Mt Parnassus, now dried up by CC or divine wrath; and also transfer what may be the specter of Pythiahigh priestess of the Temple of Apollo, or a trick of the mind, my conclusion: Delphi is not a random choice.
UNESCO chose – some might say weaponized – Delphi not only because it was the holiest place in ancient Greece and the location of omphalos or “umbilical stone”. It’s also home to Oracle, so it’s an ideal location to promote the UN’s “climate disaster” ideology.
We’ll never know, but there could be another reason: the first oracle to hold the Delphic Oracle was Gaia, mother of the gods, a connection that would attract those dedicated to the conservationists or those who imagine they are rebelling against “extinction”. ” and save the planet.
For Pythia, derived from PythonDelphi’s name in mythology, it comes from the verb (putin) “rotten”, referring to the stench of the legend’s decomposing body Python. The original guardian of Gaia’s Oracle, it was killed by Apollo.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of the Greek Republic emphasized the history of this site in open address for the delegates of the World Heritage Conference (WHC).
After all, it was Delphi and its Oracle that people from all over the ancient world came to hear prophecies, to be told fortune or tragedy awaited them, and receive wisdom. good at coping. And if I may add another thought: The Prophet is extremely resilient because she never gives precise answers to the questions people ask her. (Kyriakos Mitsotakis, WHC address, November 18, 2022, from 50 min.)
He was right. With ritual, it’s hardly surprising. Pythia is a peasant woman in her 50s. After purifying herself in the Castalian springs and munching on a bay leaf, she sat on a tripod placed on a nearby chasm. Intoxicated with the breaths that seemed to emanate from it, she uttered incoherent sounds, explained by Ὅσιοι in a six-eighth verse. [Osioi]’saints’ who sit around it.
Either way, she seems comparable to today’s computer modelers in terms of the planet’s future climate, at least in terms of its ability to attract disciples and pilgrims, and in Her prophecies: always vague or ambiguous.
Even Delphi’s great benefactor, Croesus, was “mercilessly misled” by the Oracle. On the eve of the war with Persia, he was advised: “If you attack Persia, a great power will be destroyed.” It really happened, but the great power was him.
Essential to Delphic divination – and also atmospheric prognostication today – is “the frenzy of Pythoness and the sounds she utters in this possessive state”, perhaps like a cry the voice of a young or old CC activist in a panic attack.
For extreme weather events (EWEs), always have someone by your side when you need them.
Fast-forward two and a half millennia to this summer. We all see clearly here – again very close to Delphi – a warning about the future that may exist if we do not all listen and learn. It came from a fire that started in a very nearby village, only 15 kilometers from the site. It burned during the hottest summer ever recorded in Europe. Brought by the wind, it became a fierce fire that tore through the largest and continuously cultivated olive grove in Greece. Fortunately, it was contained within a 3,000 square meter area so the largest part of it was not harmed.
I cannot think of a single clear example of how preserving our cultural monuments and natural heritage is part of the same endeavor. It was this ground-breaking insight that was honored by the WHC in 1972 when it was founded in Paris. Since then, it has proven to be the foundation upon which all forms of heritage conservation are built. It shapes a common understanding of what protection means and is the foundation of new institutions, procedures, etc., a banner under which all conservation professionals can rally. ((Kyriakos Mitsotakis, WHC address, November 18, 2022; 53.38 min.)
Delphi is the ideal place to reflect on the “map of hazards”, local, regional and global, he continued. The conference will focus on two threats that “will have a decisive impact in the near future – the climate crisis and overtourism.”
The Greek government is “fighting the consequences of climate change: extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, rising sea levels, worse and more severe EWE as well as forest fires. There have been landslides and rock falls at Delphi, but there is no mention of Greece being a seismically active area.
Implementing the “green transition” is a “non-negotiable priority” for the government. Moving towards a “renewable energy (RE) powered future is a wise choice, not just from a climate perspective.”
“Greece is ranked eighth in the EU in terms of RE use. We managed to power the country for five hours a month ago with wind turbines.”
“Delphi is the ship that guides us towards a more sustainable future,” concluded the Prime Minister. If so, pray that its prophetic CC navigators are superior to Pythia and they can steer a sensible course without resorting to bay leaf or another addictive drug: fantasy thought.
Technical presentations began in earnest on the second day of the conference with Constantine Cartalis, professor of environmental physics. He warned delegates that “mixed climate events” were emerging as an important issue. They added a new dimension that had to be taken on board. (from 5:23pm.)
As for CC, you wouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s “the single greatest threat to world heritage, threatening at least one-third of all sites, with marine sites affected one-third of the time.” disproportionate way.” etc. (from 5 hours 50 minutes)
As we drove down from Delphi and crossed the fertile Kris plains to catch Zeus from Galaxidi, I asked the guide about the inscription we saw on a pillar in the remains of the Temple of Apollo.
Perhaps it was ancient graffiti, he said, carved there by a pilgrim who was unhappy with his or her session with the Prophet. Curious, I asked if he meant anything.
“It’s written in attic Greek,” he replied. “I’m not an expert, but I think it said:
Make a climate commitment and naughty is close.
Michael Kile
November 22, 2022
This article was posted in Australia at Quadrant Online on 24 November 2022, with the headline: Delphic Oracles of UNESCO
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