In remarks during the 40th anniversary commemoration of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands’ development, Ahmadi-nejad told attendees that the balance of the ecosystem has been disrupted. The three main reasons are that people are uneducated about the issues, there are not enough protective regulations for natural resources, and, most importantly, capitalism has little concern for the environment’s destruction.
“The greedy attitude of capitalism lays the foundation for overstepping all boundaries to capture Earth’s resources,” he said.
“Many capitalists have amassed fortunes through selling nature and [trading in] people’s health. If the industries in certain countries decide to meet environmental standards, the continuation of their activities will become economically unjustifiable.” He did mention that industries in most developed countries are required by national laws to meet environmental standards and have been for decades.
Without naming names, Ahmadi-nejad blamed the US for the bulk of the world’s ecological problems, going so far as to make it the primary culprit for the pollution of the Middle East’s waters. “Today, the military vessels that are present in the Persian Gulf for the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq cause the most pollution to its waters,” he said. Others blame oil tankers for the pollution and oil spills. Ahmadi-nejad ignored last month’s huge oil spill in southern Iran from a breeched pipeline that has caused a major oil slick along Iran’s Persian Gulf coastline.
“Ninety-five percent of the people in the world are moving toward reform, but a single country that occupies five percent of the world causes 95 percent of the damage to the environment and makes no change in its approach,” he said referring to the United States.
The United States is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases. China is the largest, but Ahmadi-nejad did not mention that. On a per capita basis, the United States and Canada are far ahead of all other nations as greenhouse gas emitters with Russia a distant third.
The United States is the only country to have refused to sign the Kyoto Accord, Ahmadi-nejad noted, although the consensus is that the Kyoto Accord is having next to no impact on the environment anyway.
Besides increasing public awareness, regulations and infrastructure, Ahmadi-nejad proposed another solution to the world’s environmental problems—instituting an Islamic economic system to replace capitalism because of the values it places on respect for and protection of the environment.
He said the Iranian government is completely supportive of any action to protect global ecology. He did not mention that the Islamic Republic has been critical of Western proposals for reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Nor did he make any mention of the huge polluting record of the Soviet Union and the other Soviet bloc regimes.
The environment is not a topic that Ahmadi-nejad commonly addresses. When he does so, it is routinely to blame others for causing pollution.