Is anyone following the Islamic Climate Change

[Syzygy321]

Symposium and their declaration?

Interesting stuff: officials and activists from multiple Muslim countries got together in Istanbul recently and called for Islamic countries to phase out fossil fuel production by 2050, and for everyone to be good to the Earth in the name of religion.

I am all in favor.

It's just, I tend to look cynically for the political angle in such things, and I can't figure out what the angle is.

It's interesting that the represented countries were non-oily as best I can tell (for example: Uganda, Lebanon, Indonesia).

Are they trying to keep up with the Pope?
Are they hoping to shame or hamstring the Muslim oil powerhouses (but why would they want to?)
Is there a nascent Green movement inside Islam?
Is Erdogan trying hamhandedly to stamp out everyone's dark Gezi Park protest memories?

Thoughts, people?

[procon]

1. Peak oil?

Maybe they've seen the handwriting on the wall. The stuff won't last forever, and then what happens to the rich sheiks and their oil-wealth and the oil-based economy of the oil states?

[Syzygy321]

2. The Saudi leadership actually did out out a public call

a few months ago for the development of alternative energy sources. So they do seem to be laying groundwork for production cutbacks.

This symposium is a little funny to me, because as far as I can tell, the gulf countries were not represented (at least, they sent no keynote speakers) but people like Uganda's Grand Mufti were.

But maybe the gulf countries are pulling the strings behind the scenes, getting the ball rolling... so when they cut back production and people's standard of living edges downward, the authorities can sell it as an Islamic green thing rather than a we're-tapped-out thing.

I love a mystery...

[Uncle Joe]

3. I imagine events like this are contributing to the motivation.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/198954#!

On the same weekend in which it threatened to "annihilate" Israel following the nuclear deal it struck with global powers, Iran experienced a mind-boggling 164 degrees (73 Celsius) heat index reading last Friday, in what some might see as a warning by the Almighty Himself that all options are on the table.

The heat index, also know as the "feels-like" temperature, combines air temperature and humidity to give an accurate reading as to how the human body perceives the relative temperature.

As Iran entered the current heat wave breaking on the Middle East last Thursday, temperatures at the Manshahr Airport in southwest Iran's Bandar Mahshahr, home to over 100,000 people, hit 109 degrees (43 Celsius) with a dewpoint of 90 degrees (32 Celsius). Those figures compute out to an incredible 159 degrees (70 Celsius).

But it got even hotter on Friday, with the Weather Channel reporting that the same site reached 114.8 degrees (46 Celsius) and a dew point of 89.6 degrees (32 Celsius), yielding an inhuman 164 degrees (73 Celsius).

Meteorological experts said Iran is experiencing some of the hottest temperatures "ever endured by humankind."

http://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2015/07/20/another-month-another-global-heat-record-broken-by-far

June was warm nearly all over the world, with exceptional heat in Spain, Austria, parts of Asia, Australia and South America. Southern Pakistan had a June heat wave that killed more than 1,200 people — which, according to an international database, would be the eighth deadliest in the world since 1900. In May, a heat wave in India claimed more than 2,000 lives and ranked as the fifth deadliest on record.

May and March also broke monthly heat records, which go back 136 years. Initially NOAA figured February 2015 was only the second hottest February on record, but new data came in that made it too the hottest, Blunden said. Earth has broken monthly heat records 25 times since the year 2000, but hasn't broken a monthly cold record since 1916.

I also believe that heat records will continue to be broken as will public urgency to address the crisis throughout the world.

Thanks for the thread, Syzygy.