CLIMATE CHANGE CHANNEL BLOG

Who We Are

We are an NGO in Honduras intended on putting an end to the huge destruction of tropical forests in Central America that is currently taking place. We have done extensive research at European universities over how to attain fast economic growth while wholeheartedly combating climate change and we have published several books in New York with internationally accredited academic companies over the subject of sustainable development.

Due to our past performance, the evidence suggests we can become more effective than all existing efforts in procuring development and in halting deforestation.

Asides from halting the destruction of forests and combating poverty, we are simultaneously trying to expand the educational possibilities of the Honduran and Central American population in a very cost effective way, while strengthening democracy. We focus on promoting the environment, education, democracy and economic growth in a new, creative and synergistic way. We do the four things in a single activity because high creativity and unorthodox thinking allows for multiple ventures with a single effort.

Fast Economic Environmental Growth

We are a Non-Governmental Organization intended on rapidly increasing the level of ecological conscientiousness among the Honduran and Central American population, in particular on global warming matters. More important, we seek to have a significant and lasting effect on the way policy makers view the environment in order to induce them to endorse environmental-friendly policies.

We seek to persuade the population that environmental policies are not harmful to the economy and are fully compatible with progress. Our goal is to convince the majority of people that a wholehearted endorsement of global warming-fighting measures is concurrent with fast economic growth and thus with better living conditions for the whole population.

We believe in the power of television for influencing and transforming the mind set of millions of people. Mass means of communication and in particular television, which in Honduras and in the rest of Central America is seen by more than 95% of the population, has a huge impact on the way people think.

The way people think is determinant for changing government policies, which up to the present have been largely indifferent to the environment.

The countries of Central America are Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.

Stopping the Destruction of Central American Forests

More than 50% of the original forests of Honduras and Central America have been destroyed and at the present rate of deforestation, soon there will be almost nothing left. The forests of Central America and of other tropical regions are by far the most important in the world because they absorb more greenhouse gases per square kilometer than any other vegetated area on the planet. That is why they are called the lungs of the world and are thus pivotal in the fight against global warming.

These tropical forests are also endowed with an exponentially larger amount of species of plants and animals than any other region in the world. Tropical forests account for only 6% of the world surface but are home to more than half of all known species of plants and animals. For example, tropical forests have supplied 250 cultivated kinds of fruit, compared to only 20 from temperate forests.

According to some studies, during the first decade of the twenty-first century about 30,000 species of plants and animals disappeared from the face of the world every year due to the encroaching of their habitats due to the expansion of cities, agriculture, logging, mining and other human-caused activities. The large majority of those extinct species were from Central America and other tropical regions of the planet.

About half of all existing pharmaceutical products derive from plants and animals. Among the best known are several kinds of analgesics, hormonal contraceptives, antibiotics, stimulants, tranquilizers, paralyzing drugs and anti-malaria medicines.

The huge amount of species that have disappeared could have provided the biochemical formula to fight many human diseases that are at present incurable. The numerous species of plants and animals that still exist in the Central American region have the potential to deliver in the nearby future a blueprint for a vaccine or a cure against heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, AIDS, Parkinson, Alzheimer, nephritis, and so many other diseases that cannot be healed. If the remaining species get also extinguished, the possibility for uncovering a cure for those diseases will be gone. There is an imperative need to stop the destruction of tropical forests.

Causes of the Destruction

The destruction of tropical forests is due to numerous factors and one of them is ignorance. The bulk of the Honduran and Central American population ignores that there is a tight link between the preservation of forests and their material well being. The population and even the political class of Central America ignore that the increasing number as well as the growing strength of hurricanes and droughts, is a direct consequence of global warming, which is partially caused by deforestation. The El Niño and the La Niña weather phenomenon have intensified in the last decades, creating greater climatic anomalies that have made more difficult the production of grains and other agricultural products due to harsher floods and droughts. The intensification of these weather anomalies is largely the result of global warming.

Education Channel

The main goal of our NGO is the creation of an educational channel because we seek to instill in the Honduran and Central American population a large amount of environmental information. A television channel as a means of learning is considerably more effective in educating a population than traditional methods. For every dollar, euro or yen invested into an educational channel, an exponentially larger amount of people obtain education than with traditional means. With the money that is needed to create a channel that will reach and influence the eight million Hondurans for example, it is only possible to create the schools that will influence a few thousand students. It is considerably more cost-effective to allocate financial resources for an educational channel than for schools.

With interesting and entertaining programming, the positive effects are even larger because people watch the programs with enthusiasm and not coercively, as is the case in traditional schools. Numerous pedagogical studies have shown that the human brain retains a considerably larger amount of information when its level of interest and alertness is high. The level of interest and alertness in traditional schools is usually low because most children, adolescents and adults see raw learning as boring. We have developed very entertaining programs that heighten the alertness of the viewers. Many studies have repeatedly shown that television is by far the most effective means for transforming people´s way of thinking.

For a complicated message, such as the synergy between climate change and fast economic growth, to be fully absorbed by a large share of the population, the message must be repeated hundreds and thousands of times. Not only must it be repeated countless times, but it must also be presented from many angles and perspectives. Occasional appearances on television or other means of communication are not enough. We have already done that and from that experience it becomes clear that the impact is not as large as it needs to be. The evidence suggests there is a need to bombard, to downpour the population with environmental-related data and that can only be done with a TV channel that emits programs 24/7. Studies show that the human brain absorbs better an idea when it has heard it hundreds of time. That is the principle of commercial publicity and that is why companies are prepared to pay top dollar for a repeated bombardment of their selling messages.

Strengthening Democracy

Democracy in Honduras, Central America and the rest of Latin America is weak and regularly threatened with even disappearing. Over the past decades, populist and corrupt politicians of all political orientations have repeatedly tried to undermine the basic institutions of the democratic system in order to silence criticism of their dishonest practices. Transparency International has systemically ranked Honduras as the most corrupt country in Central America and one of the most corrupt in Latin America.

One of the basic institutions of democracy is a free press so that it denounces corruption and ineptitude in the government. Through fraud and repression, many politicians in Honduras and the rest of Latin America pursue to hold on to power indefinitely and a free press is also needed to restrain those authoritarian tendencies.

A free press is pivotal for a functioning democracy and in Honduras the press is massively inhibited from operating freely. Television and other forms of media obtain about 70% of their income from politics and are thus manipulated by political parties and individual politicians in a flagrant and shameless way. That situation is worsened by the fact that the bulk of the money that politicians hand out to the media is stolen government money that was originally intended for public education, health, infrastructure and other needed things.

We wish to become the first purely professional and strictly scientific channel in Honduras and Central America. The only way to assure professionalism for a television channel is with a non-partisan, non-ideological and honest financing that we hope to obtain from well-intended donors.

Dr. Carlos Sabillon

Our founder, Dr. Carlos Sabillon, has worked as a news analyst in Honduran television since 2008 and in a short amount of time his program became one of the most viewed. He has a unique ability for presenting complex scientific ideas in the fields of economics, international relations, environmental science and other fields in a very didactical way, allowing a population with a very low educational level to fully comprehend. His success in presenting complex ideas is such, that television ratings show he is more watched than not just other news programs, but also entertainment programs, which in all countries have higher TV ratings than news programs.

Dr. Sabillon obtained a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Geneva, Switzerland as well as a post-doctorate in International Economics from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany and a post-doctorate in Economic History from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has a total of seven university degrees and obtained each one of them in half the normal amount of time. He speaks fluent English, French, German and Spanish and has published three books with reputed academic companies in New York, USA. In those books Dr. Sabillon presents a new mechanism by which nations can attain fast economic growth without damaging the environment.

Combating the Enemies of Global Warming

Opponents of ecological causes in developed countries and in particular the deniers of global warming, frequently argue that the huge financing needed to diminish greenhouse gases is harmful to the economy because it destroys jobs. It has also been argued by developing countries that the implementation of global warming-fighting measures would hamper economic growth and inhibit poor nations from overcoming poverty.

China, which has become the biggest source of greenhouse gases in the world since 2009, has systemically refused to comply with international proposals for the limitation of greenhouse gases, by arguing that such measures would decelerate the fast rate of economic growth that it has attained since 1979. China´s governments have succeeded in lifting from poverty hundreds of millions of people, but they have massively polluted the air, water and soil of China, while simultaneously spewing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and other greenhouse gases into the world´s atmosphere.

In international meetings, developing nations usually point to the industrialized countries as the main culprit behind global warning and demand that rich countries pay for the technology that is needed to hinder more emissions of greenhouse gases in developed countries. However, they also demand that rich countries pay for the technology needed to do the same in developing countries.

This is a non-starter because most developed nations are convinced they cannot afford the huge amounts of capital needed to substitute their current production of energy based on coal, oil and natural gas, with solar and wind energy. If they will not fork out the money for their own clean energy needs, it is unthinkable that they will foot the bill for the rest of the world.

Dr. Sabillon has figured out innovative ways by which poor nations can attain fast economic growth while drastically reducing greenhouse gases, without rich countries footing the bill.

We are convinced that we can persuade the Honduran and Central American population that fast and even impressive economic growth can be attained while reducing greenhouse gases and diminishing pollution of water, air and soil.

Using a vast amount of data and very consistent arguments, Dr. Sabillon demonstrates that rich and poor nations can both attain very fast rates of economic growth while even eliminating greenhouse gas emissions.

Creating Environmental Consciousness with the Climate Change Channel

The environmental consciousness in Honduras and Central America is extremely low. The goal of our NGO is to create a television channel with the capacity to reach every home in Central America. By means of a round the clock presentation of interesting programs with an ecological content, we are confident that we can significantly alter the mindset of the population and of politicians.

The level of ecological awareness in Central America is so low, that at present there is not a single political party in the region that has a clear environmental orientation. Even though Costa Rica is reputed for its ecological tourism and for being the most democratic and politically-evolved in the region, there is not a single political organization that focuses on environmental matters and less still on combating global warming. There are twelve political parties in Costa Rica and all pursue traditional goals. They all prioritize orthodox pro-business policies of the right or redistributive policies of the left. The absence of a Green Party results from the low level of importance that green subjects play in Costa Rican society.

In the rest of Central American countries the situation is even worse and the end result is that preserving the rain forest, generating solar and wind energy, recycling garbage, and recycling industrial waste is never at the core of government considerations. Worst still is that most of the time the subject is not even addressed in any of the six nations of the region.

That results from an absence of environmental knowledge from the population and the political class. There is thus an urgent need to promote an environmental conscience in the population of Central America, which by 2010 amounted to forty million people.

The best means is through a television channel that shows environmental and environmental-related programs all year round. We are particularly good in creating interesting and entertaining programs that will have a broad audience.

That is particularly important for changing people´s minds because raw documentaries about the environment, as many channels in Europe or the U.S. show, are not enough. Although interesting, those documentaries are not entertaining enough to compete with the best news programs and less still with movies, sitcoms, game shows, sports, music and other purely entertainment programs. With just a policy of documentaries such as the ones emitted by National Geographic Channel for example, the end result is that few people watch environmental programs and the ecological consciousness of the population remains low.

We are very creative and have figured out ways to lure viewers towards green television programs. Our formula is simple. We mix everything that has proven highly entertaining in normal television, with the subject of the environment and more particularly with global warming. We mix those two variables in a unique, creative, rational and highly synergistic way, producing something which is more than the sum of its parts.

Dr. Sabillon has developed an original approach to creating global warming-related programming that is as entertaining as Hollywood movies, sports, music and other purely entertaining programs so that a much wider audience of viewers can be attained. His current news programs has repeatedly shown to have higher ratings than Hollywood movies, American TV series, American sitcoms, sports, music and other top rated programs.

Financing

We need financing for the TV channel because at present it is very hard, almost impossible, to convince existing channels to even create a small environmental program. At present there is not a single program of this sort in Honduras or the rest of Central America. All television channels are in the hands of unscrupulous businessmen and politicians who have no qualms about defying science for the sake of money. Even on regular news programs, journalists are frequently fired from their jobs when they overstep the boundaries set by big politicians and big businessmen, who are frequently in collusion with the people who tear down the forests. When their reporting condemns policies that harm the environment, they received death threats and many journalists have been even murdered.

Honduras had in 2010 the highest journalist-murder rate (on a per capita basis) in the world. Violence in Honduras and in the rest of Central America is endemic. In 2010, Honduras had the highest overall murder rate in the world, with 77 homicides for every 100,000 persons. Mexico, which is in the middle of the worst drug-cartel war in history, had only 18 homicides for every 100,000 people, while the U.S. had 5, Germany had only 1 and Japan had just 1.

We are nonetheless willing to take the risk and defy conventional wisdom in these six Central American countries and more particularly in Honduras. We believe Honduras must be the center of the effort to preserve forests because it is the country in the region that suffers more from deforestation.

Without a channel that bombards the population with environmental information all year round, it is impossible to convince the population to see the world from another perspective and change their indifference towards the environment.

Without a channel that bombards the population with a scientific discourse all year round and introduces professionalism in Honduran and Central American journalism, democracy will continue to be weak. Without a free and independent television channel, democracy risks even disappearing as it has already happened in some Latin American countries.

Effectiveness in Changing Public Opinion

Dr. Sabillon has proven highly effective in convincing policy makers to change track and adopt rational policies. Since 2008 he has been repeatedly talking about the many successes of Singapore and Hong Kong in his television show and has presented these two city states as role models for Honduras on economic and environmental matters. He has contrasted the total lack of natural resources of these two Asian economies and the abundance of them in Honduras. And despite such a huge difference, those two Asian nations vanquished poverty and became not just rich, but actually wealthier than the United States, while Honduras has remained stuck in dire poverty. In his analysis, Dr. Sabillon gave more emphasis to Singapore because it is much wealthier than the U.S. and Hong Kong, because it has a functioning democracy, and because it has delivered better environmental results than Hong Kong despite its higher population density.

In early 2011 the Honduran Congress approved a radical new law that creates especial areas in Honduras that will operate outside the jurisdiction of the Honduran government and mimic the efficiency and honest public administration of Singapore and Hong Kong. These areas will be managed by foreigners from developed nations, who have a much better track record in delivering positive economic results and in abstaining from corrupt practices, than Honduran public officials. These areas will operate in complete independence from the Honduran government and will be in a way, a separate country. The new law (Ley de Cuidades Modelos) is so radical, that in order to approve it, Congress had to change two articles of the Honduran Constitution (Article 304 and 329).

As the Honduran government campaigned to convince the population of the new law´s worthiness, it repeatedly claimed it was modeling the new “Charter Cities”, as they are called, after the example of Singapore and Hong Kong. The President of the country and numerous congressmen even travelled to Singapore to get more acquainted with the success of that island nation. The Honduran government is also establishing diplomatic relations with Singapore, which had never been even considered by any previous government. It is doing that even though it is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to cut budgetary expenditures.

Before Dr. Sabillon started to allude to the many successes of Singapore, Honduran politicians were not even aware of the existence of that small Southeast Asian nation.

Upon his return to Honduras in 2008, Dr. Sabillon noticed that 70% of the electricity in Honduras was generated with oil and the rest was generated by hydroelectric dams. He repeatedly pointed out in his television programs that burning oil to generate electricity produces a huge amount of carbon dioxide, which translates into more hurricanes and floods that devastate Honduran agriculture, homes and lives. He also pointed out that in a tropical country, hydroelectric dams are just as harmful to the stability of the world´s climate as burning oil, because the vegetation that gets covered by the dam´s water dies and as it decomposes it emits methane, which is much worse than carbon dioxide in terms of raising the world´s temperature. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, methane is over twenty times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. Dr. Sabillon has systematically demanded a shift in the generation of electricity to solar panels and wind turbines.

That was a totally new approach to electricity generation because before Dr. Sabillon debuted on Honduran television, nobody had heard anything negative about hydroelectric dams and it was assumed by everybody that it was the best way to generate clean energy in a country that has plenty of rainfall. Dams were seen not just as the most cost-effective way to generate electricity, but also as having zero greenhouse gas emissions. In a television debate Dr. Sabillon debunked and trounced Honduras´ Minister of Natural Resources because he ignored that hydroelectric dams in tropical countries generate an abundance of methane (you can see that interview on our blog, on our My Space site and on our Facebook page). Dr. Sabillon has repeatedly rebuked and trounced other politicians and energy experts, who also ignored this important fact. In least developed countries, scientific knowledge is a scarce commodity.

The numerous crushing defeats that Dr. Sabillon inflicted on the most important policy makers and opinion makers over the course of two years had its effect. In mid 2010 the Honduran Congress approved new legislation (the Renewable Energy Law), which is intended on significantly reducing the share of electricity generated from oil. Almost fifty renewable projects were approved and although the large majority are hydroelectric dams, several of them are of a new kind which does not cover vegetation with water and therefore does not generate methane. Nevertheless, one of them was a complete novelty for the country because it created the first wind turbine park in the history of Honduras.

Before Dr. Sabillon´s started talking about solar and wind generated-electricity, very few people were even considering that possibility in Honduras.

We have proven to be effective in moving public opinion and policy makers towards rational and scientifically-based ideas. We will deliver exponentially better results if we can create a television channel that operates 24/7 and reaches the five other Central American countries. At present we are not even effectively reaching Honduras because we can only present our ideas during a small amount of time and not in the best hours of the day.

Please help us instill rationality and science into the heads of the forty million Central Americans so that one of the most important ecological wonders of the world will not disappear.

Contrary to many NGOs that cannot be adequately monitored on their regular use of donation funds, our channel will be every day on display on the internet live. We will transmit 24/7 all year round and anybody from anywhere in the world will be able to check and follow up on our work. We will also post on our blog, My Space page and Facebook site, television interviews so that people anywhere in the world can evaluate our work at the time that best suits them.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

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