Environmental Love At The Rio Olympics

When I told my dad, way back in the 20th century, that my wife and I were travelling to Rio de Janeiro, he remembered reading about Rio, in his Romanian high school, as the most beautiful city in the world.  And it was easy to see why.

The geological setting is magical.  The colonial architecture of the old city is charming.  Together they made for an exquisite city.  There was much else to love about the place.

Of course, by the time we got there, Rio had long outgrown its original boundaries.  People have to live, after all, and there was a lot of modern construction.  Not as charming as the colonial architecture, but not terrible.  That was some years ago.  So these days, with all the reportage on the Olympic Games, it is with some personal pain that I read about the filth of Rio,
Rio's Terrible Pollution
Sewage In The Water

I am saddened but not surprised.  You see, from January, 2003 to January 2011, the president of Brazil was Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, a communist.  He was succeeded to the presidency by his former chief of staff, Dilma Rousseff, a communist.  It goes without saying that the economic miracle of Brazil, this past decade, was all smoke and mirrors that is now rapidly dissolving into poverty and social unrest.  But the issue for now is the horrific pollution.

"C'mon, Ed," you say, "socialists love the environment."  G-d save us from such love.  Some of the greatest environmental catastrophes of the modern world were precipitated by socialists.

Consider the Aral Sea.  Once-upon-a-time one of the four largest lakes in the world, grand irrigation schemes under the Soviet Union diverted the feeder rivers, and the eastern basin of the Aral Sea is now the Aralkum Desert,
Before and After Satellite Images
High And Dry
Then, Chernobyl.  And other disasters.

Looking elsewhere, here is to laugh:  that Left-wing rag, The Daily Kos reports that China suffers massive, Unrepairable ecological disasters.
Of course, there is more, much more,
7 of the 10 most air polluted cities in the world are in China
and so on.

When I hear of socialists taking power, I first tremble for the people, as with Venezuela most recently.  But if I give any thought to it, I know environmental disasters cannot be far behind.