On Dec 20, 7:08 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
wrote:
> I find it much better to make a positive case, not one grounded in
> "sin".
I am not trying to make an emotional case based on guilt and sin. I am
trying to look at this matter rationally.
The western world are not going to feel guilty, and the developing
world is not going to feel grateful, so where do we go from here? If
we don't act, then catastrophe is inevitable. We will keep pumping out
CO2, from the oil sands if need be, until it becomes obvious that we
gone too far. So long as we westerners insit on maintaining our
standard of living, then the developing world will want the same
standard.
The UK minister Millibrand blamed the Chinese for the Copenhagen
debacle, but the US was trying to buy its way out of the problem,
while making a derisory cut back in emissions. It seems clear to me
that the Chinese will not agree to limit their growth unless the US
makes serious cuts. That seems unlikely unless the Chinese agree to
limit their growth. We are in an impasse, and trying to justify one
side of that argument is not constructive.
The only answer is for us to reduce our profligate life style to that
which would be sustainable world wide, and allow the developing world
to rise to that standard. But we wont do that because we think that
our standard of living is our right. It is our emotional reasoning,
based on greed, and portrayed as a positive case, which will be the
death of us all.
Cheers, Alastair.
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