[LINK] Post-Copenhagen

[David Goldstein]

China's position seems to have been to stuff you all, while most, if not all, of the western countries wanted a deal that was worthwhile according to a columnist in The Guardian who was involved in the negotiations. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas

But really, there is so much apathy from the general public. A recent report in The Economist noted only 3% of people booking flights on BA paid for carbon offsets. And BA has a simple option for those booking online to tick the box and pay, just like Qantas. So given flyers tend to be more affluent, and they won't pay a minimal carbon offset, what hope is there of a government selling significant price increases to the masses? Buckleys! We can complain all we want about government inaction, but when politicians want to keep their jobs like everyone else, what hope is there...

David



----- Original Message ----
> From: "grove at zeta.org.au" <grove at zeta.org.au>
> To: David Lochrin <dlochrin at d2.net.au>
> Cc: Bernard Robertson-Dunn <brd at iimetro.com.au>; link <link at anu.edu.au>
> Sent: Wed, 23 December, 2009 1:46:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Post-Copenhagen
> 
> On Wed, 23 Dec 2009, David Lochrin wrote:
> 
> > On Wednesday 23 December 2009 10:56, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> >> And neither are Brazil, South Africa, India and China [sure the
> >> conference was a failure].  As far as they are concerned,
> >> the conference was a success.
> >>
> >> Their position is: You developed countries have been spewing out
> >> stuff since the industrial revolution. You need to make up for all
> >> the emissions you've already put out before you start clamping down
> >> on us newcomers.
> >
> > It sounds good, but what does it mean?  Should Brazil, South Africa, India and 
> China nullify efforts by the developed countries to reduce greenhouse load by 
> being allowed to go down the same historical path?  Sorry guys, whether it's 
> fair or not we're all in this together and Earth is the only planet we have.
> >
> > And furthermore, those countries have reaped some big benefits from all that 
> greenhouse production by the developed world so they're already implicated.
> 
> 
> The will to do nothing is overwhelming.    Climate Change (an expression 
> created by a right wing journalist to soften the emotive value) has been 
> hijacked pretty much by the conservatives at the moment.  The reason there 
> is no proper agreement is the sabotage by all sides of the political fence 
> by their conservative factions.  Australia for example is beholden to 
> the Greenhouse Mafia, just like Amerika.  China, to its credit admits 
> a problem but will do its own thing to mitigate it.  India wants to be 
> China and is just about to undergo a growth spurt, so it does not want 
> to be held accountable.  South America wants to be free of Amerika - it 
> will do what it can to make that goal, in spite of pollution.
> 
> The bottom line is, no one wants to take any pain out of this.  The frog 
> boiling allegory is actually observable!  In the end, if it was 
> a catastrophic event like an extinction asteroid that had a calculable 
> zero day and a countdown, I am not so sure that we wouldn't have the same 
> level of agreement to take direct action at any cost.    The more the 
> world.gov prevaricates over this, the less I think will be done until 
> the so called "paradigm shift of consciousness" finally over takes us 
> and by then it will be too late for the less developed economies and 
> social structures....
> 
> 
> rachel
> 
> -- 
> Rachel Polanskis                Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
> grove at zeta.org.au                http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
>     "The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum." - Finagle's Law
> _______________________________________________
> Link mailing list
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