Copenhagen

The Climate summit in Copenhagen is almost over. The result is sadly not unexpected. When it comes to taking effective measures nobody is willing to step forward. Talk about leadership or absence thereof. Change we can believe in? The Romans had it right when they said nil novi sub sole. There is (never) anything new under the sun.

Copenhagen is just the most recent example of human stupidity. Here we have a chance to use reason to avoid a potential disaster in the very near future, yet nobody wants to take the first step. We would rather spend time arguing as to whether climate change is real (it is), whether we caused it (we did, but it doesn't really matter as long as we try to stop it), and other inane hoopla.

Naysayers are quick to point out how much it is going to cost us, or why we should do anything at all until we are absolutely certain that bad things will happen. How is that for reasonable?

The Economist makes several good points: 1. climate change may not necessarily lead to the disasters that we envision, but if there is even at slight chance that it might, we ought to act and act now. 2. the cost of acting now is minimal, at best a 1-2% drop in GDP. 3. Rescuing the financial system from collapse, cost 5% of GDP, yet nobody was too upset about that.

It is clear that the cost is not the problem. The problem is that some individuals and businesses, some very powerful individuals and businesses would see their profits shrink. Overall that would be offset by other businesses growing, but that does nothing to comfort these very powerful individuals. Even though they would probably manage to step in and take over those growing businesses, that part is uncertain and even that little uncertainty is enough for them to boycott all efforts.

Greed, laziness and stupidity are the only roadblocks. Greed on the part of those making profits from the carbon economy, laziness on the part of a subset of general the public, who are too busy to properly inform themselves about the dangers, and stupidity on part of the majority, who will just swallow whole whatever it is the consumerist media feed them.

gas guzzlers unite

Sporting a panel that read: "Congress get in touch with America," an oil industry worker bused in by her employer, Anadarko Petroleum, protested the upcoming climate change bill at a meeting in Texas.

The America Congress is supposed to get in touch with is a gas-guzzler nation that seems to care very little for the future or the environment. It is a nation that burns gas for no good reason. It is all part of the great consumerism wave.

David Leland, a geological map maker for the petroleum industry, was quoted by the NY Times as saying: "We provide a product at a reasonable price, and we're going to get punished for doing a damn good job." What he forgot to mention is that the price is so "reasonable" because his company fails to pay for the environmental damage it does. What he also forgets is that this reasonable price is conducive to some very unreasonable behavior on the part of consumers.

Big oil, like big pharma and many other big businesses realize that they can only keep going the way they are now if the public behaves in an extremely irrational and wasteful manner. People have to consume oil, drugs, and other goodies as if these things have no value.

Unfortunately, this is not a viable long term strategy. The executives with their fat bonuses and lavish lifestyles may not care, but in the (not so) long run their irresponsible behavior is going to cause massive harm and loss of life.

Wouldn't it be better if we could tone down our economic activity to a more reasonable level? We would all be happier and we'd live longer too.