Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumToo Little, Too Late
Too Little, Too Late (John Michael Greer - The Archdruid Report)
Last week, after a great deal of debate, the passengers aboard the Titanic voted to impose modest limits sometime soon on the rate at which water is pouring into the doomed ships hull. Despite the torrents of self-congratulatory rhetoric currently flooding into the media from the White House and an assortment of groups on the domesticated end of the environmental movement, thats the sum of what happened at the COP-21 conference in Paris. Its a spectacle worth observing, and not only for those of us who are connoisseurs of irony; the factors that drove COP-21 to the latest round of nonsolutions are among the most potent forces shoving industrial civilization on its one-way trip to historys compost bin.
The core issues up for debate at the Paris meeting were the same that have been rehashed endlessly at previous climate conferences. The consequences of continuing to treat the atmosphere as a gaseous sewer for humanitys pollutants are becoming increasingly hard to ignore, but nearly everything that defines a modern industrial economy as modern and industrial produces greenhouse gases, and the continued growth of the worlds modern industrial economies remains the keystone of economic policy around the world. The goal pursued by negotiators at this and previous climate conferences, then, is to find some way to do something about anthropogenic global warming that wont place any kind of restrictions on economic growth.
What that means in practice is that the worlds nations have more or less committed themselves to limit the rate at which the dumping of greenhouse gases will increase over the next fifteen years. Id encourage those of my readers who think anything important was accomplished at the Paris conference to read that sentence again, and think about what it implies. The agreement that came out of COP-21 doesnt commit anybody to stop dumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, now or at any point in the future. It doesnt even commit anybody to set a fixed annual output that will not be exceeded. It simply commits the worlds nations to slow down the rate at which theyre increasing their dumping of greenhouse gases. If this doesnt sound to you like a recipe for saving the world, lets just say youre not alone.
The core issues up for debate at the Paris meeting were the same that have been rehashed endlessly at previous climate conferences. The consequences of continuing to treat the atmosphere as a gaseous sewer for humanitys pollutants are becoming increasingly hard to ignore, but nearly everything that defines a modern industrial economy as modern and industrial produces greenhouse gases, and the continued growth of the worlds modern industrial economies remains the keystone of economic policy around the world. The goal pursued by negotiators at this and previous climate conferences, then, is to find some way to do something about anthropogenic global warming that wont place any kind of restrictions on economic growth.
What that means in practice is that the worlds nations have more or less committed themselves to limit the rate at which the dumping of greenhouse gases will increase over the next fifteen years. Id encourage those of my readers who think anything important was accomplished at the Paris conference to read that sentence again, and think about what it implies. The agreement that came out of COP-21 doesnt commit anybody to stop dumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, now or at any point in the future. It doesnt even commit anybody to set a fixed annual output that will not be exceeded. It simply commits the worlds nations to slow down the rate at which theyre increasing their dumping of greenhouse gases. If this doesnt sound to you like a recipe for saving the world, lets just say youre not alone.
More at the link above
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
3 replies, 1235 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (8)
ReplyReply to this post
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Too Little, Too Late (Original Post)
Binkie The Clown
Dec 2015
OP
OKIsItJustMe
(19,938 posts)1. So, the question is…
Is it ever too late to do something?
The skeptics are correct that all factors are not precisely known. How about if we make an effort? (as if it werent too late?)
GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)2. No it's never too late to do something.
It is too late to do things that will make life turn out according to our expectations.
However, it has always been too late for that...
hatrack
(59,592 posts)3. Link through to the article, and there's a brilliant short video embedded
Check it out.