CLIMATE

Funny old world, eh?

In two sentences we go from the stark choices of agreement versus oblivion to the need for fairness. Which seems to mean, if the ongoing 'debates' are anything to go on, not much agreement. Which leaves...?

I am simply struck by how large numbers see fit to ignore basic facts, critique without solution, or fail to accept that some solutions are no longer that simple.

Hence there are US troops in Iraq, Israel exists, and there are 6 billion and counting humans who have or all one day will want a car and a/c. Deal with it. Composting toilets in Islington won't address the bi-monthly trips to Gstaad, my loves.

Or, though sweet, I rather doubt the poppet in the US switching off her lights is going to do much to offset the whole house being cooled 24/7, 365/365, if they live in a Southern state.

Which is what sprang to mind as I saw Roger 'Mr. Benn, I presume?' Harrabin emerging from the jungle in full suit, as was our Minister of hot air. If you wear 3 layers and/or a neck vice in 30 degrees and 90% humidity, you probably need a bit of carbon-guzzling energy to keep you cool (it would be fascinating to see if all switch off when they leave their rooms, or maybe after a hard day it is nice to come back to more than a silly fan can provide). Along with all the other 5* trappings, such as tinkling fountains and a fresh flower on the pillow each day, all interesting messages that don't quite equate with what the self-appointed messengers seem to be saying.

'The current draft has a reference to set a target..' I think I heard. Spiffy. That'll do it for the old agreement vs. oblivion balance, quicksmart. We're saved!

Mr. Benn talks reductions/mitigations, but his government and country don't seem to be able to actually do 'em. All I have heard of late is missed or rearranged targets that serve only as topics to justify global jollies to discuss, and the ringfencing of this island by offshore windfarms.

I care, and I do. But heaven help us that, as an environmentalist and climate pessimist and proactivist, I am so sick of the current crop of pols and media camp followers who don't do as they say, I almost feel ready to say the hell with it all and book my own 'study' of 'climate change' in Antarctic for Christmas and join them all round the polar bar for a swift toast to the end of our world.

The end of the world. That's what oblivion means, right? And yet at time of upload this is the second post on this topic. Maybe the rules of engagement need looking at a bit? And I don't mean in Iraq.

Ah, the car, the chalice of individual freedom and independence! The alarming thing about the fuel tax revolt two years ago was the emergence of a perception that individual global mobility is some sort of inalienable birthright. That truly is a new thing under the sun.
If we think feeding nine billion is going to be problematic, try supplying nine billion individual mobility units. Maybe they can do without housing or clean air....
And in aid of what? So we can rush around from place to place without ever having enough time to actually be anywhere, and the faster and further we scurry, the more we need to ignore the places we are passing through. Never mind, we can go on an ecotour for a really cheap price, see some fine, biodiverse place before the common herd spoils it, but virtually every airport already has a Coke machine; most have a McDonald's, and are surrounded by developments resultant from and conditioned by the flow of overfunded assholes riding taxfree jetfuel. And mobiles don't work!
Henry Thoreau said the same damn thing in 1854 about the trains: "I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot."

Brought into right relationships with the wilderness,
man would see that his appropriation of Earth's resources
beyond his personal needs would only bring imbalance
and beget ultimate loss and poverty for all.
-- John Muir