While the last post was a confession of my ever growing embrace of green and sustainable technology as a whole and healthy expression of the human imagination, this post is meant to keep our feet on firmly on the ground.
A few weeks ago I read one of the most levelheaded (bordering on cynical) articles on global warming I've ever come across. Anyone concerned about carbon footprints (as I am) needs to read If More CO2 is Bad . . . Then What? or (Download .pdf)
Robert Bryce –a self confessed climate change Agnostic– makes a compelling argument:
"The belief that the world can drastically cut global carbon-dioxide emissions at a time when about half of the people on the planet are still living in relative energy poverty borders on fantasy. Moreover, the industrialized countries in general, and the U.S. in particular, have no moral standing from which to tell the developing countries that they should slow the growth of their energy consumption."
This article is a direct volley to America's growing 'Whole Foods Liberals'.
"The developed countries of the world can talk forever about the virtues of solar panels and windmills, but what the energy-poor need most are common fuels like kerosene, propane, and gasoline. And just like us, they want reliable electricity. The people in the industrialized countries have a moral obligation to help the energy-poor get cheap, reliable energy. And it is undeniable that the cheapest and most reliable forms of energy, for now, are fossil fuels.
. . . Bringing hundreds of millions of people out of energy poverty – and, thus, into higher standards of living – means providing them with access to cheap, plentiful energy. Like it or not, that largely means fossil fuels, and increased use of fossil fuels will mean further increases in carbon-dioxide emissions. The hard truth is that the people of the world are going to have to adapt to a warmer planet – regardless of the cause of that warming."
While I don't know nearly enough about Robert Bryce and his work I think this article proposes an insightful dilemma: There is no efficacious eco-response to climate change that will ever do the job if the answer doesn't take into account those the West has left behind. We can throw all the post-industrial green and sustainable technology we want at the issue but 'Morality' (those who still don't have clean drinking water, clean burning stoves, etc.) and 'Scale' (there is a lot of these 'third world' conditions out there!) will continue to drag our efforts down into the industrial bog we so desperately want to leave behind.
Are we too late?
what will we do?
read more from Robert Bryce here.