Confounded by our own innate corruption, climate "justice" may turn out to be the self-extinction of the human race.

The entire 'development' of the West is based on CO2 emissions over the last 200 yrs. Unless China and India reach the developmental state of the West, you cannot point fingers in that direction. Its hypocritical and ingenuous. The 'West' will NEVER cut down on their emissions. We will somehow find a way to blame others as we always do. Thats just the plain cynical truth.

Oh, I love that statement about Nature putting 35 times of the amount of co2 into the atmosphre that man does.
The problem is nature always accomidates for its co2 where man doesn't.During the summer we have ozone days.Would we hhave them if it wasn't for man polluting?
Well anyone? In this era of 4 car garages. The reason to contribute all this man made CO2?Anyone?Is man contributing for the betterment of the entire Earth by having four co2 belching vehicles? tell me how please? Give me example how the Earth is better for tthis families four vehicles?
And if you can't then don't give us that BS about Earth spreading 35 times more co2 then humans. Oh by the way I didn't know humans like Earth actually have a way of storing and containing CO2 like Earth does. Please tell me how we humans do it?

Thanks Ian for noting some issues related to CO2 emissions. In my view, choroflurocarbons that affect the ozone layer negatively are a more serious, pressing problem.

For commenters info, the comment posting system cut off about 80 percent of my comment, wherein I pointed out that China is number two in CO2 emissions right now and will surpass the US in 2009 to become the world's largest CO2 emitter. Ways to really improve life in this world, I wrote, include defiance of Catholic and Muslim dogma against birth control, alternative technologies for water wells and solar cooking, "safe" nuclear power production a la the French, etc.

Now, tell me again why we should be panicked about an increase in CO2 concentration from 0.00028 of the atmosphere to 0.00038.....

Warming due to CO2 is only a hypothesis that has not been scientifically proved. The IPCC process is very flawed. Look for more information than just Al Gore's error-filled effort.

Certainly nations such as the US, with huge ecological footprints deserve all a lot of blame. China and India are increasing their footprints as well, as they grow economically (in the standard, unsustainable way) and increase per capita consumption. It all points to the need to address both per capita consumption and population growth. They multiply to produce total consumption. Fortunately, population is amenable to humane programs which help with the social issues which cause it and deserve attention in their own right.

Apart from that, as some commenters above have mentioned, we have an unsustainable economic system. Global corporatization fuels the whole ecological crisis.

A few more inconvenient facts.
*The warming effect of CO2 is logarithmic. The effect decreases as the concentration increases.
*Annually, nature puts about 35 times as much CO2 into the atmosphere as man.
*CO2 is only a minor greenhouse gas. The main one is , as vapor and clouds. Together they are responsible for up to 95% of the "greenhouse effect" (itself a misnomer.
*If all CO2 emissions could magically be stopped instantly, we wouldn't notice the temperature difference 50 and 100 years from now.

For what it's worth since the choir seems to be cheering on the choir here, I agree that humans have increased the natural rate of climate change in the last 100 years, and that effect is increasing at least geometrically, or, faster next year than this year. That said, the rush to blame the US for climate change by failing to ratify the Kyoto Treaty, and due to its high per capita energy use, misses a few "inconvenient" facts.

First, China is the >second

Americans, too many, are lazy and could care less about conservation. One problem I see is the way wealth has been transferred to paper money. I see people leave their water running because they believe it's cheap and they can pay the bill. That is as far as they think. My mind is blown by how many large SUVS and trucks sit in parking lots ALL OVER the U.S. (add this to traffic jams) and their fumes are just blowing into the atmosphere. If I wasn't a tiny thing I'd go up to the driver and say, "turn your damned engine off. You're killing MY (and the planet's) ozone." Years ago when I took my kids to Disney (twice in their lifetimes) I was astounded that the tourist buses sat in the parking lots RUNNING all day... so they would be cool when passengers re-entered. About 2 months ago a writer on commondreams (from Europe) spoke about this nation's excessive use of air conditioning. I go into libraries so cold my fingers freeze. There is an astounding MISUSE or over-use of available resources. CONSERVATION should be taught in schools. That, combined with fuel efficiency, respect for using what one needs and HONORING that sacred act would help a great deal. Where is the thanks, the gratitude for our daily bread? Americans use too much and a great many look it. When humans enter into bodies part of the experience is aimed at self-mastery, which is predicated on balance. Too much of anything will eventually throw off mind, body and/or spirit. Our planet is experiencing that. I'd like to believe this is some kind of growing pain for our planet, and maybe it is, but apart from progress in a few notable areas, the most disturbing thing is how much "progress" has been made with weaponry, and why so much focus has gone into that, and so much treasure wasted on the stockpiling of that which could so easily decimate us all. All the masters taught pretty much the same truths, and how many people follow them? Quite possibly the test of spiritual mastery is compassion for those who are different. Americans have such a sense of entitlement, there is little realization beyond their own immediate usage patterns. Short term attention span theatre, and this is not just about baby boomers as some commentators would say. We ALL could use a lot less, and we all should be giving things away... if the nation did more of this, it might alleviate the karma created by Iraq and how a people have been senselessly and wontonly destroyed at the king's pleasure. Should he tire of that, perhaps a new Roman arena ought be built... surely there are jobless types who would welcome the new employment opportunity?

The world can demand all it wants to because the US congress is doing exactly NOTHING. The two most obvious changes one could make to reduce emissions, increase CAFE standards and reduce the maximum speed limit to 55 MPH, are complete non-starters with the current congress.

What Congress is most likely to do is to come up with an insanely complicated cap-and-trade system that will reward those currently building coal-fired power plants. I can guarantee that any cap and trade proposal is unreadable by any normal person and will amount to a subsidy for the coal industry.

I think the world needs to get on with reducing emissions and developing the needed technologies on it's own while the US lags behind. Until more than a few thousand americans die due to climate change we aren't going to do squat.

They say that with only 5% of the world's population that the U.S. accounts for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. But if you factor in U.S. influence on the systems and methods employed elsewhere, then the U.S. accounts for much more than 25%. It's very easy to inspect the systems and methods and to trace their source. Many foreign students have learned these systems and methods at U.S. schools. We have to identify the cause and effect so that we can make better decisions in the future. We may envision ourselves petitioning the government in the future demanding that the U.S. stop the exportation of unsustainable ideas that only amplifies the destruction. We know that the "lifting of boats" has been mostly hot air. I noticed that Mexico doesn't have much of a passenger rail system. It relies on bus. I'm willing to bet that the U.S. has lobbied intensely against Mexican passenger rail, for the benefit of Detroit and Houston.

From Robert Settgast's post above: "Contrary to their assertions, measures to reduce greenhouse gases could only improve our economy by lessening our trade deficits, and improving our security by reducing our dependance on foreign oil. . . . With our involvement, China & India could then be compelled to join the rest of the developed world"

This is not the first instance of using "the economy" as an excuse to subvert scientific data, impede innovation the fostering of more sustainable, less polluting technologies. I don't believe this administration is concerned about "the economy," but rather those sectors of the economy from which it derives its power via contibutions : energy, pharma, agri-business.

These are vested interest groups, not "the economy." The fact that we have been trained to identity their well-being with "the economy" evidences the success with which their propaganda has brainwashed so many.

DE: We are not simply hitting an environmental wall, or the limits to physical growth, but we are hitting an evolutionary wall, which is the limit of our traditional image of who we think we are as a species, and the limit of that form of growth.

And we are also hitting the limits of our life stories as nations, as races, as ethnic groups. We need to find our larger story as a human family. So when we look at our sense of identity as a species and our need for a larger story, then that invites us to look into the so-called spiritual realm.

WIE: What do you mean by "our larger story as a human family"?

DE: I mean, who are we? What are we doing here and where are we going? My sense of our larger story is beautifully summarized in the name that we've given ourselves as a species: Homo sapiens sapiens. "Sapient" means to be wise; "sapient sapient" means to be doubly wise. We're the species, by our own definition, which knows that it knows. So to fulfill our self-given name as a species, as Homo sapiens sapiens, to fulfill our capacity to be doubly wise, is to discover our place in this living universe. It utterly transforms the nature of the human journey.

Then we can ask ourselves: Are we serving our capacity for double wisdom, for knowing that we know -- in other words, for awakening? And can culture co-evolve with that awakening of consciousness? And if so, how can we best evolve the culture and consciousness in a way that really serves our collective awakening? Then that becomes the agenda, and at that point, all of these issues that we're struggling with now are put into a completely different context.

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Promise Ahead (2000) is a concise, cogent, and beautifully written book in which Elgin deals more specfically with these issues. The segments above are from interview by Carter Phipps, which can be found in 'What is Enlightenment?' Magazine, Spring/Summer 2001.

Perspective from Duane Elgin -
"Awakening Earth"

Humanity is the vehicle through which the earth is becoming conscious of itself. In our awakening, the earth awakens as well. Since the rugged conditions of the ice ages, we have relentlessly pressed forward -- learning the revolutionary skills of agriculture and building a settled village existence, then growing into city-states and beyond to nation-states. Our growth from wandering tribes of food gatherers to a species with global dominance has been filled with conflict and crises. These crises are the visible evidence that we are working through a highly purposeful process of development.

Just as a growing child makes many missteps along the path to adulthood, so too have we made may painful mistakes along our way. Entire civilizations have collapsed, or wandered off into stagnant dead ends, or made horrendous use of newfound powers. Still, we humans have learned through our mistakes and, step by step, we have moved ahead, ever more experienced, ever more seasoned, ever more mature.

Just as there are recognizable stages in the development of an individual in moving from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, so too are there stages of development that describe the maturation of an entire species.

Thus far humanity seems to have grown from its species-childhood to early adolescence. In my view, we are roughly halfway home as a species. We are approximately halfway along the path of achieving a planetary civilization that is able both to maintain itself and surpass itself into the deep future.

Although we now confront immensely difficult crises of planetary scale-global climate changes, environmental pollution, species extinction, dwindling energy reserves, and many more -- these are catalysts for the next major step in our evolution to species-maturity.

We can place our current predicament in perspective by considering our situation from a cosmic scale. Astronomers estimate there are roughly a trillion galaxies. Each galaxy is estimated to contain a billion or more star systems like our sun. Our cosmos likely contains trillions of planetary systems upon which life can evolve.

With an overflowing abundance of planetary systems, the universe appears designed to "seed" countless life experiments. Throughout the cosmos, then, there are likely many other beings struggling to achieve their maturity as a planetary-scale species.

Imagine, then, that you have a space vehicle which enables you to traverse the immense distances of the cosmos at great speed. Your craft hurtles through space, passing by millions of star systems, each with its accompanying planetary systems. On some planets, the experiment in life failed early on. Like our own Mars, these planets are akin to seeds from a tree that have fallen on barren ground. Other planets are humming with life as one dominant species moves along the path to maturity, its capacity for stewardship still far from secure.

Finally, you see a small percentage of planets that have worked through their stages of learning and acquired the wisdom and compassion needed to sustain themselves for the long-term future by continually balancing between planetary unity and individual diversity. Having attained a stable platform for ongoing evolution, these successful planetary civilizations are now reaching into the heavens, seeking to join with other civilizations into societies of galactic scale.

And from a 2001 interview:

WIE: Many of today's leading thinkers, futurists, scientists, and visionaries are warning us that the next twenty to thirty years will be a testing time for the human species, a time of evolutionary crisis that will entail great, and potentially even catastrophic, change. Could you please describe what you feel are the key factors precipitating this crisis? What will we be facing in the coming years?

DUANE ELGIN: What we're really facing is the convergence of a number of powerful trends -- climate change, species extinction, the spread of poverty, and the growth in population. All of these factors could develop individually, but what's unique about our time is that the world has become a closed system. There's no place to escape, and all of these powerful forces are beginning to impinge upon one another and reinforce one another.

Our situation is something like a set of rubber bands that you stretch out and out and out until they reach the limit of their elasticity, which is the breaking point of the system. My sense is that we still have a fair amount of elasticity in the world system. It's going to be another couple of decades until we reach the breaking point.

It is remarkable that it took the Al Gore's documentary "Inconvenient Truth", and now the polar bear demise and the recent conclusions from the intergovernmental Panel on Cli mate Change , to alert many to the impending dangers from global warming--which has been obvious to anyone who had made even minor efforts to be informed. The evidence linking carbon pollution to warming is as close to certain as science can be. Its causes, consequences, and mitigation requirements have been documented by the scientific community, many dedicated environmental organizations including The Union of Concerned Scientists, and chronicled in the press for years.

The dangerous manipulation of essential scientific data used by this administration to conceal and derail corrective measures for this threat and other vital environmental reforms has also been apparent. Th gullibility of so many who are influanced by them is more alarming than the scientific manipulation itself.

Contrary to their assertions, measures to reduce greenhouse gases could only improve our economy by lessening our trade deficits, and improving our security by reducing our dependance on foreign oil. We could also regain some of our lost world respect that has resulted from our opposition Kyoto while arrogantly contributing disproportionally to carbon pollution. With our involvement, China & India could then be compelled to join the rest of the developed world.

Often overlooked is the fact that the same measures needed to mitigate global warming would be necessary even if it were not an issue. Conservation, alternative energy development, anti- pollution refinements, etc are essential for other vital environmental reforms such as air and water quality, reductions in toxic waste generation, land preservation, etc.

The environmental and social damage from our indifference to (and even denial of) carbon pollution and its effects can only worsen if we allow these destructive policies of this reckless and unlearned president and his financial supporters to continue.

"Climate Justice" is a good way to see this issue. A growing population is without access to drinkable water. The environmental crisis is the most important issue we have ever had to face. While shortages of fuel, food and water are predicted to lead to increased war, war is the greatest destructive force. After that, the economics of imperialsm and "neo-liberalism" are the greatest threat. Climate Justice inevetably means a global cooperative as opposed to a system of competitive hoarding and exploitation.

I'm glad to read that a wide variety of groups, especially religious, are stepping up pressure on the President of the USA to implement changes as we are the greatest contributes to greenhouse gases and other pollutants which are causing climate change. The scientific data is irrefutable. Only those with a political or business agenda are in denial of what is causing the changes in climate.
Hopefully, Bush will be pushed into a corner here and finally have to use the power of government to force change. It is obvious that voluntary compliance is not working because if it were, we would be seeing the beginnings of a decline in our greenhouse gas emissions. The first and easiest change to implement is the gas mileage of our cars. This would not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also save millions of barrels of oil a day. Why would anyone be against such an idea unless greed and self interest weren't involved?
S most of the public are way ahead of our government leaders on almost all issues, this one is certainly going to force the president to make a difficult (for him) decision. What's more important Mister President, the survival of this planet as we know it, or money?

It is a moral issue. For a century at least now USA's population size as the third most populace nation on earth has worked in it's favor as the USA strove for economic strength using it's technology and population size to capitalize on huge domestic consumer markets. Now however, the SIZE of the USA's population in conjunction with it's fossil fuel use is working against people that are NOT able to take part in or advantage of the economic situation in the USA.

Poor around the globe will pay the price for the economic prioritization of profit and of NOT dealing with profit shrinking actions by us in developed nations that demand a moral addressing of the CO2 climate change issue specifically in the USA. The poor, disproportionately in other nations, are being and will be harmed with no economic up side as people in the USA have. Therefore this issue is a MORAL test for the USA as it is in other developed nations like Canada. How developed nations address these types of issues such as climate change in an honest manner will determine the moral authority they wield in the future.