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Copenhagen: Only the Numbers Count – and They Add up to Hell on Earth
Climate Interactive's software speaks numbers, not spin – which is where the true understanding of the Copenhagen summit lies
First number to know: 350. It's what scientists have been saying for two years is the maximum amount of carbon dioxide we can safely have in the atmosphere, measured in parts per million. Those scientists have been joined by an unprecedented outpouring from civil society: in late October, activists put on what CNN called "the most widespread day of political action in the planet's history," with 5,200 demonstrations in 181 countries, all rallying around that number. Three thousand vigils last weekend across the planet spelled out the number in candles. Thousands of churches rang their bells 350 times on Sunday, and yesterday the World Parliament of Religions, meeting in Melbourne and representing the "largest interreligious gathering on earth" sent an emergency 350 declaration here to Copenhagen.
The second number: 100. That's (roughly) how many countries are backing a 350 target here at Copenhagen. That's more than half the nations in attendance – unfortunately, they're the small, poor ones. But it's amazing to see them, in the face of enormous pressure, keeping the idea of real action alive. Yesterday Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, spoke to a roaring crowd of thousands: "We know what the laws of physics say: the most important number in the world is 350."
The third number: 4%. That's how much the US is offering to cut its emissions from their 1990 levels by 2020. Scientists tell us that the developed world would need to reduce by at least 40% to get us back on a 350 track, so the American offer is exactly an order or magnitude off. And they're not alone. All the rich countries, not to mention China, are looking to do as little as possible and still escape here with some kind of agreement they can hide behind.
The fourth number – and the most important one. When the folks at Climate Interactive plug in every promise made at these talks (the American offer on the table, the Chinese promise to reduce "energy intensity", the EU pledges, and so on) their software tells them almost instantly how much carbon they would eventually produce. When they hit the button last night, the program showed that by 2100 the world's CO2 concentrations (currently 390) would be – drumroll please – 770. That is, we would live in hell, or at least a place with a similar temperature.
So that's the scorecard. You may hear a lot of happy talk from world leaders over the next few days as they "reach a historic agreement". But that's how it all adds up.
- Posted in
42 Comments so far
Show AllBill Notes:
"The third number: 4%. That's how much the US is offering to cut its emissions from their 1990 levels by 2020. Scientists tell us that the developed world would need to reduce by at least 40% to get us back on a 350 track, so the American offer is exactly an order or magnitude off."
The Obama Admin. is offering a paultry 4% juxtaposed against Bill's previous article commending Obama as "the best presidend of our generation."
Does anyone else see the disconect?
It depends on what he meant by 'best', doesn't it? I'm sure he's the 'best' non-White president, the 'best' at suckering people who should know better, and 'best' in a number of other ways, too.
"Does anyone see the disconnect?"
Yes!
In a recent article, McKibben assured Obama that it didn't matter what he did or didn't do about climate change, he would be knocking on doors for him come next election. "I am yours!" he seemed to be saying.
Oh my God, what have we become? A bunch of idiots? Is there something in the water?
McKibben (essentially)to Obama:
I don't care if you sabotage real climate change policies and the earth heats up and millions die, including many of the earth's species, I don't care that you pillage, kill innocents, make war on sovereign nations, defy the wishes of We the People, ....... I LOVE YOU! I will always LOVE YOU! I will knock on doors for you!
Is it because Obama is half black? Is it some kind of reverse racism? What the hell is going on? If Bush or a Republican were doing these things, would McKibben be so enthralled?
"What the hell is going on?"
McKibbens and company are doing SOMETHING, which is better than nothing. Next to nothing, their something looks really big. So they will be satisfied, and their approach will become entrenched because... it looks good compared to nothing.
But nothing is the wrong standard for comparison. They need to compare their approach to the holistic approach that regards all of the problems created by elites as one problem. The holistic approach changes the society's values, effectively dismantling the elites influence channels, and teaches the people to value their own better interests, which include the preservation of nature, and local ownership of production, among other things.
Valuing what is real, the people can then put down all elite challenges, all of these mega-problems, the enslavement of the people, the destruction of the people's rights, mass murder by military, environmental destruction, and all the rest, all perpetrated by elites.
A small parable:
Two guys, B and C, come up to you carrying a box.
B says to you 'There's an unloaded gun in this box. I'll give you $100 to shut your eyes, put the gun to your head, and pull the trigger. It's completely safe - I checked and there are no bullets in the gun.'
C says 'Don't do it! He didn't check anything! Here's a box of bullets I found near the gun -- there are 6 bullets missing. Where are they?'
B says 'Don't listen to C, we didn't find any box of bullets - he must have had them in his pocket. Don't miss out on the $100 - see, here it is. It's yours as soon as you pull the trigger. How about it?'
C says 'I'm telling you, don't do it! He didn't check anything and I damned well DID find that box of bullets near the gun'.
B says 'Here, I'll show you it's not loaded'. He takes the gun out, points it into the air, and pulls the trigger. Click. He says 'Satisfied now? Are you going to get that easy hundred bucks or not? If you don't want it, somebody else will. Make your choice -- I haven't got all day!'
Sorry, Mr McKibben -- you constantly tell us what "the scientists" say, as if all scientists agree on the details of climate science (still in its infancy, by the way). One example: look at the Nov 9 issue of "Newsweek," with Al Gore on the cover and a flattering article on him inside. In this article, the author refers to a recent essay in the peer-reviewed magazine "Science" -- it seems that carbon dioxide accounts for 43% of greenhouse gases and that the other 57% are easier to reduce. (Low-hanging fruit is the expression often used.) Doesn't this alter the debate somewhat? Not in Mr. McKibben's mind -- look at Stewart Brand's op-ed in today's N.Y. Times: McKibben is a "calamitist," a category that even James Hansen doen't belong in. He teaches Sunday School and approaches climate change with a religious fervor and no interest in debate. He seems quite likable and writes gracefully. But take him with a grain of salt.
Whether McKibben is an alarmist, a "calamitist" or not doesn't alter the preponderant science around climate change. Besides, Stuart Brand is in a class by himself, where nut cases are concerned. He's been on a crusade for decades to fly as many humans off the planet, into destinations unknown, to the farther reaches of deep space to begin populating other planets, having given up utterly on the prospects of future life here.
For all the demurrals constantly thrown at McKibben's alleged "alarmism", Brand wins first prize for his deeply unreal and inane obsessions over humanity's chances of surviving off this planet. Talk about something that's "not gonna happen," this is it. Apparently, Brand thinks he'll be on the first rocket ship to Whereverland, an interplanetary Mayflower that will colonize some distant planet with a coterie of his peers. That's why he's opposed to taking any serious measures to responsibly address global warming--he considers it irrelevant, since he expects to be living in another galaxy far far away. Thus does the Whole Earth Catalogue mutate absurdly into The Late Great Planet Earth, with a Stuart Brand twist.
I do regret hearing that McKibben teaches Sunday School, that much of his work is informed by faith in a belief system largely responsible for all the insanities that have led directly to global warming. That's the way so many things are now, and more's the pity. More Churchianity isn't going to get us to 350, and it's a shame McKibben has to be hobbled by such nonsense.
How do you 'plan' for 770? Dig yourself a grave?
I think at 770, methane production from melted Arctic regions, permafrost and ocean clasts, is a given: and that's an extinction event. I really think we would be better off just digging a grave, if that's where we're headed.
I agree that we aren't going to cut CO2 by 40% in ten years.
But, if McKibben's calculation of 770 is correct, then THE REALITY is methane release from formerly frozen Arctic regions WILL overwhelm our industrial CO2 production, taking the entire situation out of our hands. My reading of the science is that THAT is the reality, at CO2 concentrations that high. Once methane releases in large quantities from these areas, all scenario's are bad, and the worst is extinction.
People talk brave about the uncertainties associated with these changes, but I'm a little amazed at the cavalier attitude. None of us have ever been here before, and the planet itself hasn't been here for millions of years. My primary concerns have always been sea level rise and methane feedbacks. At 770, both are assured. Once you get methane release, you're playing Russian Roulette with the planet.
People talk brave about the uncertainties associated with these changes, but I'm a little amazed at the cavalier attitude.
-------------------------------------
I blame the telly and films. Too many of us can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction. We think somehow there are scriptwriters who will make everything come out okay and none of the good guys will suffer more than a genteel flesh wound in some limb.
"Once you get methane release, you're playing Russian Roulette with the planet."
Once you get the Enlightenment...
770 ppm = methane from the deep = total acidification of the oceans = Permian extinction = 98% of all life dies. Humanity dies. Except for a tiny fraction of the very very wealthy ( the Morlocks). They will live on somehow and eat the rest of us.
Sioux Rose
JM: I think the detailed article posted on CD that relates to Iraq's vanishing water sources is a pretty powerful sampling of what climate change already means to too many. The area's proximate relationship to the Biblical Garden of Eden gone fallow presents its own striking metaphor. Nations that have failed to learn to get along, that have devoted too much of their precious resources towards war and agression now begin to learn where such emphases lead. I feel remorse and compassion for the Iraqi people. Surely their zone is a living hell on earth.
Sioux Rose - I was just sitting here crying after reading the article about what's happening to Iraq's water and the callousness of Turkey and Syria. Damning up water has been in the works for a long time. They are taking care of themselves as nations do. But Iraq, especially Baghdad ... a treasure of a city, essentially Sunni, and the Marsh Wetland area, essentially Shiite, their people have been through so much already and the devastation continues and even gets worse.
Then I read Bill McKibben's article and that unleashed my own floodgates and howls. The pictures of so many people on this planet who are suffering terribly are always in my heart now and it hurts, but I despair because even though people write good analyses sometimes or get off some cryptic remarks that sometimes are funny or right to the point, it is so rare to get a sense that anyone feels anything close to a deep-feeling kinship with those whose lives have been turned upside down by war and whose food and water and shelters are scarce to all gone. There they sit with their children in their hell-hole of rubble or next to a rock on a mountain pass in their forced evacuation from their own bombed-out villages.
They are members of one human family on earth, our family.
And then you wrote: "I feel remorse and compassion for the Iraqi people. Surely their zone is a living hell on earth."
Since all my hours of reading and writing this morning, you are the first to express FEELINGS for others. I felt better just reading your short statement about your "remorse and compassion."
Oh, who are we anyway we human beings? At various stages of evolvement, I know, but here in the U.S. we seem to have devolved into a kind of shut-down self-centeredness and apathy, fully conditioned by the emphasis on getting the material goods one wants. Gimme and getting have become the mainstays of our value system.
At the top, ... indecencies, lawlessness, getting away with murder, lying, torturing, killing has become as American as apple pie.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza ... and more to come already in the works.
The outworkings of this heavy karmic load we and other Western nations and other individual nations are creating may be the one and only thing that is the ultimate transformer for us to become fully human. And that will be one terrible ride when all hell breaks loose. And the Mother will do it for her own survival.
But maybe not transformation. Maybe it will just get more savage here on earth and the survivors will fight and kill even more, over the dwindling resources that are necessary to staying alive.
This is a violent Yuga, is it not?
Well, anyway, SR, thanks for the kindred connection.
/cm
And if I understand correctly that the funds for a new bomber have been approved then it just goes to prove that the US is controlled by sociopaths.
Sioux Rose
CEE MIRACLES: When we allow ourselves to be fully present to what's really taking place, open our heart chakra and take in the impossible pain of others, it also becomes OUR pain. This is why so many shut down. It's no accident that great numbers in America are obese. Lots of high-calorie snacks are considered "comfort food." Then there are the alcoholics whose numbers are not known because our nation PUSHES alcohol as if it was a liquid version of the National Anthem. Add to that drugs, both the street variety and the high numbers of those being prescribed anti-depression medication and you get a sense of the ways that people are shutting down. To feel what's really underway is a transformational task. Most would rather stay in their minds/intellects where they are spared the high level of empathy that results from DARING to feel what's really going on in our world.
I notice this when I drive places, that so many just want to get there. They absolutely turn off any sentient connection with scenery or life forms along the way. It's a sheer madness. I am by no means a slow driver, but I can't tell you how often I felt almost pushed off the road. Some people are so fierce about this that they risk their lives (and whomever is in front of them) to advance by probably little more than moments, the same moments that might lead to a life or death collision.
I don't elaborate on what I feel at length in this forum as the preference in this intellectual arena is for ideas. Of course when that is the only thing being bounced around we risk becoming equivalent versions of arm chair theologians.
Not too long ago the city of Atlanta was facing a water crisis, and California has certainly flirted with as much. The interesting thing about money is that no matter how much one has, if they live where the water runs dry, those greenbacks won't mean shit to a tree. (Sure, the rich can move to other zones, but the bottom line is that money can only negotiate so much; and the paradigm upon which much of the modern world has been built is itself coming asunder.)
When Kahlil Gibran speaks of LOVE in "The Prophet" he makes it clear that the ego/mind has no control over the path that love will assume. He states further that if LOVE finds you worthy, then you must follow, even though its path is steep. He adds that to know love is to cry all your tears and laugh all your laughter, and if that is asking too much, than the path of love is not for "you." I state this to commend you for having the capacity and courage TO feel. So many have let their genuine sentiments go to sleep.
SR: "So many have let their genuine sentiments go to sleep."
We are taught to "behave" in a certain way; taught to think and what to think about and what not to think about, and how to present our thinking within the restrictions that are approved and rewarded. That is the way our authentic little selves are twisted out of shape and sometimes even killed almost irretrievably.
SR: "I state this to commend you for having the capacity and courage TO feel."
I was born with the capacity, a great capacity, as just about all normal children are, but as above, we are taught to "behave" in a certain way.
Yes, it has been one hellava' path for me because of the undoing of all that I had learned in order to "behave" and think [and express feelings] in a certain way that so many others wanted/ expected and approved of as I went along in my life. The journey to return to one's original authenticity which is primarily about feelings and feeling is a trip and a half.
I wrote a great deal on all of this, but decided not to post it. I'm writing a book and also essays, maybe a play, so it'll all turn up somewhere in some one of those written forms or other.
The below I found on my computer stuffed in some folder many months ago. As I read it, I said, "Gee, who wrote this"? I was really resonating. As it turned out, I wrote it in January, 2005.
"I hear the earth shuddering and crying out ... I hear the children of the earth moaning and crying out ... Do I shut my ears ... and my heart ... and stay safe at my own hearth? or do I understand that the web of life of which I am but a tiny strand is interconnected with every creature, every thing on the planet ... and past that through the cosmos to every star, every planet, every solar system, every galaxie ... that as I am breathing and my heart beats, the rhythms of my breath and the drummings of my heart connect in time, synchronizes with the All of Everything, the Divine All, the ONE Life ... and knowing that, how can I not open my ears and my heart to the discordant sounds of shuddering, moanings, cryings that reverberate through the interconnected web turning the Celestial Music of the Spheres into a cacaphony of harsh and sour notes and then I am moved to, must do that which I can to soothe, love, heal, comfort, help. CKL"
Yes, SR, this board is about ideas, but a free people/freed up individuals must "go out of their minds" in order to reconnect with their hearts and their own passionate, authentic selves that they once were as children before all the conditioning began.
We have fallen prey to leaders whose stupid agendae are leading us all into a very dark place and maybe our own annihilation.
This is an emergency we're in worldwide. And we better feel it, passionately feel it ... and soon.
Because we are so in our minds, we parse dishonesty, lying, torture, chicancery, murderous actions against others, affronts to/crimes against our own security and well-being and the whole world's security and well-being with some anger, but we remain luke-warm about doing anything other than discussing these things more. And I'm not just talking about the CD Board.
We have learned to "behave" too well and that may be our undoing.
Passion ... passionate feelings ... coming from the once-upon-a-time authentic self. To retrieve those feelings is what takes courage and that ain't easy.
+++++++++
Best stop here. ... What a trip this one is!
/cm
Sioux Rose
CEE MIRACLES: Thank you for the post. Naturally I am in synch with everything you articulated. I think the control of emotions en masse through a variety of programming devices features one default key: anger. A friend of mine took her spouse to a counselor before they ended up divorced. The counselor used lots of scenarios to try to elicit a response from this man, and the ONLY one he could relate to was anger.
When we see so many blow-up/bang-bang films produced in this nation, the bombastic frenzy seems to be, at essence, the articulation of one vast ceaseless collective scream. The guy I date is 11 years younger and when I try to get him to watch films from "my era" he finds them too slow-moving, and indeed by today's standards they are. He pointed out to me the degree to which the ante is always being upped in terms of violent scenes and/or body counts! I know this is to soften the consciences of viewers so that REAL kills in REAL wars pass under their "moral radar."
I've always believed that disease is in part related to repressed emotions, so I let myself have lots of room. This is probably why it's better for me to live alone. Most people stuff their emotions or subliminate them. Men are especially taught this dynamic and it probably figures into why so many opt for violence or violent expressions of their alleged manhood.
One reason I am drawn to ancient archeytpes is that they provide a larger panorama of possible expressions both for the ideal masculine and ideal feminine. Modern America's easy nod TO war is proof that the prototype of Mars and its war-oriented ethos have been woven seemlessly into every fiber of our society. It is this grossly distorted myth of maleness that much of my writing aims to deconstruct.
See you in the threads, and write on! Sioux
Damming and fighting over water has been common in drought since at least the earliest written records. So has an astonishing lack of general concern for conservation.
In one of the barrios where I lived in the Sierra Madre, the pipes ran dry regularly in the afternoon. Usually water returned by 4 or 5 pm, but sometimes it disappeared altogether for 3 or 4 days.
People still used water at exactly their usual rate until the moment the pipes ran dry. When I pointed out that even a few measures of conservation would allow for continuous use, they laughed at me and replied that "If I don't use the water, someone else will."
Any one of them would have likely saved water were it possible to accomplish by the actions of any one person. None did so unilaterally.
For water, fill in food, land, carbon, oil, or any more or less common resource. And until I see different, I will assume I can substitute people from any culture anywhere in the world: there certainly seems enough historical precedent.
Unless we want to wait for humans to evolve a new social sense, we had better look to solve things systemically. In terms of global resources, this means global cooperation or global regulation in which individual action has consequences.
The wealthy and powerful will oppose that.
Assuming that history at least rhymes, their opposition will be overcome, whether by violence or without violence, whether it is replaced by democratic forces or fresh tyranny.
It would seem that replacing them nonviolently and restructuring the system massively to change the nature of the resources game will ultimately have the benefits of conservative action (in the old sense).
The people in that barrio had learnt the lessons of Capitalist pathology very well!
It's a pity you weren't in a position to teach them how to do it better.
"How do you 'plan' for 770?"
# Stockpile sunscreen now.
# Teach your (grand)children to wear hats.
# Watch 'Waterworld' again.*
* http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114898/
if we're waiting for the corporatocracy that runs this country to come to their collective senses we're screwed.....
as with any meaning ful change that is to occur it has to be accomplished by the masses .... otherwise known as WE THE PEOPLE to us liberals and known as the "mob" in conservative circles....
agitate now!
"You may hear a lot of happy talk from world leaders..."
How much happy talk are we hearing from Bill McKibben?
Is Bill walking the talk? Is he a vegan?
We need the governments to make changes but so do we, need to make changes.
Farmed livestock contributes 40% more to climate change than entire transport combined (planes, cars, trains, trucks, ships) according to recent UN studies.
Are we making a simple change to stop eating meat that can positively impact our air, water and land?
Or are we clinging to our bad habits and defensiveness at the expense of the planet?
It will take massive and strategic civil disobedience and worldwide boycotts of corporations and countries to shut down business as usual.
We have all asked nicely up to this point. It's time to really play hardball with the so called leaders (puppets) and their masters.
Who is going to organize (beyond just rhetoric) the resources to create and sustain such a thing?
How about Bill, Michael, James, Al, Noam, and Naomi and all those other infamous people?
What say you?
Who could be surprised that whatever pledges are made would be insufficient to satisfy predictions based on computer models whose inputs remain inadequate and controversial? Or that those pledges will be at least some degree more optimistic than what will subsequently be achievable once "leaders" get home and have to start writing the real regs. and counting the tax dollars? I seriously doubt that China will prove any less responsible than the U.S. in this regard. Even Denmark, which has done a lot to develop renewables, has increased its dependence on coal in recent years. Of course, one of the problems is, in fact, Democracy: the right of people to have things their own way in this life rather than be slaves to some hypothetical next generation. And the truth be told, a good deal of the catastrophe envisioned here as to do with masses of the starving refugees, possible wars, epidemics and other ills which will be as upsetting to folks comfortably set up in Middlebury, Vermont as anywhere else. This might seriously derange the beloved "local solution" to every global problem.
Actually its kind of encouraging that Bill teaches Sunday School. This will help kids learn the spiritual disciplines that God, the great conductor of the global warming catastrophe, expects them to practice in End Times e.g. feeding the hungry, welcoming the immigrants, visiting the sick, and protecting the poor, orphaned and widowed from the violence of the rich. One might even suggest that the successful inculcation of such a discipline would be a far greater triumph and boon to future generations than stopping global warming in its tracks tomorrow, for pointless, unnecessary and cruel human suffering and degradation are bound to continue irrespective of the weather, at least if we let history be the judge.
If we do not leave this panet, the human race is doomed. If we leave this planet, the human race is doomed. In short, the human race is doomed. We will either die out because of our own hatred, stupidity, or some natural cataclysm. It is just a matter of time. So what is the choice of our mammon/mars worshipping knuckleheads? The sooner they kill us all off the better it seems. It is already too late, the indutry liars have won. There will be no meaningful changes and there will start to be mass population die offs in the near future. Maybe not human to start with but soon it will catch up to all species. Will a corporation still live if all the people are dead? Just asking. Game over man, game over!
Don't be so negative. People today, especially in the west, don't know what hardship is. Go to the sink, turn on the tap, clean water flows. Hungry, just go out and for dollar you get burger. And, God forbid, no latte in the morning.
You think a little warmer climate is bad for you? Think about what people were feeling during the Black death pandemic in Europe. Killed mllions, almost 50% of the population. Guess what? It wasn't the end of the world. A lot of peopel died, but most survived and contued buildign the civilization we have today.
And here we are whining about warming. And 350ppm.
Get real people, if there's no real devil, there's no need to paint one on the wall just to have something to be scared of.
Live in your moron dream world but please don't expect anyone else who has basic brain function to inhabit that insipid space with you. It's obvious you're one of those without a fucking clue. Or, one who rejects every clue thrown in front of your cretinous face.
Nice choice of words. Does mommy know you are using the 'puter?
I don't have a mommy. She's long gone. Too bad yours doesn't have a leash on your stupidity. She'd be ashamed to admit giving birth to such a nitwit.
Oh man, you're so predictable. I haven't done this since grade school. How about we let the grownups use the bandwidth now?
The elohim post is quite correct: McKibben's continuing support for the Obama adm'n is obviously inconsistent with McKibben's stated opposition to the Obama administration's response to global warming. But the inconsistency noted is no aberration peculiar to McKibben, since it nicely exemplifies the fundamental lie of liberalism (reformism) generically: We The People can have our cake (mainstream, i.e., corporate capitalist America, including mainstream politicians such as Obama) and eat it too (with fundamental reforms promised by such as Obama's "change we can believe in"). This big lie works very well, and is on a par with the other big lies sacred in contemporary America; such as those represented by the dollar sign (American Dream: everybody gets rich, successful egoism for all), the flag (American Exceptionalism: ours is a benevolent Empire), and the cross (or any other supernaturalist promise of satisfaction by nonhuman agency). The liberal inconsistencies of McKibben et al. are indeed tiresome, but you can bet that he/they will never tire of uttering them.
Bingo. Well said. We're drowning in contradictions such as McKibben's. One sees it everywhere: the most prominent spokesmen opposing any given planet-threatening or society-wrecking policies, all of which are grounded in this particular economic and political system, nearly always defending the system itself and only calling for "reforms" that never materialize anyway.
Obama won't budge from his do-nothing 4% solution, which will eventuate in the 770 catastrophe by 2100, and no doubt do so much damage long before that that our species will likely go extinct by 2050 or sooner, if we adhere to Obama-denialism, only a hairsbreadth different from Bushism. Of course this is because anyone NOT espousing the fundamental goodness of capitalism and all its idealistic and delusional trappings is summarily excluded from the debate. Anyone arguing that climate change/global warming is an inevitable development of capitalist greed, excess, egocentrism, and environmental violence is routinely ignored and/or suppressed by corporate media.
Meanwhile, holdouts for good ideas and 350-oriented initiatives coming from Democrats, like McKibben, or enthusiasts for all capitalism's egregious violations like Stuart Brand, are given all the attention they request. Therefore, it's impossible we ever get to 350, save the planet, or anything else to reverse our suicidal trajectory.
what, exactly, is the connection between human activity and the environment, and money and property ownership, and how does this connection affect our ability to address climate change?
Read what he writes. Mr McKibben as a child, an egotist. He is a red herring. He is sweet. He is dangerous. He is like Obama. He would so like to be a hero that nothing else matters.
He might as well be paid by Oil to turn reasoned, powerful opposition into meaningless eye watering conceit.
We do not have to worry. Allow the dear boy his soapbox, but put it in the corner with the Punch and Judy. He may grow up and make us truly happy, but the numbers are not his. They do add up for us to see and measure our response.
My previous post picked on McKibben. He and his supporters may presume to be my focus but he is not.
But as his childish hero seeking and his support for the imaginary hero Obama indicate, they are very USA, which means his intentions are too sixties to be allowed to fly now.
Americans must make a distinction between themselves and the USA. They are people and the USA is an arrangement of governance.
The USA does not express the will of the people.
If it continues to be so inadequate it must be changed or even torn down so that its understanding of unity and its institutions may be modernised.
Put all the men on one half of the world and all the women on the other half and by 2100 the CO2 level should be going down.
"Mohamed Nasheed, president of the Maldives, spoke to a roaring crowd of thousands...."
I'm afraid this about says it all. Onward to 770!