Monday, May 25, 2009

The Dirty Little Secret That Is No Longer Secret And Is Still Very Dirty

So here we are, the United States is about to spend billions (or is already doing so) on cleaning up the environment. I don't object to that; if there is no Earth then there are no people, right?

I am also sympathetic to the argument that we need to lead the charge here. But the grim reality is that (predominantly) China and India are the most notorious polluters in history (as I have written before.) Combined they account for nearly 50% of all offending airborne substances. And when has our leadership been effective? On human rights? Nuclear proliferation? The rule of law? I'll leave it to you to find the proper examples.

The Chinese use as a defense the fact that during the industrial revolution, the US, Great Britain and others were equally profligate.

That was then...we didn't fathom the consequences and the scale was massively different.

But we all need to understand that despite what we do in the country, and no matter how much we spend, until and unless we get China and India to cooperate, this will be an effort in vain. Maybe we should send Al Gore over there to lecture them...fat chance in hell.

The article linked below has all the facts...soft coal burning forever in China:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/opinion/15krugman.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

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