From Omnipotence to Impotence

The world's leaders are (somewhat) agreed that nature's changing environment - nudged along peremptorily by environmental activists and a concatenation of scientists convinced that humankind is partly to blame - must be acknowledged through an international determination to change our wasteful energy habits.

But we are so comfortable with our current situation, given to the independent pleasures of driving ourselves wherever we wish to go, building and living in our luxurious surroundings. We have constructed an enviable lifestyle for ourselves in taking from the planet that which nature has left for us to discover and to use.

Endless manufacturing of countless durable (but for built-in obsolescence) items that enrich our lives in so many ways; how to live without those energy-using appliances so much a part of our daily lives? Commuting long distances daily, spontaneously responding to our need to see other parts of the world, so effortlessly attained with the use of modern flight.

Communicating with one another with all of our electronic devices, each one of which absorbs increasing amounts of energy, fuelling this lifestyle. And, in the process, throwing up carbon emissions, degrading our environment. What a nasty predicament. Really, we must get a round to doing something about this mess.

Step right up, please! Which will be the first country to deny itself, its GDP and its citizens the freedom to continue absorbing more and more of the Earth's resources to enable these entitlements? People, ordinary people, after all, have been made aware of pending disaster, they collectively deplore the situation, are eager to claim they will form part of the answer to combating environmental change's potential to bring catastrophe upon us all.

"Difficulty is no excuse for complacency", lectured President Barack Obama, the new, take-responsibility CEO of the United States.

"We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession where every nation's most immediate priority is reviving their economy and putting their people back to work." Ah, yes. Precisely. But then of course, "Each of us must do what we can when we can to grow our economies without endangering our planet - and we must do it together."


Well, say India and China (and Brazil), you in the Western Hemisphere who assembled all those advantages so well and fulsomely, before we had the opportunity to attempt the same, have been largely responsible for all those dread carbon dioxide emissions that now threaten us collectively. Accept the blame, and take all necessary measures, personally.

We need to have some breathing room to enable us to achieve at least some semblance of what you have already got. Our people too, would appreciate that fabled middle-class life of entitlement to all the good things that can be offered in a successful economy which we now strive to emulate.

You pull back, you make the sacrifice, you show the way. We will follow. Eventually. When it suits our purpose to do so. When, in good time, we will have managed to achieve what you now wish to persuade us to surrender all aspirations toward, for the greater good of the planet.

President Hu Jintao gave no hint of co-operation sought by the West now claiming the need for moderation everywhere in energy expenditures for the greater good of all. China set a firm carbon policy, and commit to emission targets or reduction timetables? It is not China's turn to surrender her future with alacrity to the beseeching economies of the West.

But why blame China, after all? The world in its entirety, all the developed, developing and hopeful countries of the world seek continued economic growth toward which achievement carbon taxes and controls are directly threatening. Look no further than the most powerful, most wealthy (however financially indebted) country in the world, and look closely.

Despite all the heartfelt rhetoric and declarations of intent, the United States knows well enough that to commit to meaningful fossil fuel and emissions controls is to accept growth stagnation. This can be achieved with great pain. Economic growth will grind to a standstill.

The deep recessionary travails of the United States with the largest unemployment figures in quite a long time will remain in a quagmire of unfulfilled promises to the electorate.

Leaders at the G20 summit will speak of their vaunted climate policies, and congratulate one another on their committed burden of responsibility. And then, astutely in recognition of the reality of getting on with the business of getting on will focus yet again on battling the problems that have reared their ugly heads, and pledge themselves to furthering economic growth.

Enthusiasm for global environmental battles wanes in direct proportion to the experienced dismay at the level of the still-plunging economic recovery.

This speaks to the discomfort of reality.