Monday, November 30, 2009

The Grinch that stole Copenhagen...

I guess I'm a contrarian, but the words "global consensus" kind of give me the chills.  I've been thinking a bit about Copenhagen, and global warming, and I'm not really comforted by the thought of the world coming together on some sort of agenda for action. I could probably get behind a treaty of non-violence (non-action?), a global agreement not to mess with other peoples business. But I don't like the thought of large numbers of people - entire countries - agreeing to engage in some action. As a contrarian, I love discord, disagreement, debate, and I can't stand to see the Whos down in Whoville singing their happy songs in unison! Maybe my heart is just a few sizes too small? Or maybe, just maybe we need to step back and think about what we are doing here. Global warming is a statist's dream- an opportunity to centralize power at a global scale. I don't want to sound like one of those right-wing nuts screaming about the New World Order, but let's just make sure we understand what we are giving up for the possibility of slightly reducing the expected magnitude of climate change. Is 350 really worth it? Might we do something better with all this youthful passion for saving the planet? How about this: rather than placing our faith in some global consensus, each of us expresses our love for the planet spontaneously and willingly, in our own way...

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