The Political Process

This is funny. The big powers have re-thought their Kyoto commitments and decided a new kind of "equality", or sharing the pain, in restricting the carbon footprint of nations. From an article in the Guardian, here's the new "commitment":

Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

That's what you get when you put "science" through the meat grinder of politics and the rich put their thumb on the scales and come up with an new "commitment" to sharing the pain. The big boys get one standard and the poor get another. Funny.

I keep coming back to the difference between how quickly the Montreal protocol on CFCs was hammered out and everybody committed to it. Compare that to "global warming". Some say the former was easy because it dealt with only a few big producers so it was easy to control. But I don't see why the rich laid down and let themselves be run over by politics. The guys making money are always going to fight tooth-and-nail to keep their golden goose laying eggs. The only reason why that goose was so easily strangled was that the science was solid. The "global warming" crowd are having a hard time selling their view of cutback, controls, regulations, restrictions, and closed industries because the science isn't that compelling, at least that is my cock-eyed view of the matter.