Global Warming and the Emerging Nations
From The Economist today:
ONE problem with global warming policy that too few people are talking about right now is what should be done with India and China? Together, they have nearly half the world’s population, and they’re growing fast. Worse, they’re growing fast aided by big, polluting coal plants and other inefficient technologies. In less than a decade, China will outpace America as the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gasses. In an ethics paper on distributional justice, this might be fair, but the climate doesn’t care whether greenhouse gasses are emitted by rich Americans motoring to Tahoe for a minibreak, or poor Chinese farmers boosting the productivity of their paddies. It will warm up and flood Bangladesh just the same.
At present, both nations are exempt from any Kyoto protocols and are largely forgotten in the larger global warming debate. But they present a problem far larger than any other insofar as they could richly benefit from the present technologies that are cleaner than anythign they are likely to use.
The editorial goes on:
The only people talking about this much seem to be American conservatives looking for a way to dodge the necessity of action. This is a cop-out.
That is partially true. Some conservatives use the looming China and India problems to hide behind and say that we here in the US should do nothing. By no means, though, is that what all conservatives are doing. Some, like me, believe that China and India pose a problem that is much more difficult to fix than the problems the US presents. After all, we have plenty of alternatives to reduce our carbon emissions that those nations, largely do not. Ignoring them, as nearly all the Kyoto-holics do, is a horrible mistake.
The Economist recommends pushing alternate energy and abatement solutions over things like CAFE standards, which seems like a good approach to me. We do such a huge amount of business with both nations that putting economic incentives into place would be good for them and for us. One thing the “punish the rich nations” tend to forget is that money can be a huge engine for change. After all, is it money that is driving the growing pollutions problems in both countries as their populations see a way to use their own resources and a large population to bring themselves out of great poverty. Money also drives the innovation that has created the cleaner technologies that will greatly reduce our carbon emissions.
It seems to me that helping India grow rich and environmentally-friendly is something we’d all support. China, on the other hand, is a bit of a different problem. It’d be nice to see the Chinese people know the sort of health and prosperity that we know here. It would be much better if they knew those things and knew the liberty that we also enjoy. I shrink from doing much to benefit the totalitarian rulers of China. It may be that helping their economy kick into overdrive will also help nurture the seeds of freedom that have already been planted there. Then again, it may only make the rulers there more wealthy and fuel a more threatening military machine.
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Category: Oh the Climate, It is A-Changin'
