To hell with the planet.
2010 it is then. Here's a resolution :
Enough warm fuzzy environmentalism, 2010 is the year for boring numbers.
This is what the worlds NGO's and media were having us expect from Copenhagen, wasn't it ? All talk about "firm targets", "verifiable reductions" etc. Very straightforward, we all agreed.
Didn't quite work out, did it ? Oh, the beating of chests that followed, the grinding of teeth. How could they, those evil politicians, have let us down, us being the planet. It was the lobbyists, it was big business, it was the Chinese, the Saudis, it was everyone else, but it wasn't us.
Or was it ?
Apparently we asked them to start managing global emissions, that means measuring where they stand now and taking action to control and reduce the level of emissions into the future. As the leaders of the world gathered in Copenhagen, I have a suspicion that someone spoiled the party by showing that one emperor has no clothes.
The people do not care.
Not only do the people, i.e. the majority, not care, but those who claim to care the most, the environmentalist movement, well I don't think they care either. Now don't get me wrong, they are deeply concerned by the risks of climate change but I don't see proof that they care to the point of actually doing the boring management work that needs to be done, the exact same work that they demand of our political leaders.
The boring work means counting energy usage and associated emissions for everything we can, and that starts on a personal level. I'm not aware of any CC-NGO's that communicate their own energy and carbon footprints. it would seem like the obvious thing to do. They all keep asking everyone else to calculate everyone elses but don't feel the need to measure and report their own. Take Greenpeace for example. They have 2.9 million supporters (of whom I am proud to be one) 2,400 staff and an annual budget of €196 million(all lifted from their 2008 Annual Report). But they don't appear to have a carbon footprint.
I'm not singling Greenpeace out here, they do fantastic work. We've got to back to the individual level. Where are the signs that the 2,400 individual staff members are doing the boring stuff, that at least some of the 2.9 million supporters are, that the staff and supporters of all other CC-NGO's are ?
Its not that difficult to do, you know, once you want to. Or once you know you need to. Because, if the people who expect our political leaders to take a specific action are not willing to do so themselves, not willing to walk the walk, then you know what messages is being sent to out political leaders.
To hell with the planet.
Its not us, its them. Hmmmmmmmmm