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A lot of anger and tired, tired arguments and fighting on Guardian comment is free site reporting on Yvo de Boer's speech at Davos. Give it up, one might say. All of us who are concerned with climate change have had to grapple with difficult science and decide what side we are on. I've been on both (it's a nasty thought) and often in the middle.
But that time is over. The only people we can begin to trust (the science community) have delivered several damning verdicts. The war of truth has been won by the pro-climate change group. Perhaps in 100 years we might be proven wrong. But so what? What will we have lost? Investment? Money is expendable. The precautionary principle won't stop growth, neither will a carbon tax. Exploring renewable energy generation technologies is at best a new industry at worst cheaper (ongoing) fuel bills, less invasive expoloration, stabler, closer to home fuel economies and just a simpler way of doing things. Who would choose CO2 emissions over no CO2 emissions, anyway? Who says supplies will last for ever, anyway? No one, excepting a mad person. If technology will save the day, we need a driver to get people to pay for it.
There seem to be many fringe benefits. In the consumer realm, we gain more awareness of our ridiculous, childish levels of consumption, which get us nowhere (in terms of happiness), risk exploiting people in poorer countries (remember them?) , use up resources (which are finite whatever science you sign up to), and we also examine our processes, our level of care in creation of products and our supply chains.
Our all-mighty corporations are forced to share more information and to examine their corporate resposnsibilty and some high up people realise that what they do has real consequence in the real world. In the building industry, environmental legislation has unquestionably the effect of improving the quality of the building.
In the developing world, we open up a dialogue with India and China about how THEY produce things; in Africa we become aware of our effect on those people's lives and the disparity of our living standards. Europe and the UN have more control over our lives to counteract the short term nature of sovereign ruler's desires merely to win the next election.
The world at least attempts to work together on an issue, cementing cross-border ties.
And, if it works, it might prevent catastrophic climate change (if, of course, it exists).
If it doesn't, all we have done is to take a look at the way we do things and realise that we need to take more care in doing it and that, perhaps, what we thought was important, wasn't so important after all. Sustainability seems to me to be at least a new way of thinking about things which is just different, if not preferable to the old ways.
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