Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

To Hell In A Handcart

So, the first volume of the fourth IPCC assessment report has been published. And it doesn’t make for comfortable reading. As Oliver Burkeman nicely puts it:
This is how the world ends: not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with a PowerPoint presentation. 
It’s also sobering to learn that bribes of up to $10,000 each were offered to scientists to undermine the findings of the report. Frankly, I’m not confident that sufficient political action will be taken to head off even the worst case scenario of the report. Already, the US Administration is pulling back. In a way, I’m rather grateful that I won’t live to see the changes beyond the initial stages, but I do fear for what succeeding generations are going to have to face.

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2 responses to “To Hell In A Handcart”

  1. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    In a speech in Toronto in May of 2001, Dick Cheney opined that, "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." He went on to say that the American way of life was not negotiable.  In light of your posting and the approach of his sixth grandchild (who shoulders the awesome responsibility of blowing a hole in his grandfather’s political ship below the waterline), I wonder how he faces his personal virtue in the shaving mirror each morning as he lets the hot water run.

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  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Cognitive dissonance at work again is perhaps how he does it. But of course, he’s not the only one – the report on the news here last night was about the attempts by the EU to bring in statutary regulations to reduce carbon emissions on cars to 120 gm/km. Naturally it was scuppered by ministers (riding around in the BMWs that produce 270 gm/km) representing the interests of the car industry… Well, there’s a surprise then.

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