Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Part of what we're up against.

Powerline, or perhaps the "Kool Aid Report", reported on President Obama's attempt to get India to commit to a "peak year" of greenhouse gas emissions.  Their point is mostly that the "Light Worker" failed miserably to get this concession, and that India is also taking action, for better or worse, against Greenpeace because of their actions in India.

I am not enough of an expert on the actions of environmental groups in India to comment on that last part, but it strikes me that there are multiple follies at work with the first part.  First of all, in a parliamentary system like India's or a republic like ours, committing to a peak emissions year is pure folly and nonsense.  The laws can change every month and will. 

More importantly, the very notion of a peak year for greenhouse gas emissions presumes government control over all facets of the economy.  First of all, that's explicitly un-Constitutional.   Second, it makes no consideration for the certainty of change, and third....we have some examples of what happens, environmentally speaking, when government controls the economy.  The Warsaw Pact nations were riddled with environmental disasters in the 1990s, and China is well known for some of the worst air quality worldwide.   It is utter folly to try the same method and expect different results.

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