Copenhagen #2…
Here is a link to an excellent article in the Guardian that sets the stage for the drama that Copenhagen might turn out to be…
I’m sure you’re as concerned as I am about the threat to our planet from global warming. I can’t say that I have great hopes for the meeting that is opening today at Copenhagen to come up with any definitive progress. However, I have become heartened by the way this issue has so quickly moved up everyone’s agenda – considering that a few years ago I was hassling people about it and, then, few seemed to have even heard about it. Unfortunately, the various points of no-return are rushing towards us even faster. For all our technological successes, it seems to me that we remain primitive on the level of social organisation. We don’t seem to be able to rise above the programming of our instincts. We don’t seem to be well designed to cope with this kind of ‘nebulous’ threat in the ‘future somewhere’… Now if this were a good old-fashioned war against ourselves, I have no doubt that we would manage miracles of speed and adaptability… the VAST amount that it seemed reasonable to spend on the ‘War on Terror’ comes to mind…
All this said, I feel that there is some hope in us all getting together at Copenhagen to tackle this common problem. Though, however pressing the deadlines from the global warming threat, we can only do what is ‘politically possible’… sad, but there it is. Let’s hope that the drama at Copenhagen neither turns out to be a farce, nor a tragedy…
Now if this were a good old-fashioned war against ourselves, I have no doubt that we would manage miracles of speed and adaptability…
I agree. Our concept of ‘what is possible’ is too often limited by ‘what we feel we can live with’, and at this point, I don’t think that anything short of a drastic re-evaluation of what we expect of lifestyles, commerce, manufacturing, etc. will make the kind of huge, long-term difference that the planet needs…
and how likely do you think that is to happen, do you think? I fear that our rulers have – rather brilliantly – lulled us into an almost inert state by gently plying us with the ‘consumer society’… :O(