(Note, before anyone gets annoyed, this isn't aimed at any Americans in particular, I have a fair few American friends, and some of the decent people in these rooms are American.)As many of you will be aware, Clinton has just welshed on an election (and global) pledge about the US's CO2 emission levels, following lobbying from the oil and motor industries. What are we to do about this, folks?
Is the saving of our planet from environmental catastrophe going to be shelved, because a minority group of businessmen and capitalists slipped the US Government a quick bribe to let them go on polluting?
Does the US, which produces 22% of the world's CO2 (despite having nowhere near 22% of the world's population), feel itself to have a moral right to pollute the whole Earth? Or is the culture of the US so greedy of resources (and wasteful of them) that, like an addict, it can no longer control its bingeing?
Americans, I don't mean this personally, but even by the wasteful standards of Western capitalism, you lot are gluttons, and you're spoiling our turf too...
If you're concerned and outside America, what should we do about it?
Should we start boycotting America and American products? Does anyone have any suggestions for effective punitive measures?
If you're concerned and inside America, what are you going to do about it? I'm sure that, even in the short term, the Government's worship of the oil barons can be offset by co-ordinated non-violent resistance and protest from enough people.
I'm not necessarily talking about a full-on, motherfscking revolution, but those CO2 reductions are important to the survival of our race, and toying with them could be harmful to our chances.
Constructive comments and debate would be welcomed.
Gideon.
