I’ll share…as long as I get the biggest slice.

I’ve been reading Ha-Joon Chang’s book, “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism” while watching the senate debate a US climate change bill (and various nations posture leading up to the UN’s Copenhagen summit).

Chang explores the history of open markets and concludes that “virtually all successful countries use some mixture of protection, subsidies and regulation in order to develop their economies.” This is no surprise. What was interesting to me was that the richest countries systematically “kick away the ladder” once they have climbed. Dr Chang asserts that the wealthy countries force free market policies on the poorer ones, essentially saying “do as we say not as we did”. Trade policy is based on national economic interests, not social justice.

Will this be the case with climate emissions? Well, let’s start by looking at automobile ownership: The US has 765 automobiles per 1000 people, France 490, China and India roughly 120 each, many African countries less than 10. What about electricity use? The US produces 14,000 kwh per capita, France 8,000, China 2,000, many African counties less than 200.

Can you see where this is going? The US has climbed to the highest rung on the energy ladder, and we don’t want to climb down by much (20% according to the senate climate bill,while the world needs us to commit to 40%). The necessary extreme changes in consumption and energy policy – both how we supply and how much we demand – to descend further on the ladder seem to be well beyond our political reach. At the same time, we simply can’t let others climb up without radical changes to the planet. The only solution is for the rest of the world to accept that our slice of carbon will always be the biggest. Is this possible?

For trade policy, the wealthy countries use what Dr Chang calls “The unholy trinity of the World Bank, WTO (World Trade Organization), and IMF (International Monetary Fund) to enforce open markets and economic status quo.” These bodies hold all the cards, and the US is a highly influential member of each. For climate targets though, we seem to be all alone on our side of the table. Even the European Commission’s ambassador recently asked, “Is the U.S. Senate really expecting all the other countries to make a serious effort on climate change in the absence of a clear commitment from the United States?”

But what happens if we call the world’s bluff, and arrive at the UN meetings in Copenhagen with no concrete commitment in place?

Will Europe look the other way, as they did last time (Kyoto)? Will China, which holds 1 trillion dollars in US treasuries, use these holdings as leverage, or choose to protect them and let us have our way? Will China and India be content to delay a new agreement while their own footprints continue to climb?

Climate policy has turned into a high stakes poker game, and we seem to be gambling that the rest of the world will decide that some pie is better than none. Whether socially just or not, this strategy might work…or it might be disastrous. We’ll see if anyone calls our bluff.

Read more: climate change, copenhagen, global warming, un

Original photo : http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/ / CC BY 2.0

quick poll

vote now!

Loading poll...

no!
leaning no
leaning yes
yes!

no!
leaning no
leaning yes
yes!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Past Member .

1:28AM PDT on Jun 13, 2010

i like the idea of a Bad Samaritan... two thumbs up!

send a green star

Parock R.

7:31AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

part 3

I urge you to learn to meditate, rip away the fabric of Maya (cosmic illusion) realize who we truly are and allow the world to heal through our absolute power of intent.

7:27AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

Part 2
On the original Star Trek program Fancast episode 7, a malevolent entity pits Klingons against the Enterprise crew. The sides were kept even and both sides were of like mind that the other was the enemy. Kirk finally realizes that the enemy is actually a force that lives off of terror and hate. He convinces the other side that this power exists and they decide to no longer feed it with their violence. They throw down their arms and join together to laugh into the true enemies face telling it they will no longer play it's game. The enemy with no negative energy to feed it leaves the Enterprise.

I'm not a Treckie but was impressed with this show when I first saw it as a rerun. I thought what if something like that is actually taking place on this planet. I believe it is. We can stop this malevolent force, not by trying to fight it, that only feeds it and gives it power, not by complaining and protesting that only gets more people involved with resistance, but by reaching out to everyone who now truly cares about stopping this madness and teach them to meditate on the silence within themselves. There we become truly powerful and automatically send our intent into the universe that we know what the game is and we refuse to play.

The silence is the space between thought. There we are ONE, there we are whom we always have been and always will be pure consciousness. THIS IS TRUE POWER, the only power capable of making the changes we want to see in the world.

I urge

7:24AM PDT on Oct 10, 2009

In the 60s and 70s we had a very powerful middle class. They saw wrongs, marched in the streets, gathered en mass and stopped a war, impeached a president and brought about many positive changes. The powers that be (the illuminate) saw this and decided that the middle class had too much power and too much time on their hands, and so set out to destroy it. Here we are 40 years later and they have pretty much accomplished what they set out to do.

In the seventies there were experiments being done in crime ridden areas of New York and Boston where people would get together and meditate every evening in the worst of these areas. It was statistically proven that the crime rate fell dramatically in a very short time.

We are all interconnected on a very basic level, we share the same thoughts, breath the same air, come from the same place and will return to that same place when our time here is done. I suggest that we can change the world only by changing who we are.

The constant focusing on the problems, complaining about what we see, blaming whoever we can, crying doom and gloom, and in the end saying "I give up, just let it happen." is actually pretty good advice, the just let it happen part that is.

What we resist persists. When we put energy into a problem by focusing on it we give it power. When we remove the energy the problem has no food to sustain itself and it dies. This is a very simplified way of looking at problem solving I know but think about it.

On t

Nadia D.

4:09PM PDT on Oct 9, 2009

We spend so much time TALKING about this.. I think it is important to share our opinions, but don't you think it is so much more important to DO something with it? We are responsible of what is going to happen to our own future. Spend more time thinking how can we save the whole world. Or we will end without nothing. There is not so much time to think about this problem, I don't understand WHY the governments of our countries doesn't stop bureaucracy and diplomacy and start FINALLY trying solutions. But I mean, REAL solutions. Drastic solutions. Why are we so undecided? WE HAVE ONLY ONE WORLD, WE NEED TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE IF WE REALLY WANT TO SURVIVE. It isn't just an interesting modern issue, we must decide for once what we want for the children, for the children of those children and for ourselves.
And, we CAN do something. We just need to find the way to make our voices louder, so we can shout out together: WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF BEING JUST OBSERVERS, WE HAVE A VOICE AND WE ARE PREPARED TO FIGHT TOGETHER AGAINST OUR OWN STUPIDITY, SO WE CAN STOP CLIMATE CHANGE AND SAVE THE FUTURE.
...
Do we have the GILLS to do that???? PLEASE, don't tell me we can't fight against governments' particular interests.. If we think so (a comforting lie), so then we will deserve our own destruction. THIS IS THE TIME, we have to decide if we are a species who deserves the Earth, or if we're not.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON US.

rita b.

9:47PM PDT on Oct 7, 2009

By and large the corporations control Congress and the Administration. Until we can force them to be responsible and care about the planet and all its inhabitants instead of just how much money they can make the next quarter, things will continue to get worse.
The war in Iraq is a perfect example. It has resulted in death of millions of Iraqi citizens and thousands of Americans. Tons of toxic chemicals have been spread around just as was done in Vietnam. The coporations like KBR, Blackwter, Bowing etc have made billions off of no bid contracts just as Dupont did in Vietnam with agent orange which is still causing birth defects in there. The only way stop pollution and war is to take the profit out of it.

Naomi E.

10:14AM PDT on Oct 7, 2009

Can I propose that you watch the lectures of Professor Gary Francione on his website. Same with Jeffrey Masson. Two great Americans!

10:11AM PDT on Oct 7, 2009

I'm afraid, Al and Carole, that we won't wake up before it's too late. It's probably already too late. It's a great pity for the Earth and its animals that the human species ever evolved. We are a stupid, arrogant pitiless species and we don't deserve to survive. The Earth has already had seven extinctions; we are probably getting close to the eighth. None of the comments has mentioned veganism. A secret email from our British Home Office said that the most effective way of saving the planet would be for everyone to go vegan as animal agriculture emits more methane gas than all the carbon emitted by worldwide transport. And methane is a more deadly gas than carbon. Over 95% of the human species is too stupid, shortsighted and greedy to take notice of such advice. Messing about with low energy lightbulbs and getting rid of plastic bags ain't going to save the world!

Genevieve H.

12:01AM PDT on Oct 7, 2009

Very realistic and pessimistic. We're doomed.
Ever wondered why the rest of the world hates America ?

Laurie T.

1:13PM PDT on Oct 6, 2009

well, gee, gosh.... what can I say? We up here in Canada, sit back and watch. I really need to know if Americans think the rest of the world is that stupid as to not see their ultimate agenda?? We here got suckered into free trade. Why?, American economists noticed how Canadian culture and economic growth did not impeed on anyone else. How convenient and open paged. It amazes me now the American economic desiganters are so flippant in their arrogance. We tend to laugh and wait for their next downfall. American politics have attempted to rape our country with their buying out of the Artic lands..then building massive tunnels to transport oil across our tundra...thus almost wiping out our migratory caraboo....sorry..but the American people are, once more, reading from one more Canadian and how many other nations, that are so sick...so tired of this american so called "dream".