Friday, May 01, 2009

Nicholas Stern on CBC - Not Sure the World Really Has a Plan

Link is corrected: Listen to the whole interview here...
But despite all the talk about cooperation and commitment, he's still not convinced that the world really has a plan. So he has come up with one himself. The result is a new book. It's called The Global Deal: Climate Change and The Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity. And Nicholas Stern was in our Toronto studio this morning.
I'll let him in on a little secret...
The World - if "the world" is defined as a collection of nation states with rulers that actually have to make decisions that affect their peoples' well-being and their likelihood to take out pitchforks if things go bad - don't have a plan and won't have a plan.
Because they simply have no desire to blow the progress they have made over the last many hundred years on someone's lame brained scheme.

His lame brained scheme as revealed in his new book (which is already discounted by 1/3 on Amazon) and reported on CBC this morning, saving you another 2/3 of the price of the book is this - the western developed countries mucst reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 80%.

Came across this report today that describes what an 80% reduction in CO2 looks like. It looks like 1862:
The Civil War was raging. Nine of ten Americans were farmers (versus 2% today). The industrial revolution was in its infancy. Malaria halted construction on the Washington, DC aqueduct. Typhus and cholera killed thousands more every year. Life expectancy was 40 – half of what affordable hydrocarbon, hydroelectric and nuclear power helped make it today.
So no, Nick. Nobody's gonna do anything about it. They will let Al Gore make his billions and you your millions, but will do absolutely nothing. Cause they live in the real world, not in your wet dream.

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