In a previous and apparently somewhat controversial article, I laid out what individuals are likely to do as despair and anger rise over climate inaction. I was not recommending these actions, but some readers interpreted it that way and seemed very threatened by what desperate individuals will do. We must also consider what nations are liable to do, especially those right on the front lines of climate change. Many nations will be desperate – they are literally in a life-or-death situation – and some are certain to take drastic action.

Useless Actions

Also known as symbolic actions, these have on effect on someone who really doesn’t care what you think of him. I have previously described the actions of the developed nations as predatory, in that they will still be talking long after the poor countries have devolved into climate chaos. Continue reading →

The economies of the developed countries are built on waste and cheap energy. The waste takes many forms, including pollution, greenhouses gases, resources used once and then buried, topsoil loss, planned obsolescence, and the diversion of capital to wasteful businesses in the form of subsidies. The cheap energy, of course, has largely been coal and oil, and those days are coming to an end. China, India, and the other developing nations cannot afford this waste-based economy, and must leapfrog us straight to the new green economy.

Saying the economy of the developed world is enormously wasteful is another way of saying that it is grossly inefficient. Any country that eliminates this waste and inefficiency gains a significant competitive advantage. This will become exponentially more true as carbon pollution is priced into goods one-way-or-another, and as the cost of transportation and manufacturing increases with the price of oil. Such a country will also be cleaner and her citizens healthier – both of which also translate to competitive advantage.

China, India, and other developing countries can build coal plants and highways, and they can model their buildings, cities, infrastructure, and economy after our own, but that would be a huge mistake. Most people have pulled their heads out of wherever they had them stuck and realise that the price of oil is going to go up, and that oil is going to become progressively more difficult to come by for reasons both geological and political. Even ignoring pollution and global warming, there simply is not enough oil for the billions in the developing world to own gas-powered cars. Continue reading →

I interviewed Elizabeth May yesterday on my “Climate Change Reality Radio Show,” Breakin’ Ice, and she’s certainly a smart cookie. By far the most knowledgeable of the federal leaders on global warming, greening the economy, and so on, she’s also the only one who ‘gets’ the danger of climate change. I’ll post back when the podcast is available.

But there is one critical thing she doesn’t get, and neither do most well-meaning people: Those she is up against have a different morality. I have called it the Predator Morality, as it accurately describes the behaviour of the deniers and free market fundamentalists. Think about the Canadian Harper government; these are people who wrote a secret manual on subverting our democratic system. Do you really think they are going to negotiate in good faith or that their word can be trusted?These are people who put ideology before their own children. Calling them predators is not name-calling; it is an accurate description of their observed behaviour.

To a predator, all truth is relative because Might Makes Right. Predators believe that he with the power makes the rules, and therefore the only thing that matters or is true is the truth as he sees it. To a predator, it is not wrong to lie to achieve power or other goals. It is perfectly acceptable to sacrifice others for your good; they were obviously weaker. If inconvenient scientific ‘facts’ arise, then they should be suppressed and the blasphemous scientists discredited or fired. Continue reading →

Copenhagen is almost certainly not going to produce an agreement that results in the action necessary to combat climate change. There are too many vested interests working very hard to derail the talks, including the ‘leaders’ of my own country, Canada.

The real question is, what next?

Copenhagen will mark the end of an era. It may not be seen at the time as a radical shift, but over the next few years it will become obvious that the developing world is moving away from the developed world. They will have seen us for what we are (predators), and will realize we cannot be trusted on basic moral issues. Our morality is based on worship of the Almighty Dollar; we are willingly led by market fundamentalists.*

What will the developing countries do? Alone, many of them are powerless. The Maldives, for example, has vowed not to “die quietly,” but what can a tiny island nation do? (I strongly encourage you to show your support for the Maldives here. It ain’t much, but it’s something.) We will still be talking long after their country has vanished beneath the waves, the Maldivians dead or destitute refugees in some other country. They have moral authority, but we have no morals.

However, some much larger countries are also on the front lines: Continue reading →