Right now, bureaucrats from every nation on earth are enjoying some time in the Bali sun trying to hammer out a new protocol to take over from the Kyoto agreement when it expires in 2010.
These are the same bureaucrats who framed Kyoto, so we can expect the Bali Protocol to tackle the "threat of global warming" with the same gusto and effectiveness as its predecessor.
Just so we're all on the same page here, let me remind you...
Bureaucrats are not interested in outcomes, they're concerned about processes. They believe that if you put the right process in place, the outcome will take care of itself. Actually, that's not really what they believe, What they really believe is that if you put any process in place, you will have a process, and that's better than no process because once you have a process, you can enforce that process by ticking (checking) boxes on a list. The outcome is, at best, a secondary consideration and usually doesn't enter the picture at all.
This thinking might help you understand the fine print of the Kyoto Agreement, which our new Prime Minister has embraced with religious fervour. (Until this week, only Australia and the USA had resisted.)
Kyoto sets binding greenhouse gas emission targets. "Binding"?" Ok. Not exactly binding, only sort of binding.
Let me explain, and to do that, I'll put aside my skepticism about the whole "we humans did it" global warming thing for a moment, and join the ranks of believers.
- Global warming, they say, threatens civilisation. Millions are going to die.
- The climate will heat up, food production will plummet, and millions will die.
- Rainfall in some parts of the world will decrease and millions will die.
- Rainfall in some parts of the world will increase and millions will die.
- Sea levels will rise, inundating low lying lands. Millions will die.
- Severe weather will become more frequent and more severe. Millions will die.
We MUST do something, and that means we MUST set "binding" targets for green house gas emission reduction. Now!
(Phew. I'm glad I just joined the ranks of these believers for this blog. If I really believed all that, I don't know how I could carry on.)
So the scene is set. And the solution needs to be put in place by governments around the world. All of our governments need to get together to try to do something about the impending doom.
But who runs governments?
Bureaucrats. In typical bureaucratic style, they set these "binding" targets... a process for dealing with the problem. And the penalty for not meeting targets...?
A fine.
Does that strike you as odd? Here they are telling us that if we do not fix the problem, millions will die. So many millions that it will make Nazi war crimes look like a Saturday evening in Detroit. Their solution? They'll fine us.
Spain, apparently, is already heading towards a multi billion Euro fine. They've failed dismally to meet their Kyoto obligations. So has Ireland, Italy, and a long list of other countries. But that's ok. There's a process. Countries failing to meet their obligations will be fined. Don't worry about the fate of the planet... the system's in place, and I'm sure there are mechanisms for collecting the fine too. Perhaps they'll suspend the driver's licence of the country's president/prime minister/monarch/despot until the fine is paid. That's what they do here.
If it wasn't so serious, the whole thing could be turned into a very sharp sitcom.
These people are making decisions that will effect your future. Whether you believe in Global Warming or not, what these bozos decide is going to have a direct effect on your life. And for what? So that we can have a "process"?
Where are the statesmen? Where are the true world leaders (as opposed to the power hungry, money grubbing politicians)? Where is the common sense?
6 comments:
Why aren't there meetings to discuss adaptation?
I'm with you. I think that regarding the human species as the cause of global warning is absolute hubris. The earth has been heating and cooling since its birth.
My question: Who are the fines payed to?
To both questions... beats me.
Ok, so you suggest no process? Perhaps there should be no process and everyone will just sort of stop emitting - problem solved, right? While I agree that setting up a process alone doesn't get you very far, I also think that it's at least a step in the right direction. How do you go about accomplishing anything without setting up an infrastructure first?
Willsie, if the problem is as big as they're trying to tell us, then the problem requires a very different kind of process.
Setting limits and non binding targets isn't the answer. If the problem is as big as they say it is, then we need statesmen to step up and do something radical.
As I said, a "process" created by a bureaucrat is not outcome oriented, and in this case, all it will do is move the problem.
What we need is, say, the ten or twenty richest, most developed nations on earth to put together a Manhattan Project effort to create an efficient, clean energy solution to the problem.
If the bureaucrats were around in 1900, they'd have been having this sort of conference to talk about ways to deal with horse dung, a problem getting so bad that it was making major cities almost unlivable. They'd have set limits on horses. They'd have put a tax on dung bags. They'd have put together "The London Treaty" to deal with the problem of horse shit. They would not have thought "maybe we need to replace horses".
Or, if you want a real life example, look at London in the 18th century, strangling itself on its own sewage. This was a life or death problem, because typhoid was killing the population.
The bureaucrats proposed hading out face masks, and even restricting the times that citizens were allowed to dump their sewage in the street.
For years, no-one thought "let's build a sewage system", and when they finally did, it took another 20 years, and tens of thousands of lives, before anyone listened.
Also ,dont forget the problems with the burial of the dead many moons ago ,which was causing sickness and pestilence.The problem resulted in the construction of the catacombs in London and France didnt they?
(alternate process:wait til we all die of the black plague and then that aesthetically pleasing and genetically pure couple down the street can then re-populate the earth,'whos going to make em' a dowry before we all choke?')
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