Global warning has already hit the danger point that international attempts to curb it are designed to avoid, according to the world’s top climate watchdog.
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told an international conference attended by 114 governments in Mauritius this month that he personally believes that the world has “already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere” and called for immediate and “very deep” cuts in the pollution if humanity is to “survive”.
His comments rocked the Bush administration – which immediately tried to slap him down – not least because it put him in his post after Exxon, the major oil company most opposed to international action on global warming, complained that his predecessor was too “aggressive” on the issue.
God forbid anyone put the survival of humanity ahead of Exxon expoloiting the planet for a buck. The growing and evident to all but the Bushies problem of global warming is a clear example of why capitalism doesn’t work – it puts the well-being of the very few ahead of the well-being of all – and that doesn’t work long-term.