Tom Athanasiou and his good colleagues at EcoEquity attended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (“The Bali Conference”) & got a chance to share the ideas behind their framework for Development Rights in a Carbon-Constrained World. ( I earlier promised that I was going to give an in depth analysis of their argument, but I’ve changed my mind. They summarize it and present it better than I can, so what’s the point?)
Tom has a few follow-up articles about the Bali Conference and what comes next. In Grist, Environmental News and Commentary, Tom has a kind of Bali Conference trip report. In Foreign Policy in Focus, Tom has a short but important essay, “Towards a Defensible Climate Realism”.
These articles somewhat wonkish in nature, but hey, difficult problems require a little bit of thought, and what policy problem is more difficult or important than climate change? Besides, if you’re reading Wetmachine you probably have a fair amount of wonk in you, or at least geek, which is close enough. For some real insight into what really needs to be done about climate change at the policy level, rather than at the switch-to-energy-efficient-lightbulbs-and-hope-for-the-best level, you need to get acquainted with EcoEquity.
Check ’em out. Better still, subscribe to the EcoEquity newsletter, then you’ll be as in-the-know as I am!
I see you favor a global enforced redistribution scheme in the name of ‘saving the planet’.
I think there is the basis for some kind of productive discussion in the GDR paper. I think it’s a good starting point because it’s based on scientific and political realities. I don’t think the term “enforced redistribution scheme” is helpful either, any more than I think it’s helpful to say “property is theft” the way some folks do, or that materially wealthy people in the North are morally culpable because their wealth has come at the expense of the enforced impoverishment of the South. Sloganeering will not help resolve the looming crisis. I like EcoEquity because they’re trying to figure out an equitable way out of our predicament, because, if for no other reason, in the age of globalization, solutions that are perceived as patently unfair are simply impractical.