Eco-Modernism and Economic Development – An important NYT
piece notes:
“The
“eco-modernists” propose economic development as an indispensable precondition
to preserving the environment. Achieving it requires dropping the goal of
“sustainable development,” supposedly in harmonious interaction with nature,
and replacing it with a strategy to shrink humanity’s footprint by using nature
more intensively.”
Carbon Imperialism
A great op-ed in the Financial Times by Arvind
Subramanian (Chief Economic Adviser to the Indian Government and former Dennis
Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International
Economics)
Western Hypocrisy and the Climate Change Talks
Edward Luce of FT wisely notes the obvious hypocrisy of
Western leaders who are pushing poor countries to curtail their carbon
emissions:
“Of the major
economies, America’s per capita carbon dioxide emissions are the highest and
will remain so for some time. Even if China continues to build new coal plants
at its current rate, the average American pumps out three times more carbon
every year than the average Chinese and more than 10 times the average Indian.
…
This is where the
surge in US car sales comes in. It was common in 2009 to read about the SUV’s
demise. The petrol-guzzling car was heading for that “great junkyard in the
sky,” said one analyst. They were too expensive, and too politically incorrect,
to survive a recession and an Obama administration. For a while, sales did
fall. But in the past 18 months, they have broken all records. The tipping
point was falling oil prices. Once a gallon of petrol dropped below $3 last
year, consumers reverted to pre-recession tastes.”
--
The excellent book New
Old World: An Indian Journalist Discovers the Changing Face of Europe by
Pallavi Aiyar also provides great coverage of the Western double standards
regarding climate change.
http://www.amazon.com/New-Old-World-Journalist-Discovers/dp/125007231X/---
Update:
India and France wisely push for a global solar alliance -
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/11/29/climatechange-summit-solar-idINKBN0TI0QR20151129