Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Margaret Wente Makes Mincemeat Out of Naomi Klein's Climatist Manifesto

Wente writes:
The thesis of This Changes Everything is that global warming is a war of capitalism against the planet, and that we need a people’s uprising to reclaim true democracy from the venal and corrupt politicians who have been co-opted by Big Oil. If this sounds like the Occupy movement all over again, you’re right. “We need an ideological battle,” Ms. Klein told the Guardian. 
But wait. What about the rest of the world? Do they need an ideological battle, too? How do we get them to sign on? Every effort at global collective action has so far been a colossal flop, and there is not a hope in hell that that is going to change. 
China alone now accounts for a whopping 28 per cent of the world’s C02 emissions – twice as much as the U.S. Over the past five years, China’s emissions increased more than the rest of the world combined; on a per-capita basis, it now out-pollutes the EU. India produces less than 7 per cent of the world’s total emissions, but most of its people still live in a state of energy starvation. India’s most pressing health problem isn’t climate change. It’s indoor pollution from dung fires. 
The developing world is now responsible for nearly 60 per cent of global emissions. Even if the developed nations make substantial cuts to CO2, over the coming decades emissions growth in the developing world will dwarf their efforts. Yet in every interview, excerpt and review I’ve read about her book, Ms. Klein has nothing to say on this subject. Talk about denial! No book on climate that ignores elementary facts like these can be counted as a serious work.
Sounds to me like capitalism isn't the problem, it's the solution.

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