Cancun: waiting for the addict to run into trouble...

I feel a bit bad at ignoring what is going on, or rather, not going on, at Cancun. I have really given up hoping that Governments are going to do anything rational and realistic about the biggest problem that humanity has ever faced in its entire history. Not at the moment, not until a rapid acceleration in global warming takes place over the next decade, and not until a succession of adverse events, compatible with global warming, take place.

The fact is that the economy is addicted to oil, and it is very difficult to separate an addict from the object of his desires by persuasion alone. It can be done, but generally you have to wait for the addict to undergo an adverse experience connected with his addiction.

Stuff is happening now, consistent with AGW, but it is going to take more.

This is all very sad.

However, the good people at FEASTA are engaging their minds with the problem, and have a useful notion in Cap and Share, that attacks the problem at the upstream end - addressing the mining companies who put carbon into the economy, rather than the many processes that squirt CO2 into the air. Worth a look at their site.

Here is a video. The acting is a bit clunky in parts, but stay with it.