After Gutenberg

The United States and China, advises The Gray (”Getting More Dismal by the Day”) Lady, rely heavily on coal for their energy needs. If both countries continue to depend on burning large amounts of coal for the foreseeable future, eventually there will be no foreseeable future.

The 3rd part of the Syllogism of Doom is that “those countries are unlikely to move away from this reliance on coal and other fossil fuels anytime soon” and so we, our next generation, and the generation to follow, shall witness drastic changes in the world environment. The question in these post-Kyoto years is what can and should the rest of the global community do about such disregard for the common welfare.

Brooklyn Treehugger and Forbes reader Matthew McDermott relays information about 200 of the World’s Dirtiest Power Plants. One can see why the United States and China are the two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world; 60% of the dirtiest coal-fired electric power plants are in the US & East Asia.

80 percent of China’s power is derived from dirty coal. China recently surpassed the United States as the word’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Yet China’s per capita emissions remain a fifth that of the United States. Climate Progress also reminds us that the historical cumulative per capita emissions for China from 1960 to 2005 are less than one-tenth that of the United States. (Editor’s note: CP provides a good summary of initiatives in Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, its Energy Grid and Auto Industry plus initiatives in public transportation and elsewhere that indicate a concerted effort to reduce significantly the growth in emissions relative to a business-as-usual scenario.)

“A security guard looks on as a Greenpeace slogan is projected onto Yongdingmen Gate in Beijing, China. The Chinese have recognized that it’s climate inaction—not climate legislation—that will lead to its own economic undoing.”

At least, China was a signatory to the treaty. (Quick history lesson from Ben Jervey, the U.S. signed the Kyoto Protocol back in 1998; eleven years later, it still hasn’t been ratified.)

On the other hand, it would seem that policy makers in the United States are intent on acting counter to the interests of the people in the United States and the global community. Coal is heavily subsidized, “both in terms of payments and guarantees from the government and our costs for picking up the ecosystem and public health expenses associated with all of the damage they cause.”

The Obama administration could use an upcoming international finance meeting as an opportunity “to press for a swift end to subsidies for coal, oil, and natural gas companies.” As previously noted, such market policy would discourage wasteful consumption, encourage investment in clean energy sources and bolster efforts to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. It would be a significant action toward climate justice.

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