Sunday, December 08, 2019

Greta Thunberg / COP25

Criticisms of Thunberg:
[1] People are dying right now because of AGW.
No they aren't. Or, rather: we have basically no reason to think that. This is just another rhetorical escalation. The more hysterical the rhetoric gets, the more suspicious people like me become.
[2] We aren't doing enough.
It's because most people don't believe the hysteria. I'm not sure they could be convinced even if the evidence were objectively convincing. But, at any rate: they/we don't buy it. Make some more arguments, deploy some more evidence, try making it easier to understand...but merely ratcheting up the rhetoric and prancing around in red getups isn't going to do it.
Defense of Thunberg:
[1] China's a bigger polluter, but she doesn't berate them or go there.
[a] Eh. Similar to the visa overstay argument about the border fence: the fact that A is a bigger problem than B doesn't mean that B isn't significant, nor that you shouldn't address it.
[b] The democracies are more responsive to public opinion, obviously. It's perfectly reasonable to think that China isn't going to listen.
[c] The industrialized nations got theirs already, and benefitted from causing the problem (to the extent that there really is a problem). They have more of an obligation to cut emissions than countries that are developing, that didn't cause and benefit so much from the alleged problem, and where the populace isn't so wealthy and comfortable.

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