The 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign

 Here's Aleklett's conclusion.  Note that he does not argue that climate change is a concern:

My conclusion is that the IPCC emission scenarios are absolutely 

unrealistic about the time frame 2020 to 2100 and these ‘alternative futures’ 

should not be given credence any longer.

For those who wonder about oil company conspiracy, Aleklett, and his workmate Colin Campbell, are a thorn in the oil companies' sides---in fact, probably the largest thorn there could be.

My concern in this thread is that people pick up sentiments circulating in the public airwaves regarding certain issues and parrot those sentiments as established truth.  Where, in the climate change discussion, does one hear of peak carbon resources?  Surely the question of how much carbon is available is of the order of the most important?  The only character that matters in CO2 is the C.

It's important what you bring up, and this is where integral can contribute.  Notice the implied moral stance inherent in my statement that you cite: it as at least of worldcentric-moral concern, and to be fair, coming from a relatively-wealthy United States citizen who lives in peace and prosperity as a general life condition. I don't presume that the leadership of developing countries weigh the health and welfare of their whole populations as a moral good against the notion of globalizing economic progress for the elite in those countries.  So I don't take it for granted that the game theory calculus for them is the same as mine.

In any case, the crux of the matter is that the United States still has to be able to lead by and be willing to pay for its convictions, and at this point those are looking pretty weak.  Our leadership does not see global warming as an existential threat.  And for my children, and Obama's, and those of the Chinese and Indian elites, it probably isn't.  But the U.S. still has the largest economy on the planet by an absurdly large margin, the others are child-play comparatively.  The game will likely be won or lost here.  And my moral sense won't allow me to stand by while that happens, nor do I want to accept on my children's behalf the potential destabilizing risk to civilization that non-linear consqeuences can have. 

If your house is on fire you don't worry about whether your toilet is clogged.  So let's be serious: scrap U.S social security and healthcare as far as I'm concerned, they're bankrupt anyway; use the resulting funds to reorganize the global economy to one that assures a stable long-term trajectory past this crisis and allows for developing countries to globalize safely.  Said differently, we can't have integral cognition (global warming is something we can see and basically understand), green values (save the planet, help lift people out of poverty, provide basic health and wellness to 6 billion people) and amber selves (do all of the above as long as it doesn't threaten my fundamental sense of American coddledness, my healthcare, my guaranteed retirement etc., all of which reinforces a very large differential between the standards of living around the world). The math doesn't work, and reality is going to continue to slap us hard until we figure this out (or the system falters through pent-up disequilbrium and revolution, war, civil strife, or some other major regime shift takes place in the civilization ecosystem).

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Robb Smith

Thanks for the heads up on that talk, Scott.  It is provocative.  I was reminded of Slumdog Millionaire while listening to it.... There is a place where facing 'what is actually happening' that liberates any of us.  I was interested to hear Stewart say that the slum inhabitants do not worry about housing.  That is such a different sense of 'individuality' to not crave or want or feel entitled to your own private space.  I wonder what that is like to not value or care about 'a room of one's own'.   Maybe a 'room of one's own' is being converted into a 'laptop computer'.... or some other functionality.  Cell phones too have created a different sense of community.

I followed up watching James Kustler's TED talk and I resonated more easily with it for sure-- http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html .....I am forever interested in 'what creates community' and am in total agreement with how 'ugly' our communities have become, ugly and uncommunal..... perhaps this is 'a room of one's own taken to extremes'......I am forever blown away that anyone can spend time daily on a grid locked highway.  Like James said, 'there is not enough Prozac in the world' to assuage the anxiety and isolation that this must inflame.

Jane 

 The fabric of my life is the cloth with which it is my task to polish the lens of my own perception.