Reading this article reminded me how stupid it is for people to argue against American (and western) changes to climate policy on the grounds that China and India aren't doing anything to help. I don't know exactly why I forgot that it's a stupid argument. But now I remember that I think it's stupid.
For one, only stupid people demand that we arbitrarily base our national imperatives on the (in this case disastrous) norms of other countries. I suppose we should altogether disavow our national opposition to genocide because those damn Sudanese insist on committing genocide.
But more importantly, if the governments of the world ultimately end up cooking the planet, then the stupid argument is that we might as well broil it rather than pan fry it. Which, while perhaps the right decision vis-a-vis tasty steak dinners, I think would actually prove to be a monstrous, destabilizing tactic.
After all, every additional, unnecessary cubic-unit of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere just makes all the more urgent and difficult to accomplish the steps we will need to take to (temporarily) cope with the changes wrought.
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