Blame Canada!

So we are the new evil empire. At the snap of our tar sand stained fingers we can turn your hyper-virtuous Prius into a planet destroying Hummer. A developed world that is obviously unwilling to look at its own consumption casts around for targets of convenience. It turns out that there is a rather large one in northeastern Alberta.

As the world gathers in Copenhagen this week, the incredible hypocrisy of this process is becoming increasingly clear. In fact, the environmental movement is coming to resemble nothing so much as the medieval Catholic church. Rational debate is replaced by an unchallengeable orthodoxy banishing any and all heresies. We are treated to an orgy of climate porn to whip up frenzied hatred of the heretics and increasingly irrational targets that no one can possibly take seriously are proposed. The end product is a document that governments and ngo's can use as a cudgel to beat each other with but that bears no resemblance to reality.

The greatest evil in all of this is that it will inevitably serve to protect the privileges of the rich world against the demands of the poor. We have ours; too bad for you. Climate change is undoubtedly real. It must be addressed, but this must be done in a way that enhances justice rather than cement injustice. And this means a fundamental shift in the global distribution of wealth and a real and protracted effort to alleviate the misery of that half of humanity for whom this must appear such a travesty.