2050?

Who do they think they're kidding? My CBC News homepage tells me that "Canada trumpets G8 vow to halve emissions by 2050" By 2050, every one of those G8 leaders will be dead. So what kind of commitment is that? What value does a promise have if nobody is around to see it kept?

Politicians are famous for making promises. End poverty, reduce carbon emissions, etc. But instead of promising something will happen in 10, 20, 30 years, how about just changing your behaviour now? Instead of saying something will happen at some distant date when you will no longer even hold office, how about making changes now?

No more promises. Behaviour needs to change and here are the changes that we are making. Today. That'd be something to trumpet.

“Zero”

The November 20 issue of the New Yorker has another scary environment essay by the brilliant Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Darkening Sea: What Carbon Emissions Are Doing to the Ocean.” A few pages in, she quotes climate scientist Ken Caldiera:

Caldeira siad that he had recently gone to Washington to brief some members of Congress. “I was asked, ‘What is the appropriate stabilization target for atmospheric CO2?’ he recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I think it's inappropriate to think in terms of stabilization targets. I think we should think in terms of emissions targets.’ And they said, ‘O.K., what's the appropriate emissions target?’ And I said, ‘Zero.’

“If you’re talking about mugging little old ladies, you don’t say, “What’s our target for the rate of mugging little old ladies?’ You say, ‘Mugging little old ladies is bad, and we’re going to try to eliminate it.’ You recognize you might not be a hundred per cent successful, but your goal is to eliminate the mugging of little old ladies. And I think we need to eventually come around to looking at carbon-dioxide emissions the same way.”