Global Warming

This week the Indian prime minister visits Washington do discuss, among other things, climate change. In the Post's Sunday opinion section, Miranda Kennedy has a useful look at the view from India -- where the average Indian has a 20th the carbon emissions of an American.

Also, Naomi Klein's recent Rolling Stone article on climate debt is very accessible and good, if you remember that it's idealist and (unfortunately) far from today's political reality. As they put it in the subheadline: "The only way to stop global warming is for rich nations to pay for the damage they've done - or face the consequences." The problem is that that's unlikely to happen (on a significant scale) anytime soon. Not that we shouldn't be advocating for it; we should.

All of this is setting the stage for the big climate talks in Copenhagen, which run Dec 7 to Dec 18. Perhaps you've read about how the United States and many other countries are lowering expectations far for what is actually going to be accomplished. The media here have been rushing to call it a failure already. Environmentalists aren't happy, but for now, many are arguing that there are still some good possibilities. Jonathan Hiskes of Grist previews the meeting here.