A Good Start

In his article, "Why is it so hard to stop climate change?" Damian Carrington outlines what I believe to be three (actually 4) of the biggest obstacles to an effective fight against climate change. He says that a lack of low-carbon energy sources, too much reliance on fossil fuels, and not enough political leadership and too much focus on the current economic crisis are standing in the way of effective action. He lumps politics and economics together into the same category and although they are related, are two separate things.

He stresses that leadership is focusing too much on how to recover from the global economic crisis, but does not talk about how general consumer culture and "bigger is better" economic creeds drive the continued use of inefficient and dirty energy and the propping up of those industries by political leaders. He fails to discuss two of the biggest variables, businesses and corporations producing products and the human consumers who purchase them.

One other aspect that I believe Carrington fails to discuss is human population. He does not examine humans as consumers who drive a produce and purchase cycle and he also does not examine humans in terms of their sheer numbers. Global human population just recently passed 7 billion, which means more human environmental impact than ever before. Increased population is partially fueled by increased food supply, which also means that we should take into account the industrial food system when talking about climate change. Clearly, the colossal problem that is climate change cannot be blamed on just 3 or 4 contributing factors. The whole global system has become so complex that to cherry pick just a few and examine them in six short paragraphs fails to explain the whole picture. Carrington starts the discussion on a good note, but it is just a start and most certainly begs for further analysis.