I did the Transition Town training course last weekend, which was excellent. This is one of the slides that stuck with me:
The graph shows energy consumption oil equivalents. Although China now produces more CO2 than any other country, it also has the greatest population. Per capita energy use is low. The US, which comes second, has very high per capita energy use. The chief problem is not overpopulation, or rising aspirations in developing countries. Those issues matter, but they’re very much overshadowed by the crazy energy wastefulness of richer countries.
Unfortunately, even Obama doesn’t seem to be able to bring Congress on side, and the US remains a vast immovable object in the path of climate negotiations. Unless the US can be persuaded to engage constructively in the international climate debate, I fear the battle may be lost.
