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The Paris Climate Talks: Negotiating With the Atmosphere
Lasrick writes: The Paris climate change talks are in December, but what negotiators plan to propose will only be part of non-legally-binding pledges—and they represent only what is achievable without too much difficulty. 2009's Copenhagen Accord say 114 countries agree that global temperature increases should be held below 2 degrees Celsius. "Paradoxically, an accord that should have spurred the world to immediate action instead seemed to offer some breathing room. Two degrees was meant to be a ceiling, but repeated references to an internationally agreed-upon “threshold” led many people to believe that nothing really bad could happen below 2 degrees—or worse yet, that the number itself was negotiable." Dawn Stover writes about alternatives to the meaningless numbers and endless talks: 'The very idea that the Paris conference is a negotiation is ridiculous. You can't negotiate with the atmosphere."
I think everyone does in fact believe it - of course belief is irrelevent when AGW is a fact.
There is so much inertia with the World's economy and the fact that people do not want to change their lifestyles and others want an overconsumption Western lifestyle.
The only way humanity is going to change is when there is a catastrophic climate change. When crops fail en mass. When coastal cities are flooded.
A person is smart. People are stupid.
So, I agree; it doesn't matter.
I am doing what I can. Lowering one's environmental and consumptive footprint saves A LOT of money. And I feel a part of the solution instead of an entitled bald ape.