Slashdot Mirror
How To Lead a Nation That's About To Be Swallowed By the Sea
merbs writes: Anote Tong, the president of low-lying Kiribati, has spent nearly a decade trying to save his people from rising sea levels. There's a good chance he will not succeed. This is how he leads a nation that will likely not exist in 100 years. Motherboard reports: "Kiribati’s fate provides a rare glimpse of the future world under climate change. The tiny island nation is the canary in our global coal mine, and it will bear the brunt of climate change more intensely and much sooner than nearly anywhere else. 'We cannot keep doing what we are doing,' Tong said. 'Because we may be on the front line today, but other countries, other societies, other communities will be next.'"
I believe we should be acting on the best scientific information we have.
I couldn't agree more. We should act on scientific information, not the politics of wealth and not the politics of guilt. And the science should itself remain independent and untainted by politics (otherwise it isn't really science).
I am willing to accept whatever unbiased science tells me. If I don't like that answer, too bad for me. It is what it is.
Why not just be honest and say "Why does the Kiribati's problem take precedence over the American who wants a bigger SUV to tow his boat down his vacation home on the man-made lake so he can fish for trophies?"
You are welcome on my lawn.
Why does a Kiribati life matter more than an American's trophy fishing?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Sneaky, very very sneaky. US are tending (wonderful wishy washy word that) down from a peak well and truly above what other countries are barely starting to catch up to and not to forget the US outsources a lot of it's pollution to other countries, the US gets the products and they get shit wages, very bad working conditions and uncontrolled pollution but of course that is their governments fault. This ignoring the US standard invade and conquer if you refuse to sell your resources for funny money and provide working in poverty labour.
So semi floating cities in tsunami and tropical cyclone zone, well, I suppose that will work for as long as it works right up until the first major tsunami or tropical cyclone and the millions or mourners point it out as a really bad idea.
The only sound thing they can do is establish a treaty with another country to accept those people as citizens and establish a trust for them, based around trading off access to the fishing and mining resources, via that country to commercial players.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Trends don't tell the complete story. I'm guessing you know that.
Imagine I weighed 700 pounds and last year I consumed an average of 5,000 calories a day. This year I cut that back to 4,800. The trend is down. My neighbor weighs 180 pounds and last year he consumed 2,700 calories a day. This year he consumed 2,800.
Yes, I'm heading in the right direction while my neighbor is not, but it's easy to see that I've got a much more serious problem than he does. The trend matters but what also matters is whether change is happening quick enough.
To answer your question, I think the US has made some strides but has a long way to go. In 40 or 50 years we are likely to still be be producing dangerous amounts of CO2. So, yes we will still be to blame, as will China and any number of other countries. Perhaps that won't be true.
I agree that taking responsibility is more effective than blame. As far as productive things to do go, a number of years ago I left my job and started working for an organization that does energy efficiency research.
What have you done?