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Page added on March 22, 2012
World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe
Almost six years ago, I was the editor of a single-topic issue on energy for Scientific American that included an article by Princeton University’s Robert Socolow that set out a well-reasoned plan for how to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations below a planet-livable threshold of 560 ppm. The issue came replete with technical solutions that ranged from a hydrogen economy to space-based solar.
If I had it to do over, I’d approach the issue planning differently, my fellow editors permitting. I would scale back on the nuclear fusion and clean coal, instead devoting at least half of the available space for feature articles on psychology, sociology, economics and political science. Since doing that issue, I’ve come to the conclusion that the technical details are the easy part. It’s the social engineering that’s the killer. Moon shots and Manhattan Projects are child’s play compared to needed changes in the way we behave.
A policy article authored by several dozen scientists appeared online March 15 in Science to acknowledge this point: “Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.”
The report summarized 10 years of research evaluating the capability of international institutions to deal with climate and other environmental issues, an assessment that found existing capabilities to effect change sorely lacking. The authors called for a “constitutional moment” at the upcoming 2012 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June to reform world politics and government. Among the proposals: a call to replace the largely ineffective U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development with a council that reports to the U.N. General Assembly, at attempt to better handle emerging issues related to water, climate, energy and food security. The report advocates a similar revamping of other international environmental institutions.
Unfortunately, far more is needed. To be effective, a new set of institutions would have to be imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers. There would have to be consideration of some way of embracing head-in-the-cloud answers to social problems that are usually dismissed by policymakers as academic naivete. In principle, species-wide alteration in basic human behaviors would be a sine qua non, but that kind of pronouncement also profoundly strains credibility in the chaos of the political sphere. Some of the things that would need to be contemplated: How do we overcome our hard-wired tendency to “discount” the future: valuing what we have today more than what we might receive tomorrow? Would any institution be capable of instilling a permanent crisis mentality lasting decades, if not centuries? How do we create new institutions with enforcement powers way beyond the current mandate of the U.N.? Could we ensure against a malevolent dictator who might abuse the power of such organizations?
Behavioral economics and other forward-looking disciplines in the social sciences try to grapple with weighty questions. But they have never taken on a challenge of this scale, recruiting all seven billion of us to act in unison. The ability to sustain change globally across the entire human population over periods far beyond anything ever attempted would appear to push the relevant objectives well beyond the realm of the attainable. If we are ever to cope with climate change in any fundamental way, radical solutions on the social side are where we must focus, though. The relative efficiency of the next generation of solar cells is trivial by comparison.
8 Comments on "World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe"
Gale Whitaker on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 2:20 am
Humans just don’t care about the children of the future.
DC on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 2:39 am
Stuff like this will freak out the OWG parandoids, but the point is a valid one. Fractured tribal balkanized world makes it almost impossible to get anything meaningful done. One could also argue we could prob agree to something meanginful w/o recourse to a ‘world govt’ as well. All comes down to willpower and co-operation really, not tech-NO-fixes. Look whats happening now, the United Snakes, a particularly violent and ill-educated tribal group of religous fanatics with WomD terrorizes and imitidates the world just to keep its owm corrupt local elites wealthy. Would a Govt that does not regard the US as the only country in the world be an improvement? Probably, hard to see how it could not.
But remember, all this OWG schtick comeing out of the US is an idea the local elites put out there for the inevitable day when the world gets togther to restrain the US terror-state. IE, reduce its corporate profits. If you look at right-wing yap TV radio, it talks about this very idea quite a lot really. The idea they put out is some UN world govt super-conspiricy will take away amerikans SUVS, guns,industrial pseudo-food and its dirty coal and gas powered energy system. What that really is, is the the US FF cartels attempting to rally the ignorant amerikan masses that some shadowy globally conspiricy exists to deny amerikans the right to drives 30 miles to Wall-mart on a whim, so they can save 3 dollars on a hair-dryer at wall-mart. Articles like this, even though it gets to the root of issue, is just ammo the FF spin-doctors use to feed amerikans deliberately cultivated parannoia and ignornace, sadly.
AgentR11 on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 5:15 am
More scientists pretending that their expertise in climatology or physics makes them experts in politics.
Arthur on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 9:20 am
DC, it is imposible to see the US, that is the New Babylon, as a tribal group. The US is projected by it’s ruling zionist dominated elite as a front runner of the coming New World Order, where all races and ethnicities are mixed and nation states are abolished. But this more than one century old grand strategy did no take into account two major developments 1) rise of the internet 2) resource depletion. Both play into the hands of forces that resist a global centralized slave state.
Regarding global warming… Like Richard Heinberg I do not worry too much about it, since the fossil fuel age is nearing its end anyway. A slightly warmer planet needs less domestic heating. But at the same it is very well posdible that half of the Netlherlands will under if see levels rise more than one meter.
Lisa on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 9:39 am
The World Government got us into this predicament – I doubt strongly they will get anyone but themselves out of it.
BillT on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 12:45 pm
If you read the article following…
“The Vampire Economy and the Market”
…you will know why nothing will change. The example of Nazi Germany’s government/economy is like looking at the Us today.
Laci on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 3:03 pm
Well, they (the scientists) may have come to the conclusion that the way we behave is the key, on march 15, but there is in fact a book called “Sustainable Trade”, by Zoltan Ban, which predates this by a few months, which says the same, and actually offers realistic common sense solutions, mainly focused on changing the way we do trade as the solution. No need for world government, just a new framework for trade.
TIKIMAN on Fri, 23rd Mar 2012 3:59 pm
Global warming is nothing more than Al Gore hunting down man bear pig. He made up a problem and made up a solution for it. He is the greatest con artist that ever lived. Anyone who believes this piece of shit is mentally ill.Cap and trade, a policy that steals money from working class people and gives it to the government. Al Gore does not care about the planet. He would make billions of dollars if cap and trade is passed. He is a con artist son of a bitch who needs to die in a car wreck.
A one world government is a very dangerous thing. It will be the end of liberty and freedom as we know it. ANyone to supports a one world government is crazy. A tiny elite will make decisions for billions of people. They will kill off the population for “the greater good of the planet” It will be Hitler times 1000…