China and India: learning to consume like us ... by gimleteye

According to the Pew Research Center, fewer Americans today believe that global warming is a serious problem today, compared to only one year ago. It is difficult to understand the psychology of contemporary US culture. Surely the economic crisis, under-reported in its depth, helps promote cognitive dissonance. But think about this: at the same time that Americans are thrashing through the worst recession since the Great Depression, billions-- and I mean, billions-- of citizens of Asian continent are scrambling to consume like us.

Pollution in China is horrific. A reader alerted us to an amazing website of Lu Guong's brave photos: take a look. It is not quite the same view as the spectacular Olympic opening ceremony of last summer. A good friend sent me the second photo, from India, where she is working on a micro-finance project helping rural women learn to be consumers like us. Her work is sponsored by US corporations who consider India to be a big profit center in the future.

It is easy to blame China and India for global warming. China, alone, is opening the equivalent of one coal-fired power plant a week to fuel its growth. Although China is using more coal than the US, Europe and Japan combined, in important respects, it is moving to adopt cleaner and more efficient plants faster than we have. (please click, 'read more')

Our own consumption propels China and India forward. We are all tied together. Under these conditions, some readers might ask: isn't it inconsistent to be agitating against more nuclear power in the United States? I do not unilaterally oppose nuclear power. The location of new nuclear, though, at Turkey Point at sea level, the unanswered questions, the hubris and heavy-handed behavior of Florida Power and Light, the sham public involvement to ram through the new nuclear reactors: these are all reasons I believe Turkey Point is the wrong place for new nuclear.

The United States needs to get our act together, and fast, to reverse the volume of carbon dioxide polluting our atmosphere: there is no time to lose, and, no time to play this game of hardball with a beach ball. In too many respects, big corporations like FPL are making our decisions for us-- and the wrong decisions. It is good to see, in that light, leaders like Pacific Gas and Electric abandon their membership in the US Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has proven to be an irresponsible obstructionist in the efforts to promote government intervention in global warming.

The best way forward would be for Florida's utilities to first embrace conservation mandates as the basis for power generation. Until that happens, the state's big utilities are our problem, not our solution.