NEGOTIATE IPCCC TEXT BUT DAMN THE PLANET

The governments of over a hundred countries were prepared to work like galley-slaves for a week, then right through the night, to negotiate the text of the latest IPCCC report, but they they aren't prepared to negotiate the state of the planet and the quality of human life on it (see the BBC's news item, which includes a link to a PDF of the IPCCC's report).

In spite of some gerrymandering and watering-down the report makes clear that global overheating is already having a demonstrable, serious, negative impact on the climate of the entire planet, that the damage is lasting, and that the consequences will be dire. Between the lines it is clear that we have gone well past the point of no-return.

The stark truth is that the best conditions for human civilisation have gone. The worst are on the way. There is no good future for the human race. Increasingly, life will become nasty, brutish and short. Billions will die.

India encapsulates the state of the world. Its economy is booming, its technology is racing ahead, it is becoming a global power. But its environment and climate are going backwards. A vital example is that the Ganges is shrinking as the glaciers that feed it melt away. The tension between the forward and backward movements is inexorably rising, as if they were tied together by an enormous, unbreakable, rubber rope. Ultimately the regression that man is forcing on the planet will snap backwards his progress in economy and technology.

But don't worry about it, politicians. Just worry about hanging on to power at the next election. Don't worry about it, bureaucrats. Just worry about the next pettifogging committee meeting about regulatory trivia. Don't worry about, businessmen. Just worry about your market share and the size of your profits and bonuses. Don't worry about it car-owners. Just worry about getting from A to B regardless of the poison pouring from your exhaust-pipes.

Everybody, please continue to ignore clean solar-cell/fuel-cell technology, because that will keep their prices high and thus keep them unaffordable. Instead, please keep using planet-trashing technologies to the hilt, thus keeping their prices low. In short, please keep being murderous, suicidal fools. Carry on being the lemming-generation.

If you want to do something for this tattered planet and its polluted sky, click here. The EStarCar doesn't cost megabucks and decades to develop, it doesn't pollute the sky, its body can have whatever shape and function you want, it can be manufactured by small teams in small premises than can be rapidly multiplied all over the planet, most of it can be recycled (except for such things as tyres and rubber door-seals), and being alloy it will last decades longer than the heavy, rusting planet-trashers made by the Big Iron carmakers. Their bottom line is money and greed. This car's bottom line is the planet, which means life and the quality of life.