Recently, there was a climate conference in Doha. A few years ago, there was a climate conference in Kyoto. The main point of the debate was which division of pollution was fair. Had the West polluted its share, and should now decline while other, upcoming industrial nations like China and India pollute their fair share? The West has been polluting a lot for a number of reasons; The industrial revolution, of which the whole world now reaps the benefits, the Christianity-caused population explosion, and the fact that the Middle-East keeps the West dependent on fossil fuels.
Now many people are angry that a minority causes the majority of the polution. But which minority? The West? Why not the oil sheiks, who practice both overpopulation and overconsumption? Singling out a minority is rather arbitrary.
Also, the assumption that each individual has the same right to pollute comes with a nasty little angle. Why not give each people, each culture a right to pollute? After all, linking the pollution rights to the number of individuals a culture, country or religion has, rewards enlarging your country or religion by conquest, conversion or birth rate, all of which leads environmental degradation, violence, and using your women as breeding machines. Do Chinese and Arabs want to grant their anti-Western presumptions also to the Yimas?
oogenhand 