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Responding to some of the responses to my last post on global carbon emissions, yes, we agree on the facts, the issue seems to be the implications. It is correct that at this moment, the U.S. accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and we have been heading downward; while China in particular has been going in the wrong direction and is the largest emitter. Maybe " fairness " is an issue here, since the U.S. is responsible for far more cumulative emissions and China ' s emissions per capita are not as large, but given the crisis facing humanity I think that ' s pretty much beside the point. What matters is what is to be done? Fifteen percent isn ' t trivial and it still matters that the U.S. continue to reduce emissions, as quickly as possible. If we say, " We won ' t bother to do anything until China takes effective action " that isn ' t going to help the situation one bit. We need to be an example to the world that creating a sustainable economy is consistent with prosperity, quality of life, and equity. And as I say, we need to engage with China and India on this problem. Worrying about whether they are democracies or their leaders are good people is a separate issue.In health news,severe shortages of common, inexpensive generic chemotherapy agentsare putting the lives of cancer patients at risk. As long as we leave drug manufacturing to private corporations and the profit motive, we ' re going to have problems like this, and the corresponding proble...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs