EU leaders face climate challenge

The BBC reported that, “European leaders are expected to commit their countries to tough new emissions targets at a European Union summit focused on tackling global warming.” All very commendable, of course, but the cynic in me expects that this will just be yet another round of talks, which sees “commitments” to cutting carbon emissions that are, well, basically, worth less than the paper they are printed on.

(That in itself raises a question, do they cut down trees to print the agendas, reports, etc., when they hold these summits and meetings?)

Yes, of course they have agreed and, yes, they say it’s binding, but what’s really going to happen? There’ll be a bit of noise over it for a while, then EU countries who fail to meet the targets will have fines imposed, but otherwise, it’ll probably just be “business as usual.”

Climate Change Blog say that it throws down the gauntlet to the world - particularly the United States, China and India. Well, yes, but when have they taken any notice of the EU or anyone before? Not to be entirely negative about it, it’s not perfect, but it’s a start. That’s something.

Now what if they did actually act upon some of these commitments one day? Or, indeed, force us to make sacrifices to play our part.

You may think this is necessary and, you may already be committed to and doing some of these things, but I think I can predict some considerable resistance from the “Average Joe.”

There’s the real challenge.

And, I think this recent article in the Daily Mail, about a BBC reporter who spent a year trying to go green, shows exactly what the challenge will entail. The article is, at times, hilarious. At others, it’s sad.

It shows how pathetically unprepared we are to “do without” and that real green alternatives (such as transport) simply aren’t available.

It also highlights the truth: that most people are highly unlikely to persevere long enough with some measure of “suffering” to achieve the goal. Even a BBC reporter, being paid to do it, limited the length of some experiments to a month and gave them up as a bad job.

Take eating habits. The “personal emissions” problem, when eating a vegetarian diet rich in beans, does actually go away, eventually.

But it does take at least three to six months though, which is asking way too much of most people. If I give my mother the sort of healthy food I normally eat, it “upsets her” and she says she “can’t” eat it. She won’t even persevere to the second day, let alone for months.

And I admit I can only cope with “mostly” vegetarian and not vegan.

Of course, if you can’t bring yourself to save energy, you could contribute instead by generating electricity by working up a sweat.

Gee, that sounds like turning us all into human hamsters in treadmills and it would help combat the global obesity problem at the same time, but didn’t they try the same plan with slaves in Roman times?

As BBC reporter Justin Rowlatt concludes, “while we are prepared to modify our lifestyle to help the planet, we’re not prepared to abandon every pleasure.” And I’ll bet he represents a lot people.