West accused of ‘climate hypocrisy’ as emissions dwarf those of poor countries | Hacker News Reader

West accused of ‘climate hypocrisy’ as emissions dwarf those of poor countries

theguardian.com

11 pointsDah00n9 comments

The important part is finding someone else who is more to blame, that way nobody needs to do anything. The rich countries can blame the poor countries for not modernizing their industry, the poor countries can blame the rich countries for being larger emitters, the producers can blame the consumers for demanding the wrong things, the consumers can blame the producers for making the wrong things, the voters can blame the politicians, the left can blame the right, the right can blame the left, dogs can blame cats, cats can blame mice.

I'm sure if we just find who is the most to blame, fix up a big bonfire and burn that witch, then all our problems will go up in smoke.

I blame big bonfire.

Endlessly debating who is the most to blame is also a great way to make sure that all our problems go up in smoke. Or, at least, all the problems of some of us. (Just ask the residents of Lytton, British Columbia.)

Ah yes, fucking everything up for everyone: The great equalizer.

Correction: By "West" you meant the developed nations, we from the West developing nations have nothing to do with it.

They are the ones who started the "climate issue" and the ones preaching & pressuring everyone(specifically the poor countries) to slow down on burning fuel. They keep blaming everyone but themselves.

It's just unfair, we need fuel to power our factories and reach the same level as the developed nations, we are burning the same amount(or less than) them used to reach their current state.

The developed nations are the one who need to slow down on their fuel burning, they don't need that much as we need, they hide their carbon footprint whilst hypocritically pointing finger at us developing countries, leave us developing whilst you do your part.

>>The developed nations are the one who need to slow down on their fuel burning

As a "westerner", I would modify this statement to: The developed nations are the ones who need to STOP ALL harmful emissions by implementing a fully renewably-powered infrastructure (power grid, tansportation, civil, defense) and CONCURRENTLY supply/heavily subsidize the deployment of these capabilities to developing nations.

We're all on the same international spaceship. It's not a question of fairness or who developed first. It simply needs to happen. Like... now.

Fair enough, you put a much better solution that benefits both sides.

I'm not downplaying/disregarding the climate issue, at that part the I agree with the developed nations: it's a real thing, the increased rate of flooding across Europe and India last year supports that. Every of us (regardless of ethnicity &nation) is responsible to take care our common homeland.

What I disagree is how they are playing the issue putting more responsability on us than themselves, unfortunately our industry is still very traditional and we can't move overnight to renewable ones, rather than taxing us, they should be aiding to move our industry facilities to green solutions, that is the ideal one, noone gets harmed whilst making our planet more greener

100%. A lot of people ("leaders") are afraid to compromize their immediate personal security for the greater good - which ironically, will only bolster their personal security.

My personal belief is that: a.) We (in the west) need to seek less cowardly leaders, and b.) We (global engineers and lower-level leadership) need to right the course by taking action.

In my own industry, I'm in a position to influence the type of engines/power sources used in global shipping. That's only 2% of global harmful emissions, but if I can be a part of reducing that to 0%, I will be happy. I do that all day long, and trust me, I get sideways stares and rediculous remarks that what I'm proposing is impractical. It's constant, but I don't care. The math is the math, and my response is "prove that I'm wrong." They never can.

Truth is - middle tier leadership is going to get the job done.

Well, I do think western nations should plead guilty on that and then some.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com