Friday, March 9, 2012

How conservatives can help to tackle climate change | Roger Scruton

11:48 AM | Posted by Free Game Zone | | Edit Post

treaty-hunting is a waste of time and resources - looking for clean energy starts at home

environmental degradation has a cause above all others: the propensity of humans to take advantage and leave the costs to someone else, preferably someone off in space or time, the manifestations can be ignored. The solution is to give space to compete with the tendency in human nature, which is to bear the costs, when costs detract from your home. So my green philosophy book is an exploration of the motivation that I call "oikophilia" love of his house. Propensity assessment and management is at the heart of the conservative philosophy, I believe, and should be the focus of conservative politics, too.

But what about climate change? This is the first question I ask all those who have left to try to explain my point of view, and that's a good question. This is an issue that can not be solved by local action. There is nothing that I and my neighbors, or even me and my nation, you can do to solve a problem that affects all the land and can not be cured in a local part of it. Certainly, therefore, no alternative to a radical change in lifestyle imposed by international treaty and enforce worldwide?

Once you put this way, however, doubts arise. Politicians in democracies are not sign treaties that compromise their constituents to unacceptable changes in your lifestyle. What is the point of signing a treaty if he loses the election, would it apply? The autocratic state politicians to sign treaties in any way, but only because no one is able to stick to the agreement. If globetrotting in search of a climate change treaty is that matches environmental policy, then we can be forgiven for thinking that consciousness is more than washing by politicians.

There is a tendency towards the libertarian right to close the agenda of the environment, and to give credit to those scientists who argue whether global warming is a myth, or is not caused by human action and therefore it is not curable by human action. Not agree with that - although, like most people who consider these questions, I'm an amateur when it comes to science. It goes without saying that the Earth will warm, if the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is steadily increasing. So how do you change? To sanction the use of fossil fuels when it comes to the main - or only - source of energy is impossible. People will not accept the use of less energy than they need, and in any case, major policy initiatives always need more energy, not least
  • There are two options: find a clean energy source that can be made freely available worldwide, or engage in work of geoengineering to counter the effect of carbon emissions . The second is so controversial that no politician will touch. But the first has led to a series of solutions unrealistic and harmful to the environment, such as fashion wind farms, which contributed largely symbolic network is more than compensated for the damage they cause to our common sense of the administration. Why worry about the environment, if the price of doing so is the loss of an environment that can take care? Moreover, wind farms are always in need of another source, most reliable, and more polluting energy, which comes in the case of Germany, the connection to the French nuclear-powered network. The depths of hypocrisy does not need comments.
  • The French are certainly the right to use nuclear energy. There are risks, but risk management is what is the environmental issue.

Meanwhile, we must face facts: the problem of clean energy is primarily a scientific problem. Be solved by well-funded scientists working in an atmosphere of free inquiry. In other words, due out in a rich nation and democratic state, and may not be hindered by dedicating our resources to hatred treated useless. Like any other viable environmental policy, research clean energy starts at home.


. Roger Scruton is a philosopher and author of Green Philosophy


Find best price for : --Scruton----Roger--

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive

Blogger Template created with Artisteer.