Cybrpnk's Rantings

I was listening to NPR recently. Either 'To The Point' or 'Which Way L.A.' One of the guests was from The Cato Institute. He stated that it was a mistake for California to require lower emissions from cars and trucks because scientific projections showed that even if every state in America adopted California's limits, global temperatures would only be a fraction of a degree Celsius lower by 2050. I then saw a similar statement accepted as fact in an editorial in The LA Times. I'm not sure which is more disappointing, the uncritical repeating of this position by the LA Times, or the fact that the other guest on NPR, who was a scientist, failed to point out the fundamental flaw in this argument. The flaw is that we are not currently primarily concerned with lowering global temperatures, we are concerned about reducing the increase in temperatures. If reducing auto emissions results in temperatures being slightly lower in forty years, that's not a small shift relevant to the baseline today, that's a large shift relative to where temperatures will be if we do nothing.

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One of the striking features of most tropical islands is the relative paucity of refrigeration. Simply walking into a food market challenges one's pampered western sensibilities. Putting aside the fact that the selection in most places is a tiny fraction of a typical American market, there is the additional challenge of confronting how little of the food is refrigerated. There is a palpable odor of vegetables being past their prime due to inadequate chilling. There are very few cold drinks. Eggs are out on a shelf. The store itself is most likely not air-conditioned. Yet the food is all perfectly edible. One can find provisions to cook meals. One's health is not at risk shopping here. The issue, upon closer examination, is primarily a matter of aesthetics. This isn't the way we do things at home. No it isn't, and it illuminates vividly how insane some of our American practices are.

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