The Copenhagen dilemma

Excerpt from a reply to an email

Copenhagen was a disgrace any which way you look at it.... I couldn't believe it when our 'Most Honourable' Environment Minister actually boasted in Parliament that 'India got its way' (a day after getting back to Delhi). There is much to say about development (in this country, at least) getting hit if strict norms for carbon reduction and stuff get implemented, but the fact is that we can very well do without most of the industrialisation and corporatisation taking place right now - especially if you look at the vast distance between those who currently have a chance to take part in the economy and those left on the way side. Clearly, something's wrong with the whole concept of development if you leave over a third of the country out of the loop, in terms of basic amenities like food, water, medicine and shelter. I can't really comment on China, seeing as how every little bit of pixel-ated news coming out of there is so restricted, but what folks are going to take back from Copenhagen is that India and China pretty much scuttled any chance of laying meaningful guidelines down - for the near future. Anything Barack or Angela or Gordon could or might have even wanted to do, stood no chance against an argument that basically said, 'You guys have fucked up for so long with the environment, and gotten so rich while doing it - WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU to tell us what we can or can't do now?'... A grass-roots movement for Climate Change really stands little chance of succeeding in India, when there are people on the ground who aren't really sure if they'e gonna be around tomorrow or starve to death tonight, you know...