All major nations need to buy in

Published 2:22 pm Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Eugene Robinson’s Thursday column about the heat back East needs a comment. (“Extreme heat, storms foreshadow our future.”)

Nothing serious will be done about global warming until the whole world pulls equally. China and India must stop claiming to be too poor to do their share, as at Kyoto. The world shouldn’t expect the U.S. and Europe to be the only contributors.

If the U.S. consumes about 25 percent of the world’s energy, and we could (painfully) reduce that 10 percent, it would delay things, but not reverse them. Maybe the other three-quarters needs to be baked and drowned to realize the U.S. can’t work miracles.

People typically won’t take the cure until the disease becomes painful. That this is a political argument doesn’t help, or that many don’t trust any international agreements. As much as the U.S. and Europe have done already, real progress will come with much pain and no progress may be worse. Has Eugene turned off his air conditioning?

Doug Grandpre

Lake Stevens