A current example of the harm resulting from backward looking politics and moralities is in the news. [via FuturePundit]

The growth in China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is far outpacing previous estimates, making the goal of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases much more difficult, according to a new analysis by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Diego.

Previous estimates, including those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, say the region that includes China will see a 2.5 to 5 percent annual increase in CO2 emissions, the largest contributor to atmospheric greenhouse gases, between 2004 and 2010. The new UC analysis puts that annual growth rate for China to at least 11 percent for the same time period.

The politics of limits and the ethics or moralities of simplification and self-denial blink reality. If emissions are a problem then local reductions in the comparatively sparsely populated developed world are simply irrelevant. The overwhelming majority of humans, and so emissions, are in the developing world where people are already simplified . . . to death. They aim to change that and it's difficult to countenance any claimed ethic or morality that seeks to deny them the opportunity.

All the talk of carbon taxes or capping schemes are feel-good nonsense and political wanking. What we need are energy systems that are clean and cheap enough for the neediest people in the world to be able to adopt them with abandon. Nothing less will help.

Said another way, concerns about emissions are a facet of the larger concern for development. To make it to the next screen we have to face reality and apply ourselves to the real problems of figuring out ways to provision the 5 of 6 humans on this planet who are currently living lives of desperation. This is not optional. They will do what they must, and if that means huge numbers of coal fired power plants, and the atmosphere be damned, then that's what will happen. That is what is currently happening. We really do need to rebuke the Euro-weenies and pale green fashion victims of the developed world. Their narcissism is revolting.