What’s going on with climate has moved from wherever it’s been to an actual social movement with the Peoples Climate March - 400,000 strong in NYC and solidarity actions in 166 countries. It takes time to sink in and time to be ignored, but the fact of the matter is the very next day the oil soaked Rockefeller family announced that its $860 million philanthropic fund would divest from fossil fuel and re-invest in clean energy. A small, but meaningful victory.
It's a legitimate movement, but not without stubborn nay-sayers. The Wall Street Journal carried just-go-on-with-business-as-usual sentiments arguing climate computer models have proven to be crude and there’s no idea how much global temperature changes are caused by human activity. It warns the world’s leading emitters like China and India will never sign agreements that impede their economic growth - so our attempts to curb emissions will only stymie our own economy.
China and India most likely have similar concerns and probably won’t sign an agreement before the West is on board. The truth of the matter is the U.S. and the rest of the developed world are responsible for bringing about the Industrial Age along with its emissions and should set the example to bring about climate change mitigation. China and India will follow. If two faucets drip, but only one could be fixed - wouldn’t it be wise to fix it? Fix what you can. Even if one doesn’t believe - as the overwhelming majority of the world’s scientist believe - that human activity is a major cause of climate change or that other nations won’t act, doing nothing is a huge gamble on the future of life on the planet.