"Lifestyle changes aren't too much to ask"

NASHVILLE, 5.15.09 Both Presidents Bush notoriously refused to cooperate with the world, at Kyoto and in general, to address the climate crisis. Their rationale? The American way of life - our "lifestyle" - is non-negotiable. We'll consume and emit and befoul as much as we want, whenever and however we want, period. We'll take as much of the pie as we can slice.

And so it is refreshing, in the lead-up to Copenhagen and the drafting of a new global climate treat, to learn from this morning's Tennessean that participants at a "Climate Project Summit" here yesterday applauded Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for responding to a question about the American lifestyle this way:

Lifestyle changes aren't too much to ask, Pachauri said.

"Why not, if this way of life is imposing a huge burden on the rest of the world?" he said to applause.

Emissions from fossil fuels are rising faster than projected, former Vice President Al Gore told hundreds gathered Thursday night for The Climate Project's North American Summit in Nashville.

"Temperatures are rising more rapidly," he said. "The ice is melting more rapidly."

Still, he said at the kickoff event of the three-day gathering, hope looms large.

A bill in Congress, expected to come out of committee soon, would be effective in reducing emissions in this country, he said. "Exciting" new developments are taking place with solar cells, wind and wave power and electric cars. New commitments are being made to mass transit.

"This is our time," Gore said. "This is our opportunity."

Joining Gore was Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel and Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for building knowledge about climate change and bringing it to the attention of the world...

Lifestyle changes aren't too much to ask, Pachauri said.

"Why not, if this way of life is imposing a huge burden on the rest of the world?" he said to applause...

Getting the U.S. to commit to legislation before negotiations begin this December on a Copenhagen Treaty to slow climate change was considered key at the summit. It would take the place of the Kyoto Protocol, which both the U.S. and Australia refused to sign in years past...

In Environmental Ethics this past semester we read James Garvey's excellent Ethics of Climate Change, which led to a constructive and cordial email exchange with the author - who at my suggestion promises to read some John Dewey. Dewey, for my money, has the best general answer to those who would challenge the idea that we have some obligation to our successors on this planet. (Nigel Warburton raised this challenge in a "Philosophy Bites" interview.) More on this later.