Here is a teaser:
Europeans hang on to the dead treaty process because letting go requires acknowledging an uncomfortable reality. Europe has not reduced its emissions and is in no position to lecture the world. Fed up, the world's largest developing powers -- China, India, Brazil, and South Africa -- broke away from Europe in Copenhagen. That the U.S., not Europe, mediated the divide, stung all the more.This should provide some interesting mixing of perspectives, across the Atlantic!
well, another think tank website, how exciting. And the mocking Obama headline , wow, how innovative! Why should an European think about this? Obama is not the European president, but the US president!
ReplyDeleteI do not see any interesting stuff there. Just another crappy US think tank trying to influence (climate) politics in Europe. In my opinion these lobbyists paid from tax saving foundations play a really bad part in the climate debate.
Sorry, I cannot see anything good in the screechy US think tank system. Maybe, Reiner, you could provide good reasons for US centered think tanks in Europe?
In my opinion, it is interesting to have an European branch of the Breakthrough Institute blog. The subtleties of the American discussion are sometimes too foreign or outlandish for a European reader, while the general ideas of Nordhaus / Schellenberger are always interesting. From early on, they represent a rupture with green or environmentalist thinking (just google "Death of environmentalism", their early influential manifesto). They offer an alternative to alarmist thinking, based on the tradition of pragmatism. They argue beyond the narrow confines of the alarmist versus skeptic discussion; many of their suggestions are acceptable for skeptics, too, I guess.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to confess that I am also not familiar with the "think-tank" concept. Just like the Heartland Institute on the other side of the discussion. I guess as Germans we are indeed not familiar (yet) with this kind of institution. But good ideas are good ideas, wherever they come from.