Logout
Click here for Pulp & Paper Radio International
The Paperitalo Library
Free Downloads
Search
My Profile
Login
Power & Energy
Comment Print
This is power and energy month at Paperitalo Publications. We did not plan it this way, but it is fitting that this month starts with the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, France. Many world leaders have their reputations on the line at this conference. The outcomes will affect us all for generations to come, no matter what they are.

Politicians, pundits and even the Pope have weighed in on what the outcome should be by their estimation. I have read so much on this subject over the years, that I am not sure what the right answer is, or even if anyone knows enough to know what the right answer should be. I have long suspected that certain camps want certain answers for political control reasons back in their home countries. I have long suspected other groups want the problem(s), if any, to never be solved, for then they are out of work.

I would like to see somehow, somewhere, an independent body established to openly and publicly vet all the scientific concepts, measurements and findings and give us an unbiased report on the whole matter. At the same time as I say this, I know that such a body and such a set of findings are impossible to achieve.

I said in the Thompson Private Letter, just out this morning, that regardless of where the solid science lies, we are all affected by government policy, primarily through the tax codes in our respective countries and the behavior they enable. I admit to having succumbed to such economic logic myself--we have solar panels on top of our house and have had for about eighteen months. I now have an electric lawn mower with which I at least delude myself into thinking receives it energy "for free."

In the end, though, I can't help but at least casually compare the pilgrimage of our President to Paris to one made by another US President almost 97 years ago to the same City of Lights. That conference was supposed to bring peace to the world, and it did anything but that.

Let's hope, whatever the outcome in Paris is this time, that it at least has a less deleterious impact on the future of humankind than that of the conference of 1919. Personally, I am not so optimistic.

Jim Thompson is Executive Editor of Paperitalo Publications. He can be reached by email at jthompson@taii.com.
****
Advertisement--listen to Pulp and Paper Radio International
 


Powered by Bondware
News Publishing Software

The browser you are using is outdated!

You may not be getting all you can out of your browsing experience
and may be open to security risks!

Consider upgrading to the latest version of your browser or choose on below: