Indeed: if a few hundred million westerners made a real effort to curtail frivolous footprint then that 10b may happen with a lower-than-current total footprint.

Convincing a few hundred million to act in a certain way without force won't happen before we got 10b. I don't think that's an outlandish prediction to make...

<rant>Yes, but I get annoyed at some fat white western guy claiming that all those poor brown people a long way away are the problem. We (my family in the UK) managed to cut tonnes per year off our footprint while raising two kids in the UK; not that hard. Some would much rather blame others rather than even make any effort.</rant>

And I agree with you to a great degree (South African here...)

The problem is still, it's unlikely to be the solution. If we want the west to change there are two ways to go.

1. Legislation - This is the force option, i.e. if you break the law you go to jail and we'll come and take your property by force.

2. Market - Make technology that makes alternatives easier/more efficient/sexier etc.

2 is hard especially if alternatives are more expensive or about the same. Cost of panel can't really go much lower so we're stuck. Many people on the eco side don't like Nuclear (they're crazy).

Technology is getting better and I think small steps in regulation (i.e. taxing emissions slightly) may work. That's the direction that we're heading in so I'm pretty hopeful.

0. Howzit! I have family in Cape Town etc.

1. There has to be some of this: no market is totally free, and free-riders are always a problem to some degree.

2. Actually this is exactly the flavour of product/service that I am working on. Have the more efficient solution be better and easier, not a hair shirt. The area we are working on could knock 5% off Europe's entire carbon footprint and save most families hundreds of USD per year also.