Re:Half of the Great Barrier Reef Is Dead
by icebraining on Thursday August 09, 2018 @06:24AM
(#17722968)
That's not cooperation, that's self-sacrifice. Cooperation would be the Saudis announcing they wouldn't pull more oil, and in exchange the other countries announcing they would compensate for part of those lost revenues.
Re:Half of the Great Barrier Reef Is Dead
by lotsofpulp on Thursday August 09, 2018 @07:03AM
(#17723112)
Any other country would be crazy to agree to that since it’s unquantifiable to compare the effects of oil from Saudi Arabia, versus trees in Brazil, versus factories in China, etc.
At the root of the issue is the fact that since humans aren’t able to measure the damage and see all the knock on effects of their actions, many large scale environmental and societal costs are externalized. And if you don’t take advantage of that, then someone else will and win in the market with lower prices.
People cooperate fantastically when there is economic gain to be had. We're fucking atrocious at cooperating if one (or both) sides are set to lose out (as is the case wrt reduced consumption).
Cooperating when all/most parties are better off isn't impressive.
Real cooperation would be something like the Saudis announcing over night that "you know what, climate change sucks so we're going to stop pulling oil out of the desert regardless of how much it hurts us".
How likely is that?