The "metric" tragedy

As the U.S. belatedly joins the rest of the leading countries in trying to do something about the global climate change, India and China are pushing back fiercely- sometimes without logic. According to a NYT article, "...In a meeting with Mrs. Clinton, India’s environment and forests minister, Jairam Ramesh, said there was “no case” for the West to push India to reduce carbon dioxide emissions when it already had among the lowest levels of emissions on a per-capita basis. “If this pressure is not enough,” he said, “we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”..."

India may indeed have a lower per-capita level but India has nearly 1.2 Billion people- the per capital level is meaningless when the sheer size can contribute huge quantities of emissions. It is clear that in the interest of the world, countries should share technology and processes that save energy and generate new more carbon-efficient energy at cost or at subsidized rates, so that all countries can adopt these practices. But arguing that India can dump more pollutants reveals a very tragic and ignorant line of analysis.