Game Over?

This week's Economist contains a troubling article on the growth of coal as a fuel source by India and especially China. By 2050 the Chinese alone could be burning 8 billion tonnes of coal a year, and the Indians maybe 2 billion tonnes. It makes us wonder why we are spending so much angst and political capital trying to slow and eventually reverse the effects of climate change, due mainly to CO2 emissions from coal and oil burning. We are beginning to think it would be better, like Voltaire, to quietly cultivate our garden, and devote ourselves mainly to the mitigation of the inevitable warming of the planet by 3-4 degrees C, accompanied as it will surely be by catastrophic coastal flooding and other unpleasantness.
Could it be that the great cosmic experiment with big brains will prove to be a disaster? We fear so, and the GOP presidential field only cements this hypothesis in our mind.