Russia has indicated it opposes further international efforts to negotiate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions [ark]. It joins the United States, China, and India as the top polluting nations [search] obstructing international cooperative measures necessary to address climate change. What is it about these filthy, addicted to economic growth and rapidly over-developing countries that make them unable to act to avert a very serious crisis of their own making?

In the face of unprecedented global ecological crises, the nation state system of government setup under the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 has proven unwieldy and ineffective. It may well be that the necessary social change to protect against global heating, water shortages, ecosystem loss and related crises of militarism and hunger cannot be addressed under the current system. Given leading nations’ failure to lead when it is needed most, saving ourselves and the Earth may require changing both our lifestyles and our governments.