In a move that should surprise no one, the EU is pressing the U.S. to do more on climate change. This was called for earlier this week by the UN and is warranted with everything going on around climate change.

Here are a few points to consider:

1.    The U.S. is the #2 emitter of carbon emissions in the world, only recently falling from #1.
2.    The U.S. has around 300 million people out of the world’s 6.6 billion or more. Do the division: We are 1/22 of the world’s population and the second largest contributor to the problem.
3.    The U.S. refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
4.    The U.S. is ignoring the Copenhagen climate summit as a deadline for passing meaningful climate change legislation.

All together now: The U.S., a disproportionately egomaniacal and problematic nation, is refusing to be proactive or even participate in dealing with an issue that touches the entire Earth and that we are a major primary and secondary contributor to.

I am proud to be an American. I don’t hate my country and I don’t think we are evil. But I do think that we are severely missing the boat on this one. Taking no responsibility is an even bigger problem than causing a problem. The fact that we don’t even meaningfully show up to the table is ridiculous. Why can’t the senate get it together?

In any other context the U.S. would be pulled aside and spoken to by the leader, teacher, or other person in charge. If the world were a school, the U.S. would be the popular bully kid who nobody messes with but the teacher always has his/her eye on. We don’t play fair. That’s why we are the most powerful country in the world, and also why it is coming to roost that we have been screwing over everybody else for decades. Yes, we figured out something things years before other countries. We nailed down technologies that got us out front on economic issues. It made us a mess of money, got other people to listen to us and swelled the hell out of our heads into thinking that we were/ are better than other countries, that our ideas are the best. A certain level of this may be healthy for patriotism and a strong country- there’s nothing wrong with having a strong self-image, right? But there is something very wrong with denying that you are responsible for what you do, or that you need to be part of the solution when what you do causes a problem.

It’s good that the EU is pressing the U.S. to do more, but it won’t work. Why should the U.S. listen to the EU? They are a fellow classmate, not the teacher. The only pressure that may have a chance is the UN, the World Bank or the IMF- all of those are outside the group of nations and look at the big picture. The problem is, of course, that the U.S. has such strong interests in those organizations that there is no way they would come down hard on us. But they should.