Paralleling Worlds

Marc Davidson wrote a paper in 2005 that compared arguments within the U.S. congress on the previous abolition of slavery and the more recent Kyoto Protocol.  He looked at similarities between the rationals that people have had for slavery and for the emission of greenhouse gases.

"In the case of both slavery and fossil fuel use, there is and was widespread resistance to social

change, unsurprisingly in the light of the cited vested interests at stake. It existed when slavery

was abolished – in the United States sufficient to start a civil war – and it exists today with

respect to cutting consumption of fossil fuels." 

~Marc Davidson, 2008 (pg 70)

Davidson MD. Parallels in reactionary argumentation in the US congressional debates on the abolition of slavery and the Kyoto Protocol. Climatic Change 2008, 86:6782. <http://www.peakoil.nl/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/climagechangeuva.pdf>.