At the recent meeting at the United Nations, the individual nations made a pledge to cut their overall emissions with a monetary estimate as to what that cut would cost. Here the odd bit:
Botswana, which had a GNP of $15.81 billion in U.S. money last year, has pledged a 10% emission cut. This accounts for the equivalent of US$ 18.4 billion, or 120% of their GNP. In other words, they are pledging cuts that are greater than what they can generate via their entire economy.
Is this Common Core math? If the other nations have been similarly cursory in their "pledge", then this would suggest that the entire exercise is a chimera. Ordinarily, I wouldn't care, but I've received e-mails from ordained colleagues who are finding this a triumphant moment in human history. Honestly, the slavish devotion of mainstream Protestants towards the U.N. reveals more than anything the sclerotic thinking dominates our profession.
I may try to sell them a bridge in Brooklyn.