More carbon emissions or less

Let me put it to you like this: the lady or the tiger?

The tale is told of a kingdom where the condemned man must choose one of two doors. Behind one is the fairest of women and the man shall be freed and live happily ever after. Behind the other, the fiercest of tigers and he dies.

The tale, as written more than a hundred years ago, is more complicated than that. It involves a princess, daughter of the barbaric king who designed this system of justice. And this princess also happened to be the dearest lover of the condemned man and on the fateful day of the choice, the princess, knowing which door was which, with the slightest of motion of her hand must indicate to her lover - who will then go off to be with the other woman forever or die - which door he should choose.

The tale of climate change is more complicated in other ways than that but our choice, in some respects, is like that. Only in our case, roughly 97 out of 100 princesses, who are in a position to know, are pointing to the door of reduced carbon emissions. And while they can’t know just how fierce the tiger is, they and their children, will share our fate; that is, they don’t share the situation of the first princess in which we, upon heading their advice, would leave them and go off and live happily ever after with the other woman; nor are they are so likely to be so psychologically conflicted that they might knowingly point to our deaths.

Am I missing something important?

Oh that’s right. No barbaric king is forcing us to actually choose. We are not in truth being compelled to make a deliberate choice, although by default one door will begin to open and the tiger will trickle out if we haven’t already gone through the other door to happiness.

So wake up; use your own imagination: the lady or the tiger?

One other problem. A solid majority of all of us must make a decision, not merely murmur amongst ourselves irresolutely. And somehow almost all of us must open the door together, with voters and non-voters stepping through.

So which will it be: the lady or the tiger?

The complications in the climate change tale are endless, but strip them away – and many, many, many of them are largely beside the point and we are left with this: the lady or the tiger.

Rather, the lady or the tiger?

Tune in next century to see who lived and who died.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe there’s no hard choice facing us.

But if I were king, I’d start actually cutting carbon emissions tomorrow. And after that, one step at a time. There would be no happily ever after, with some of us unhappier than others, to be sure. But if we put our minds to it, we would find ways to do things better and, in the long run, we’d be better off than we would be by taking the consequences of that other door.

Time to line up. The lady or the tiger?

Or more likely: murmur amongst yourselves.

Maybe I should be putting it to those who have more at stake. But have you seen what those kids try to do with their skateboards – without a helmet?

We’re all going to die.

But more of us could have lived longer and better if we would only step up and make a real choice: the lady or the tiger.

I’d choose the lady. But I bet we get the tiger.

Nuts.