Next month, there will be a conference in Kyoto, Japan to try to hash out some agreement to cut carbon fuel emissions to forestall the scientifically questionable global warming or greenhouse effect. Of course, the Third World will be exempt.
Canny observers see the resulting carbon and fuel taxes as a plan to hobble Western economies.
In recent years, I've had the chance to spend time in both cities. Their combined populations are bigger than Canada's. You don't have to be a media-proclaimed environmental expert to detect the results. You just have to walk outside and breathe. In Calcutta, you might as well put your lips on the manifold of one of the hundreds of thousands of ancient cars, trucks, taxis and scooters that clog the streets and turn the air into a deadly carbon stew.