sierra, sorry but you appear to still mixing environmental...

sierra, sorry but you appear to still mixing environmental issues with the global warming catastrophe issue. The two are separate issues and the solutions are too. The so called "consensus" a the moment is to reduce CO2 emissions to avert a hypothetical global warming catastrophe and massive rises in sea levels. This typically translates to closing down our coal fire powered stations and replacing them with renewable forms of power generations and/or nuclear power stations. Other forms of fossil fuel uses should also be curtailed (eg, petrol driven cars). The issue of polluting the environment is different. It requires a drastic change in the way some countries process raw materials and manufacture essential products for the sustenance of the society and economy. The solutions here have nothing to do with power generation. They requires massive alterations to the manufacturing and processing plants. China is a good example of how bad it is.

As far as I see it the governments of the world are focusing on the first issue, namely trying to avert a global warming catastrophe.