I agree we tend to get fixated on western lifestyle as a large part of this issue, plastic bags, mass transit, lightbulbs, etc and we miss the real big picture issues. We also rush to act, and as a result we cause more damage than we stop.

A good example is the Pine Beetle that is devastating the forest of Western Canada. This beetle has been blamed on AGW, saying that cold winters would kill it off an since it is warmer they are not dying. Well new research shows the beetles can survive -40C winters no problem, so it is not the cold.

It is the forest fire fighting policy. You see the beetles kill the trees they consume before moving to the next one, they create dead patches. When lightining strikes start a fire in the dead patch it burns the healthy trees around it’s edges where the beetles are, killing them off. I was working in forestry in the late 1990’s and the beetles were in full swing, I proposed then along with others in the Industry that we burn the affected areas in controlled fashion like we do back-burns and create fire breaks to contain the damage.

Environmentalists had a fit and said that it would kill too many healthy tress, would hurt habitat, spotted tree whales live there or whatever, etc. Here we are now with hundreds of thousands of hectres of dead trees and destroyed natural habitat.

My father would say that type of thinking is “penny-wise and pound-foolish” or as a collegue/mentor used to say “that is like stepping over a dollar bill to pick up a dime”

You look at the mico issues and ignore the big picture at the peril of us all.