In the main UBC Worlds final the motion was something along the lines of "This house believes that economic growth is the solution to environmental problems". This is an absolutely brilliant motion inviting a bold first prop willing to make the Lawson case against curbs on climate change.
Unfortunately the actual first prop didn't quite get the point of the motion and ran creating a carbon trading scheme. In response the opposition proposed a flat rate emissions tax. As these two responses to climate change are too similar to really have a debate over their differences it degenerated into an utter mess.
What a shame. Hopefully people won't worry too much about this motion having been set at Worlds and will use it again as it is an interesting and important topic for debate.
Kudos to whichever member of the adjudication panel thought up the motion as it is an excellent one. Congratulations to the winners and all the finalists but it is such a shame we couldn't end the tournament on a high note in terms of debating quality.
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4 comments:
Matt - what is the Lawson case on climate change?
I agree its a graet motion - but one that is likely (as it appears the case) to be done incorrectly.
Lawson's speech can be found here.
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/frontpage/files/the_economics_and_politics_of_climate_change.pdf
I've written about it numerous times so if you search for "Lawson" on this blog you should get a few rebuttals of his detractors and other items.
Anonymous - I'm not so sure. Plenty of people I spoke to after the debate were similarly dissapointed we didn't get to see a growth vs. emissions curbs debate.
Sounds like you have had a great time Matt. Well done on what sounds like a good showing.
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