Check out the South Asian view as reported by Sify, “India’s pioneer & leader in Internet, Networking and e-Commerce services, and the first Indian Internet company to be listed on the Nasdaq National Market in the US.” In a story on their newswire Friday, Dec. 9, 2005, Sify said:

“Developing countries, gathered in a 132-nation group (at the UNFCCC climate change convention in Montreal), said responsibility for fixing global warming lay primarily with the rich countries that had caused it by their reckless burning of fossil fuels in the last century.

“’Our emissions of CO2 are but three per cent of the world’s total, while we have 17 per cent of the global population,’ Indian Environment Minister Thiru Raja said on Thursday.

“’Even with eight-per cent annual GDP growth, which we hope to attain in the near future, and which is absolutely essential to sustain if we are to succeed in eliminating mass poverty in our lifetime, it will be many decades before India’s GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions approach anything like the current world average.’”

(Even if you don’t check the Sify site for the climate update, it’s worth checking for the matrimonial advertising. If you have never travelled in India or read an Indian newspaper, it’s instructive to see that the search for a mate is – in advertising at least – apparently India’s number one preoccupation.)