G8 Nations Hit Brick Wall On Climate
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 03.18.07
Via BBC:- "Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says the United States has blocked progress on two key issues to protect the global environment. He was speaking after a two-day meeting of environment ministers in the German city of Potsdam. The issues were carbon emissions trading and rewarding developing nations for protecting their natural assets, he said." Present were Ministers from United States, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia, Brazil, India, China Mexico and South Africa. The simple truth is that the US will resist strongly all international climate protection steps until at least three underlying conditions are satisfied. One is that US energy companies, which make extensive campaign donations to both political parties, must demand proactive change of the candidates they support. Two is that the US State Department, US Commerce Department, and Environmental Protection Agency must be encouraged to speak openly and act as change agents for climate protection. Three is that a majority of US voters must clearly express their support for a foreign policy leadership role, as espoused in a winning Presidential campaign platform. Obviously, these conditions can be met no sooner than 2009. Until then, global progress is blocked by the brick wall of reality. Inside the US, positive governmental leadership happens at the State and local levels. That leaves plenty of good things to work on.
With a site calling itself treehugger I should have expected what I read. Here are the bottom lines, until India and China are part of this 'carbon' scare it doesn't make any difference what the rest of the industrial world does or doesn't do. As long as India and China do what they are doing they will release more pollutants into the air and water within the next year than the rest of the industrial nations will do in the next five years. Add to that the fact that this warming/cooling cycle has been happening to this planet for millions of years before man showed up on this planet and it will continue for millions of years after we are no longer here. Your BEST actions will NOT affect the temperature of this earth by as much as one degree in the next 50 to 100 years.
I like to cut pollution too. We have, the stuff going into the air and water has been cut by over 80% compared to what we were polluting in the 50's and 60's. The US isn't the enemy, we aren't the bad guys. Start giving credit where credit is due. Look at the WHOLE picture and quit blaming the US for everything.
==== author's amazed response follows ===
Mike. Please read the post again. You'll notice that India and China were represented at the meeting and only the US was opposed. Risk is high, the game is afoot, and falling back on stereotypes is not pragmatic.
So, what concessions have been demanded of India and China -- the main culprits, as far as pollution worldwide? None whatsoever.
"the main culprits"
What??
@mike
i am from germany. germany also has reduced pollution a lot and even co2-emissions to a certain degree. and it has done this like the united states did. by exporting the most polluting industries to india, china and developing countries.
should i applaud for that? should i blame china for not stopping western companies polluting their countries?
we should blame those companies for their dirty business. we should blame them for their preference for cheap and dirty suppliers. we should blame them for lobbying for status quo. we should blame those corrupt politicians who are infact just part of the dirty business. and we should act and vote for change.
one degree less of global warming may sound little and is without any doubt not enough. but in all current climate models the difference of the consequences between a one or two degree rise of global temperature is enormous. for the global south it is the question of having 100.000.000 climate refugees more or not. and keep in mind: those people have never contributed to global warming. they will blame the west and they will be right.
"So, what concessions have been demanded of India and China -- the main culprits, as far as pollution worldwide? None whatsoever."
India and China are far from the worst culprits. They may be growing the most rapidly, but the US still FAR out produces them in terns of both gross and per capita tons of CO2.
See: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/env_co2_emi-environment-co2-emissions
(Data from World Resources Institute)
According to the US DOE by 2025 China's and Inda's SUMMED CO2 production will still only 90% of the US output:
http://www.net.org/warming/docs/technology_and_emissions.pdf
Anyway, it is pretty clear the the problem is US (pun intended). We need to get our act together before we can start bitching about China and India.
It's also pretty interesting to notice that the US and Europe have been polluting for over a hundred years, and now that there's a problem, they'd want developing countries to share the blame equally with them.
I think it's a lot easier for the US to have 1 car garages instead of 2 car garages than for China and India to go without food and electricity...
Oh so what should we do, blame China and India, and wait for the earth to scorch up into flames?
There is a reason that countries like China and India were not part of the Kyoto Protocol, because they are developing nations. Notice the world developing. China and India didn't blame the United States, Western Europe when they were busy developing by trading slaves and colonizing entire countries, including India and China.
Now that China is finally developing, and people are finding jobs, building their lives, building housing, all people can do is complain that China is polluting too much. Well DUH, lets not compare China's CO2 emissions with the US until we compare the population. China's CO2 emissions per person per year is about 3 tons while in the US, its 20 tons.
And about the earth....what should we do, just sit there? Oh its just part of the nature cycle. But have you noticed that the amount of hurricanes, tornados, floods, have gone way up while the amount of polar bears, ice caps, sea lions have gone way down.
No offense or anything, but I don't want to grow up and have my grandkids ask me "What were the polar bears?"
"Oh its just part of the nature cycle. But have you noticed that the amount of hurricanes, tornados, floods, have gone way up while the amount of polar bears, ice caps, sea lions have gone way down."
You're much too quick to attribute these phenomena to human activity. The reality is that we are currently in one of the coolest periods ever recorded in Earth history. In the Jurassic period, for example, global mean temperatures, carbon dioxide levels and sea levels were all higher than they are today, and if the giant sauropod dinosaurs are any indication, life didn't have any problems.
Personally, I believe that this whole global warming scare is nothing but a fear of change in the status quo. I'm not denying that humans are having a negative impact on the planet; smog and nuclear waste can certainly attest to that.
What I'm saying is that I firmly believe that global warming is NOT our fault, and we can't do anything to stop it.
What I'm saying is that I firmly believe that global warming is NOT our fault, and we can't do anything to stop it.
Good for you. Plenty of people believe in fairies and aliens, too.