Palm Carbon Up, Cap & Trade Down
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 05.19.07
Since Tony Blair's visit to Washington DC this week, reports have been trickling out of the meeting in Germany, at which planning the major components for an updating of the Kyoto Convention were to have been considered by the largest developed nations. The two big items, of course, were: #1) begin to figure out how to get China and India actively involved in a revised Kyoto; and, #2) figure out some means to immediately mitigate against the wide scale torching of rain forests that is being done to feed to the booming palm oil fuel market (mostly a European market matter at this time). The bottom line: the US is actively opposing any type of "command and control" system, and does not want to plan for a revised Kyoto. ""We don't believe targets and timetables are important, or a global cap and trade system," [a US delegation representative] said. "It's important not to jeopardize economic growth."...Speaking on condition of anonymity a senior climate negotiator, party to the talks, said that the US was even stalling progress on negotiations on a successor to Kyoto which had been due to get under way at a summit in Bali later this year. "We were not expecting a big change of stance but we need them to stop obstructing all progress across the board," said the source." Over the last year, the public debate has largely shifted from scientific certainty, to financial and economic impacts. Diplomatic discussions about treaty planning, however, are and will remain inaccessible. Everything is off the record and will remain that way unless government reps become frustrated and speak up "privately". Reporters and bloggers alike will be left to speculate about what was really said and done, without corroboration. In such an environment, conspiracy theories abound. Better to keep our eyes on what constructive actions businesses and state and local governments are up to. Via:: The Independent Image credit: Harlan Watson, US Chief Negotiator, via Energy Audit '06
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What a joke, the US is once again holding back the development of new strategies and ideals for reducing our ecological impact. I'm really tiring of hearing how we shouldn't stifle economic growth and development. I think its time for stock markets and industrial economies to feel the some of the strain that is being placed on the more needful areas of the world. I have trouble comprehending how they can't see that their economic development means millions of tons more of carbon and other greenhouse gases, a continuation of slash and burn agriculture and exploitation of indigenous plants and animals. I think developed nation is a P.C. way of saying "our altruistic intentions are tempered by the fact that we still need to make that cash." I apologize for rambling but waking up to read that my home country is the leader in mucking things up, for the umpteenth time, is a tough load to bear
Anyone who thinks destroying large pristine ecosystems is "growth" needs to go back to junior high school. Ecosystem diiversity is essential for all life on earth, including humans. If we trade our last wild places for monoculture, in the long run the environment will bite back. The big mathematical brains studying complexity and adaptive systems make diversity one of the founding principles of complex systems of all kinds.
If we get short-term cash boosts from large monocultures of palm oil, the environment will create orgainisms which will over the long run diminish the economic productivity boost that was first created by that innovation. We keep trying to short-circuit evolution, but we can only temporarily forestall it, and it always presents us a bill, with interest.