US and China want the Earth to get hotter
The US and China are doing all within their power to block any action to combat climate change, having come to a reasoned position that it’s better for our planet to be hotter, and with a significantly higher sea level. Once we reach that condition, we won’t be leaving it for thousands of years, so I certainly hope they’ve done their homework.
Who am I kidding? It’s a pack of ignorant, power-hungry fools who cater only to the wishes of big businesses, which believe that having lots of money makes everything okay, regardless of what happens to the world in which we live. They know that they will not be around for the suffering of later generations, so they simply don’t care: they have to power to stop effective action, and they get money from companies to do that, so that’s the way we’re going, regardless.
It’s hopeless, people. We’ve missed the windows. Our grandchildren will suffer, as will the generations to come.
We are a stupid species. I certainly understand that Old-Testament God.
Pat Reber reports in McClatchy:
Tempers flared Wednesday over the glacial pace of progress in climate talks taking place in Durban, with the European Union berating the United States and China for blocking the way forward.
“What is really frustrating is to see for the third time … that this U.N. conference is hijacked by the pingpong game between the U.S. and China,” said Jo Leinen, a leading environmental expert in the European Parliament.
Neither China nor the U.S. has agreed to start a new round of talks that would lead to a new, broader and legally binding treaty to reduce carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
But the EU will not commit to a second Kyoto Protocol after the first one expires in December 2012 unless the world’s two largest emitters get on board. The U.S. never ratified the first Kyoto agreement, and China was exempted as an emerging economy.
The EU commissioner on climate action, Connie Hedegaard, has insisted that not only the U.S. but also China, which produces 23 percent of carbon pollution, must legally pledge to reduce their emissions.
“The EU has put forth a significant offer,” Hedegaard said Wednesday. “Even if other countries are not ready to commit to a second period of Kyoto, we must be reassured that others will join us in a legally binding framework.”
The U.S. insists that a new agreement is already in place in the form of voluntary reduction pledges made in Cancun in 2010 by Washington, Beijing and many emerging economies now exempted under Kyoto. Those pledges run out in 2020, when the U.S. says it would be time to consider a new agreement.
The U.S., which accounts for about 17 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, was also lambasted by environmental groups on a separate issue, the Green Climate Fund, which is seen as the absolute minimum achievement for the South African talks.
“The U.S. actions to throw obstacles in the way of any discussion on sources of finance for the Green Climate Fund risks condemning the fund to kick off as an empty shell,” said David Waskow, policy adviser for Oxfam. . .
