After 2 weeks of climate change negotiations, we end with a deal where our leaders will look at doing something at some point in the future. What a crock.
Blame, as usual, has to be apportioned and as the USA is the second highest polluter, it is that particular country that is having fists waved at it in anger. The cult of Obama has suffered another blow.
I feel that the blame should be sprinkled liberally around because everyone seemed more concerned with looking after their own vested interests than actually achieving anything for the benefit of everyone but i point the finger primarily at China.
It is the number one polluter in the world and yet it wants to be treated as a 'developing' country and even demands the right to not have its promises monitored by an independent party.
All the major players at the conference waited nervously for each other to budge but when nobody did they were able to come away, shrug and say they tried and give the nod to their countrymen to carry on churning out the Carbon Dioxide and making some lovely money.
Regrettably, these guys will be safely in their graves when the results of their actions begin to hurt their children, and then devastate their grandchildren.
Now i guess it will be down to Mother Nature to take care of herself over the next few decades and that isn't going to be pretty and a lot more uglier if you are a resident in one of the many places on the globe prone to flooding or drought.
5 comments:
The outcome was a disaster for the world, Lucy, and a big win for greedy capitalists, manufacturers, wealthy tycoons, miners, petroleum companies, politicians, Wall Street lowlife, etc.
The way Obomber flew in on the last day and left before the Conference was finished (like he was some sort of God)and the way he treated 187 countries with complete disdain, was deeply nauseating.
Now many smaller nations join those who already hate the rich Western countries led as they are by the U.S.
The world is controlled by mindless, greed-crazed vested interests.
They need to be deposed and their wealth redistributed. Then a new, fairer World Order must be put in place.
lucy,
in retrospect the "many smaller nations" accurately noted by david appeared to attend hoping to extort money from the developed nations - under the guise of caring about the climate.
i thought the usa was the world leader in pollution! i must not be doing my part! well, i'll just have to stoke up the ol fireplace while I run the air conditioner, drive my 8 cylinder truck over to my hunting lease and burn that big pile of brush that's been stacking up for a few years... burn those old tires too...
i admit that i'm shocked when i hear the per capita consumption numbers for the usa. all i can say is that my family is far below the per capita average in the usa but then:
- we have a small home by american standards
- we eat out of our garden and buy much food from the local farmers market
- i commute to and from work in a mini-van with 5 other people
- our town is 4 square miles so you don't have to drive much (in fact we walk to the library, grocery store, and cafe's on a regular basis)
just for the record:
- the biggest american impact is probably transportation. the typical american family doesn't have access to mass transit (only in very large, old cities: chicago, nyc, boston, philly have mass trans). remember that texas alone is the size of france. the uk is the size of a county in texas.
- most grocery store items come in "plastic" but i don't know that glass and metal are better when you consider the energy needed to produce, recycle, and bulk transport these materials
- the usa has two climate extremes: the winters are cold enough to require heating in the winter (even as far south as san antonio and houston we have regular freezes) and the summers are hot (the heat can be smothering in nyc, philly, d.c.)
my first major point
the three biggest factors are:
1. the big homes are already built
2. americans must travel to get to work and to get commodities
3. most americans had financial problems before the “great recession”
thus the change you advocate requires:
1. huge change in american infrastructure (20+ years)
2. HUGE change in american lifestyle – impossible unless the people believe the threat - they don't
3. overcoming economic adversity - the "average" american has big problems and they don't have money to spare to refit america much less finance "many smaller nations" that jealously glare at the usa
my second major point
1. usa has 310 million people
2. china has 1,100 million people
3. india has 1,100 million people
if the usa cuts its resource usage in half (how?) and either china or india increase theirs by just 10% the american sacrifices are undone...
if humans are a major factor in global warming (a big if) the threat is not the usa...
the threats are china and india... the usa is a minor player in this game...
q
I do suffer from over optimism with most things. I was always hopeful that sense would prevail and an agreement reached.
I agree with you David in that i expect most of the 'developed' nations did not want to reach an agreement. China seemed to go out of its way to obstruct it. America and India only seemed concerned that it would cost them votes as they faced the prospect of explaining to the voters that they had to change their lifestyles.
I also agree with you q that the smaller nations did seem to smell it as an opportunity to financially take the rich countries for as much as they could. It was a failure all around and blame goes to everyone involved.
What disappoints me most is that while they were all willing to accept that there is a major problem, nobody was keen to see it fixed and mumbled about keeping it to a 2C increase which will still see many catastrophes around the world.
Making money and not losing votes it seems are more important than the lives of millions. It really does sadden me.
'the threats are china and india... the usa is a minor player in this game...' says q!
That the U.S. is the second biggest polluter in the world seems to make no impression on q. Texas also generates more pollution than many nations in the world!
'2. HUGE change in american lifestyle – impossible unless the people believe the threat - they don't,' says q!
There are many Americans who do believe the threat, q. But the majority just believe whatever they are told by their politicians, by their clerics, by their MSM, by their corporations, by Obomber, etc!
Most Americans are divorced from reality!
david,
i understand your points.
q
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