( – promoted by buhdydharma )
Crossposted at Daily Kos
World leaders representing nearly two-thirds of world economic output massively watered-down their public commitment to lowering greenhouse gasses last night, in what may be a grim portent for next month’s climate change talks in Copenhagen.
Bold text added by the diarist
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this on should suffice in explaining the urgency of our species phlight to act NOW, not later, and not pragmatically.
It is both ironic and sad that as climate change reform is watered down, the sea levels will rise even more.
More sobering reality below the fold.
The leaders were later joined in Singapore by President Barack Obama, who flew in from Tokyo just hours after agreeing with the Japanese prime minister that the two countries would aim to reduce emissions by 80 percent by the middle of the century.
In an early draft of today’s official communiqué from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in Singapore, the 21-nation group said that “global emissions will need…to be reduced to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.”
But a subsequent, much weaker version of the communiqué was deliberately non-committal on the issue, stating only that “we believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be substantially reduced by 2050, recognising that the timeframe for peaking will be longer in developing economies”.
Bold text added by the diarist
In a move that stripped the numbers out of the reform, only leaving a generic, reformishy framework for change in place. Unsurprisingly, while major polluters that compromise a large part of global trade will be allowed to play by softer rules, smaller, less wealthy nations who create less pollution like South American countries will have to face stricter restrictions, but even those will be watered down to allow for “economic growth”.
So, in the name of continued “economic growth”, the growth of atmospheric CO2 and other man made pollutants will be allowed to continue. Meanwhile, the ice caps continue to melt, sea levels will continue to rise, and all in the name of global “economic growth”. How sad, that in order for economies to slowly grow, the planet must slowly die.
Just as health care reform in America has gone from a good idea based on real change to a watered down farce that will not change the problem as much as needed, so too has global climate change refrom fallen victim to the watering down of real change in exchange for a squishy, acceptable middle, one that doesn’t threaten economic growth no matter how much our planet or it’s people are threatened.
We hold the future in our hands, and this generation will be responsible for either saving the planet’s ecosystem or selling it down the river in the pursuit of “economic growth”.
How sad, that our planet and our species must suffer so that global trade may thrive. What will it take to change that? I only wish I knew.
Also crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
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the fact is, if it isn’t REAL change, it is NOT real reform.
And our planet or our species can no longer wait.
If “Health CARE Reform” is any indication of Change We Can Bank On at all… we will end up paying a special mandated “surcharge tax” TO the Greeders to fund their rape of our Mother.
disgusted.
At what point do we say: Enough!
THIS IS WAR.
It’s bigger and smarter than all the politicians and industrialists and capitalists combined, and it’s been around for billions of years and it knows how to heal itself. It’s done it before.
We probably won’t like the cure it uses, though…
will flood them out too.
Man, people need to get their heads out of their asses on this!
Minbar sized boxes which produce all the power needed for a typical suburban home which operate perpetually and consume no fuel at all.
Over 140 deep underground military bases built to ensure US continutity of the current evil government.
653 Amerian people living, working, researching the universe from the planet Mars.
The peasant picture from carbon exempt, EPA exempt China who sleeps in a chair to alleviate his chemical induced cancerous lesions.
And the ever increasing stories of Al Gore and his CO2 crap, bullshit, Bernie Madoff child molesting globalization of poverty population reduction for the sexual gratification of the very few 300 or so fuckwads occupying that billionaire status of fucking Davos asshole jet setting elite egocentric self centric minions of Satan by getting off sexually on the misery of billions for their own profit margins. Did I loose coherence in my fucking contempt for these fuckwad asshole carbon trading shithead asshole child fucking I want to stab your eyeballs out simply for uttering that fucking phrase “my carbon footprint”. Why not just hook up a tazer to the collective world attitude on the subject of carbon footprint and hit the full power button.
I trust one can not revive dead people using this method.
and this includes the Supreme Court. If you really stop to analyze the people whose utterances are regularly reported on in the news, the only word that I can think of is simpletons. Feeding pigs at the trough is their expertise.
Their world view extends as far as the chunks of gold artfully slipped into their pockets.