Rifts mar Cancun climate conference (Mexico's president urges nations to consider all humanity)

[Turborama]

Source: Al Jazeera English

Mexico's president urges nations to look beyond their nations' border and consider all humanity at climate summit.

Last Modified: Nov 30 2010 01:31 GMT -

Frustrated at past failures, climate negotiators have begun a critical two-week conference with a call from Mexico's president to think beyond their nations' borders and consider all humanity as they bargain over an agreement to fight global warming.

"The atmosphere is indifferent to the sovereignty of states," Felipe Calderon, Mexico's president, said in the keynote speech opening the conference on Monday.

"It would be a tragedy if our inability to see beyond our personal interests, our group or national interests makes us fail," Calderon said in a speech to 15,000 delegates, business leaders, activists and journalists.

Three years of talks have been stymied by a sometimes acrimonious divide among industrial and developing countries about their responsibilities in fighting climate change and accepting legal limits on how much they can continue to pollute.

Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/11/2010113003439802834.html

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Nobel prize winner Molina said continued carbon emissions will bring drastic changes to the climate

[Turborama]

1. Do we have a global warming denier in the house?

If so speak up and explain why you unrec'd this OP, please.

[No Elephants]

2. If it makes you feel any better, I recc'd it to compensate for the unreccer.

Also, on the bright side, Skinner posted recently that the unrec feature is under consideration now because it has proven disruptive.

Seems odd a Dem would unrec a climate change thread (or a thread about the President o Mexico or one about thinking less selfishly). I wonder if lurkers can unrec?

[Turborama]

3. Thanks, I do appreciate it. It really bugs me though that unrecs like that are done anonomously

When I (rarely) call them out like that it's because I genuinely want to find out why they did it, otherwise it's just pointless drive-by negativity. If there are going to be unrecs they should at least come with a name attached, like on Daily Kos, so people can be accountable.

FWIW I actually like the idea of just having recs (like the old days) and like/unlike the same as they have on YouTube now. That way people can show their disapproval without reducing the chances of other people reading/watching it to make up their own minds about it.

Anyway, to the matter at hand, climate change/global warming is one problem that one would think the whole of DU could unite on.

[Downwinder]

4. Added a rec for you.

Skinner must be tabulating the results of the survey.

[pipoman]

9. I didn't rec or unrec

but maybe it has to do with the OP title, specifically: "Mexico's president urges nations to consider all humanity". I can't imagine a more disingenuous quote from a less credible source...especially if applied in general and not simply to climate change.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Recommended for the sake of reality

Everyone knows by now that LIES are a core Republicon Family Value, that's why you get unrecommends on a thread about the way things really are.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. "Global warming" is a bit of a misnomer.

"Climate change" is considerably more accurate, considering that the effects include more extremes of temperature on both ends of the scale--witness this past summer in the US with record-breaking heatwaves, and here in the UK we are presently experiencing the coldest November on record with temperatures as low as 0F in some places and between three inches and more than a foot of snow over much of the country. The effects of climate change are evident everywhere and affect rich countries just as much as poor ones (and will only get worse).

[a la izquierda]

7. K & R

As much as I can't stand Calderon, he's spot on here. Mexico, like many other nations, will face drastic climate problems because of our changing climate.

[Teaser]

8. we're fucked.

time to admit it and start building biodomes.

[CanonRay]

10. But there's no profit in considering humanity!

[hatrack]

11. " . . . IF our inability to see beyond our personal interests makes us fail."?

How about "as" our inability to see beyond our personal interests, Mr. President?

:eyes:

[AngryAmish]

12. It will never happen...and it is an enormous time sink to seek a global treaty along these lines

In essence this treaty means that the advanced countries will cut back on carbon emissions and pay the poor countries to forgo advancing into first world status. I think the number is rich countries pay about 100 billion dollars a year to poor ones. Of that 30 billion a year has to come from the US.

The Senate will NEVER agree to that. It is stupid to even try. But the people get a nice junket in Cancun.

The easiest way to reduce carbon is to tax it. ut that will never happen, either. Why? There are not powerful people who support a carbon tax. Oil companies hate it. Coal companies hate it. Nuke companies like it I guess. But who else? Cap and trade had some very powerful allies - good friends of the White House (Chicago Climate Exchange, for one, other trading houses on Wall Street) but a carbon tax is an orphan mostly.

So, to quote a wise poster above, we are fucked. Time to use our time figuring how to remediate this. There are some winners from climate change and we gotta figure out how to maximize the good and minimize the bad.