world distracted: U.S. Trips Up Climate Agreement

[G_j]

"Thanks to George Bush, we were not able to move forward."
Jennifer Morgan
WWF

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0708-01.htm

Published on Friday, July 8, 2005 by Inter Press Service

G-8 Summit: U.S. Trips Up Climate Agreement

by Sanjay Suri

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - The G8 countries remained divided over how to tackle global climate change at the end of their three-day summit here.

Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol welcome its entry into force and will work to make it a success,” the Group of Eight leaders said in their communiqué Friday. There were no marks for guessing that the United States was the odd one out.

But the agreement among the rest was also uncertain beyond the end of the first implementation period of the Kyoto Protocol 2008-2012. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has backed U.S. President George Bush on the need to look beyond Kyoto post-2012.

That can mean that at least the major developing countries could be required to make mandatory emissions cuts of the kind that the Kyoto Protocol requires of the industrialized countries that have ratified the agreement. By 2012 they are to curb climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels.

The communiqué -- much discussed and debated in the weeks and even final days leading up to the July 6-8 summit of the leaders of the eight most powerful industrialized nations (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and host Britain) -- was strong on agreements on principles, but fell far short of specific commitments.

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[seemslikeadream]

1. Welcome to my spaceship

http://images.apple.com.nyud.net:8090/itunesaffiliates/FC031505/man_AP_thieveryCorporation.jpg

The Heart’s Lonley Hunter

The Truth is unspoken, a promise is broken
I’m under surveillance, they know what my name is
I need some protection, some love and affection
There’s 1000 reasons, but one is the number

Welcome to my spaceship
It’s beautiful forever
She’s right here where you left her
And the heart’s lonely hunter

Save bottles of water and flour and sugar
Turn off the AC and hang up the bed sheets
Cover up windows, careful where the light goes
Yank out the cable and blow out the candle

Welcome to my spaceship
You’re beautiful forever
She’s right here where you left her
And the heart’s lonely hunter

Perfectly molded almost unfolded
Under the counter well, that is your nature
Drip grind or roasted, buttered or toasted
The greater the db’s the higher the AC

Psycho acoustics
Down in the black seats
Stereo nation
Amplification
The brave and the righteous
They’re safe in their houses
Now one is just a number
The heart’s a lonely hunter
One is the number
Heart is a hunter
One is a number
Heart is a hunter

Welcome to my spaceship
You’re beautiful forever
She’s right here where you left her
And the heart’s lonely hunter

Welcome to my spaceship
You’re beautiful forever
She’s right here where you left her
And the heart’s lonely hunter


:hi:

[G_j]

2. sabotaging the ship

Climategate:

New Leaked Memos as US Moves to Spoil Climate Accord

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061905X.shtml

New US Move to Spoil Climate Accord

By Mark Townsend
The Observer UK

Sunday 19 June 2005

Extraordinary efforts by the White House to scupper Britain's attempts to tackle global warming have been revealed in leaked US government documents obtained by The Observer.

These papers - part of the Bush administration's submission to the G8 action plan for Gleneagles next month - show how the United States, over the past two months, has been secretly undermining Tony Blair's proposals to tackle climate change.

The documents obtained by The Observer represent an attempt by the Bush administration to undermine completely the science of climate change and show that the US position has hardened during the G8 negotiations. They also reveal that the White House has withdrawn from a crucial United Nations commitment to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions.

The documents show that Washington officials:

-Removed all reference to the fact that climate change is a 'serious threat to human health and to ecosystems';
-Deleted any suggestion that global warming has already started;
-Expunged any suggestion that human activity was to blame for climate change.

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[G_j]

7. Climategate: what I have discovered

very few people on DU register any sort of concern that the Bush admin. lies and presents fraudulent reports on climate change.

:shrug:

[maxsolomon]

10. categorically untrue

point out 10 climate change deniers on DU.

there MIGHT be 2.

the fact that it is not issue one around here is because this is a political forum foremost.

even Gore in the White House would'nt stop climate change. its already here.

[WEagle]

3. reality check, in a few years

everyone will be talking about "climate change" but it will be way too late.


back to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz now
:boring:

[Karenina]

5. They're seeing it's effects

on the Gulf Coast TODAY...

[G_j]

4. A 30 percent drop in the number of polar bears is expected

A 30 percent drop in the number of polar bears is expected as diminishing ice packs affect the bears' ability to find food and to reproduce

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/070805EC.shtml

Experts Predict Polar Bear Decline

By Blaine Harden
The Washington Post

Thursday 07 July 2005

Global warming is melting their ice pack habitat.

Seattle - As the pack ice that is the bedrock of their existence melts because of global warming, polar bears are facing unprecedented environmental stress that will cause their numbers to plummet, according to a report by a panel of the world's leading experts on the species.

In a closed meeting here late last month, 40 members of the polar bear specialist group of the World Conservation Union concluded that the imposing white carnivores - the world's largest bear - should now be classified as a "vulnerable" species based on a likely 30 percent decline in their worldwide population over the next 35 to 50 years. There are now 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears across the Arctic.

"The principal cause of this decline is climatic warming and its consequent negative affects on the sea ice habitat of polar bears," according to a statement released after the meeting. Scientists from five countries, including the United States, attended the meeting.

"All of the evidence is heading in the same direction, and the trend is dramatic," said Scott Schliebe, who led the Seattle meeting and is polar bear project leader in Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "In a shrinking ice environment, the ability of the bears to find food, to reproduce and to survive will all be reduced."

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[G_j]

6. More talk but no action

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22649-1687226,00.html

More talk but no action yet on climate change
From Giles Whittell in Gleneagles


THE G8 agreed to disagree on enough of the climate change agenda to produce a deal that Tony Blair could hail as the start of a new US-backed drive to tackle the build-up of greenhouse gases.
Every clause in the communiqué had been fought over for months, but the result was clear on three key points. It acknowledged climate change as a “serious long-term challenge”, held humans largely to blame and agreed on the need for urgent remedial action.

Will it make any difference to the temperature of the Earth’s surface? Experts thronging Gleneagles doubted it. But a clear shift in emphasis by President Bush, and a promise from Mr Blair to keep the issue high on the G8 agenda, makes progress more likely than three days ago. The deal makes no commitment to new action on carbon emissions limits for any of the G8 countries when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. But outside the environmental movement it will be counted a success simply because the US signed up.

The nightmare scenario on climate change at this summit was American isolation. That was avoided by inserting caveats on the science of global warming, and committing the G8 to action towards “multiple objectives” rather than specifically cutting carbon emissions.

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talk, talk, talk :argh:

[G_j]

8. earliest hurricane season, US undermines global warming efforts

who cares??????

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-warming09.html

U.S. gets its way on global warming

July 10, 2005

BY THOMAS WAGNER

GLENEAGLES, Scotland -- The Group of Eight summit bowed to U.S. pressure Friday by approving a declaration on climate change that avoided taking any concrete steps to fight global warming, such as setting targets or timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The summit declined to embrace Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for promises of sharp reductions of pollutants that scientists say cause global warming.

It also failed to resolve a long-standing impasse over the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which the Bush administration has rejected but which the other G-8 members have ratified, binding them to reduction targets now in effect.

President Bush has questioned the existence of global warming and said the protocol would have "wrecked" the U.S. economy. He objects to the fact that large developing nations such as China and India are exempt from it.

Environmental groups angry

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[G_j]

9. ..yawn.... Bush Fiddles While The World Warms

Bush Fiddles While The World Warms

by Heather Hamilton and Sam Stein, TomPaine.com

Last week at the G8 Summit, President Bush once again used terrorism to change the subject.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050711/bush_fiddles_while_the_world_warms.php