We're staying at the youth hostel in downtown Cancún, away from the strip of beach hotels that draw $3 billion in tourist trade each year. But I went down there this morning for a meeting, and found myself in a little outpost of the United States: Starbucks, KFC. Chili's (Are you kidding me? Chili's in Mexico?)
And here's the thing -- as usual, the conference center is an outpost of the U.S. too. From the very beginning of this process, 16 long "Conferences of the Parties" ago, it's U.S. politics that have set the tone and pace. And every time with the same message: be less ambitious, so Congress won't nix the deal. That's why we ended up with a Kyoto pact that was a babystep at best. That's why the treaty that was supposed to result from Copenhagen ended up an empty Obama-written "pledge". We're very, very mindful of the importance of our domestic legislation," his chief negotiator Todd Stern said at the time. "That's a core principle for me and everyone else working on this. You can't jeopardize that."
But here's the thing -- the U.S. flirts, it shows some leg, but it never ends up in your arms. The Senate never comes through -- it didn't ratify Kyoto, and it didn't pass the climate legislation last summer. All the watering down was for nought -- you might as well have done the right thing.
Now we're seeing Climate Tease Part III. This time the U.S. is demanding that the poor countries of the world stop thinking of themselves as poor. Before there can be any agreement on stopping deforestation, or on aid to help poor countries cope with climate change, Mr. Stern said last week, those nations have to agree to start cutting carbon more or less as if they were the U.S. This isn't fair -- it's the U.S. that caused the problem, and got rich doing it. But since chemistry doesn't care about fair, you could argue that the U.S. position makes sense: if the developing world's emissions keep skyrocketing we don't have much chance of slowing down climate change. It makes sense to reach a deal where we send them the aid that lets them move past coal.
But since we've seen this movie twice already, we know how it ends. The rest of the world gives in, and then the Senate doesn't come through with the money -- indeed, just yesterday four GOP solons offered a preview of coming attractions. They sent a letter to Secretary of State Clinton demanding that she freeze the relatively small sum of climate aid we'd already pledged -- less than $2 billion next year. They were, they said, opposed to the deal Obama struck last year which would "transfer billions of US taxpayer dollars to developing nations in the name of climate change." In other words, even the small sums we've promised are unlikely to be forthcoming.
All of this was given a special edge on Saturday, when WikiLeaks documents emerged showing the U.S. climate negotiator essentially buying votes for the American do-little position by promising to dole out assistance money -- or to withhold it if countries stuck to their guns. The foreign minister of one island nation that will soon be underwater was recorded asking for 50 million dollars, and promising that the aid would show other nations "the advantages to be gained by compliance."
The bottom line: any one who thinks they're cutting a deal with the U.S. better get cash in advance. Because after fifteen years of empty promises, it's pretty clear that Washington is playing the world for suckers.
And the deeper bottom line: if we actually want to stop global warming, then we have to build a movement big enough to force change. Otherwise we're suckers too.
Follow Bill McKibben on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmckibben
My question is: when will green progressives abandon the democrats for the Greens? If we start now, we will be able to elect people to congress in 2012.
An 11 year sunspot cycle has begun. NASA estimates that any one of four anticipated “extreme” solar storms could cause New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle and most of the Eastern U.S., as well as many other metropolitan areas to lose grid electricity, possibly for weeks.
On-site renewable energy has become a wise insurance policy - as well as a practical way for disruptive technologies to start to replace fossil fuel!
See: www.aesopinstitute.org for an overview - and an outline of possible actions.
Three huge Coronal Mass ejections (CME) have been born so far this year. One came very close last month. Should a strong CME strike Earth's geomagnetic field, NASA estimates wide areas might suffer lengthy collapse of the power grid.
Imagine massive blackouts all across the globe lasting for days or weeks.
More than 500 sunspots that could produce a CME are anticipated. NOAA estimates four such “extreme” events are likely during the current 11 year cycle.
In the U.S., NASA estimates a strong geomagnetic storm could cause 130 million people to suffer a long-term shortage of electricity. The cost is estimated to be $1-2 trillion the first year. Roughly the combined price tag, to date, of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan!
Since this threatens catastrophe all across the planet, acceleration of decentralized energy and especially less expensive green energy is now urgent. Use it as a lever!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1335798/Global-warming-halted-Thats-happened-warmest-year-record.html
The theory that increased percentages of energy trapping gas cause temperatures to rise dates from the 19th century and was confirmed (in the lab) during the 1950's, while an overwhelming amount of interdisciplinary data confirming a global rise in temperatures in the field has been collected over the past 3 decades. There is a full agreement in the relevant fields of study of the positive relationship between temperature and greenhouse gases, as well as the acidification of our oceans. Questions remain about other potential influences and about the potential accelerating/decelerating effects of different kinds feedback loops. But ceteris paribus, all other factors remaining the same, if our species or other factors continues to emit energy trapping gases the temperature on our planet's surface will rise and continue rising for decades to come in what will be a very destructive fashion.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1334073/Kendra-Wilkinson-slips-tiny-bikini-declaring-My-body-back.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1333870/Jennifer-Aniston-shows-figure-black-bikini.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1334039/Brooke-Hogan-paw-ses-pose-beach-tiger-print-bikini.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1333801/Lembit-Opik-hits-beach-21-year-old-girlfriend-Merily-McGivern.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1333875/Im-A-Celebrity-2010-Kayla-Collins-strips-bikini-slap-tickle-pool-Aggro-Santos.html
"Tory deputy leader Murdo Fraser said: “There is a rich irony in ministers jetting off around the world and leaving a huge carbon footprint on the pretext of saving the planet.”
And Emma Boon, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance added: “It is ludicrous hypocrisy for the minister to spend time and taxpayers’ money flying out to Cancun to talk about climate change.”
Labour’s David Whitton pointed out that a meeting of Holyrood’s finance committee in Carnoustie, Angus, had to be cancelled due to the bad weather.
He said: “It is ironic that Jim Mather is able to get to Mexico but we can’t even get to Carnoustie.”
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/215750/Minister-quits-winter-ice-for-climate-junket/Minister-quits-winter-ice-for-climate-junket#ixzz17ITrMTnZ
Participants in the Cancun conference shouldn't expect a hero's welcome when they return to their homelands in Northern Europe.
Gotta love the tabloid / science denier echo chamber. Or not.
You are one of th every few people who have brought up the issue of the US role in Copenhagen.
Congratulation.
see text and link to story below.
Damian Carrington, The Guardian, Friday 3 December 2010 21.30 GMT
WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord
Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen accord
Friday 3 December 2010 21.30 GMT
Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyberwarfare are used to seek out leverage.
The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord
The other thing the world needs is a different kind of monetary standard, who's value is not just based off of the value in that country or in the world but is tied as well to how much pollution and such that country inflicts upon the world/their own nation. Preferably something that is not tied to a specific country.
The only hope is to provide massive amounts of near-zero carbon emission electrical generating capacity at a price that is cheaper than coal. If people have access to plenty of power, and companies can still make plenty of money, then we have a viable path to 350 ppm CO2 by 2050. The answer? Nuclear power. See Dr. Barry Brook's just published internationally peer-reviewed article in the journal Energy at www.bravenewclimate.com . The paper is a meta-review of 10 years of the authoritative studies on market needs, life-cycle emissions, technology performance and electricity costs. Nuclear power is far and away the stand-out winner. Nothing else can get us to the finish line---a livable world and 350 ppm CO2 by 2050. Let's get over our misconceptions and our baseless fears, and make this happen. Nuclear power---Yes, please!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord
Peace be with you all...
SMB
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=europe+and+freeze+and+deaths&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=4824b41ba0d4cfd8
Read it all again.