Global Warming Accelerating While the U.S. Backpedals: Obama's fraudulent environmentalism

[Karmadillo]

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22909

Two recent studies have shocked the world in regard to global warming. A phenomenon that was to happen "possibly in our lifetime" has evolved into a threat capable of transforming the world in ten years time.

A recent, extensive study of the northern polar ice caps released by climate expert Professor Peter Wadham, concluded that the Arctic Ocean would be "mostly" ice free in 10 years during the summer months.

This study is a stunning compliment to research done by NASA at the South Pole, which noted that ice sheets have been losing 30 feet a year in thickness since 2003. The research concluded that the rate of melting is accelerating, creating a "runaway effect."

As ice sheets melt, less sun is reflected back into outer space, and is instead absorbed into the ocean - known as the Albedo Effect - further accelerating the pace of oceanic warming.

The consequences will be devastating.

The International Institute for Environment and Development has studied the possible effects of rising ocean levels, and concluded that one eighth of the world's urban population would become "climate refugees," creating the largest displacement of people in world history. The most vulnerable countries are China (144 million displaced), India (63 million) and Bangladesh (62 million), while lower on the list are Japan (30 million) and the United States (23 million).

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More evidence of Obama's fraudulent environmentalism is his attitude towards the upcoming international climate change conference in Copenhagen. Here, it was hoped that the standards of Kyoto Protocol would be improved while also including all the worst polluting countries in the world.

The Guardian newspaper recently reported that the Obama Administration was working to undermine the Copenhagen conference. This is being accomplished by the demand for a whole new structure for the treaty, which would destroy the years of planning that created the Kyoto Foundation. The Guardian reported, "it could take several years to negotiate a replacement framework..." (September 15, 2009), effectively pushing any environmental solutions into the unknown future.

Another way the U.S. is disrupting the Copenhagen process is by demanding that there be no international mechanism to hold nations responsible for fulfilling their treaty obligations. The Guardian reported, "the US is pushing instead for each country to set its own rules and to decide unilaterally how to meet its target." This way, any polluting U.S. corporation that disagrees with Copenhagen's standards may rely on easily purchased U.S. congressmen to bail them out.

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[n2doc]

1. Heck, we'll just fill the Arctic Ocean with Styrofoam cups!

Reflect that darn sunlight back up there. Yee Haw! Start buildin' them Arby's!

[AllentownJake]

2. There will never be any action on Climate Change

It's time for people to start thinking about what to do about the consequences. Human beings don't react well to warnings. In fact they will continue to do what they were doing until they are forced by a crisis to change their behavior.

[Karmadillo]

3. A Reality Check From the Brink of Extinction

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091019_a_reality_check_from_the_brink_of_extinction

We can join Bill McKibben on Oct. 24 in nationwide protests over rising carbon emissions. We can cut our consumption of fossil fuels. We can use less water. We can banish plastic bags. We can install compact fluorescent light bulbs. We can compost in our backyard. But unless we dismantle the corporate state, all those actions will be just as ineffective as the Ghost Dance shirts donned by native American warriors to protect themselves from the bullets of white soldiers at Wounded Knee.

“If we all wait for the great, glorious revolution there won’t be anything left,” author and environmental activist Derrick Jensen told me when I interviewed him in a phone call to his home in California. “If all we do is reform work, this culture will grind away. This work is necessary, but not sufficient. We need to use whatever means are necessary to stop this culture from killing the planet. We need to target and take down the industrial infrastructure that is systematically dismembering the planet. Industrial civilization is functionally incompatible with life on the planet, and is murdering the planet. We need to do whatever is necessary to stop this.”

The oil and natural gas industry, the coal industry, arms and weapons manufacturers, industrial farms, deforestation industries, the automotive industry and chemical plants will not willingly accept their own extinction. They are indifferent to the looming human catastrophe. We will not significantly reduce carbon emissions by drying our laundry in the backyard and naively trusting the power elite. The corporations will continue to cannibalize the planet for the sake of money. They must be halted by organized and militant forms of resistance. The crisis of global heating is a social problem. It requires a social response.

The United States, after rejecting the Kyoto Protocol, went on to increase its carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels. The European Union countries during the same period reduced their emissions by 2 percent. But the recent climate negotiations in Bangkok, designed to lead to a deal in Copenhagen in December, have scuttled even the tepid response of Kyoto. Kyoto is dead. The EU, like the United States, will no longer abide by binding targets for emission reductions. Countries will unilaterally decide how much to cut. They will submit their plans to international monitoring. And while Kyoto put the burden of responsibility on the industrialized nations that created the climate crisis, the new plan treats all countries the same. It is a huge step backward.

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[Xithras]

4. I don't understand why ANY environmentalists still support Kyoto.

1. It only requires a 5% reduction over 1990 levels, which has already be debunked by several studies as being wholly insufficient to really impact global warming. We need to get back to 1950's levels.

2. It only applies to the wealthiest (Annex 1) countries.

3. Annex 1 countries can simply buy emissions credits from poorer countries, permitting them to continue polluting without interference.

Kyoto is a sham within a loophole within a scam. It was negotiated by unelected business interests, economic advisors, and diplomats as a way to "address" global warming without actually having to do anything.

Greenpeace called the Kyoto trading system the "greatest environmental scam ever" a couple of years ago.

Do you want to know who the LARGEST American proponents of the Kyoto trading scheme are? For the last several years, the trading lobby has been bankrolled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 168 other firms. Why? Because somebody has to handle the trades, and they're making millions now...and hope to make billions later when the U.S. and China are brought into the fold.

The Kyoto Protocol, and the proposed Copenhagen Treaty, are environmental treaties that only a Wall Street shark could love.

We never learn.

[Karmadillo]

5. According to David Suzuki,

it was at least a step in the right direction with a mechanism for something better down the road. Obama's attempt to backpedal is hardly an improvement.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/climate_Change/Kyoto/

On February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol officially entered into force, marking an important step forward in the fight against climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol is an historic milestone. It is the first, and only, binding international agreement that sets targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Measures to fight climate change – which also involve using less energy – will also improve public health, create new jobs and cut energy costs. Kyoto and Beyond: The Low-Emission Path to Innovation and Efficiency shows how Canada can dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, with massive savings in energy bills.

Studies show that implementing the Kyoto Protocol would stimulate the hi-tech and construction industries, create jobs, reduce health-care costs from air pollution, and help protect our ecosystems (see The Bottom Line on Kyoto: Economic Benefits of Canadian Action). Technologies and policies, available now, are already being used by some far-sighted industries to affordably reduce emissions even more rapidly than the Protocol requires.

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/Kyoto/FAQs.asp#DC

Why are developing countries exempt from emissions targets?

Developing countries, including India and China, do not have to commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the first phase of Kyoto reductions because their per-capita emissions are much lower than those of developed countries. They have not contributed significantly to today’s levels of pollution: that has been the product of the developed world’s Industrial Revolution.

Industrialized nations have created the climate change problem by producing over 84 per cent of fossil fuel emissions. They also have most of the innovative technologies that will be required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The second phase of compulsory emission reductions to be set out in the Kyoto Protocol will be negotiated by December 2009, with implementation to begin in 2013. The developing world will be expected to act on climate change in Kyoto's second phase, but firm emission reduction targets for developing countries would not be realistic or fair at this point.