China, India Cancel Out Copenhagen
Climate Change: With less than two months to go before the big Copenhagen Conference on global warming, two major nations have said "no thanks" to the no-growth agenda. For that reason alone, so should we.
Following a deal signed late Thursday between China and India, anything we might agree to do in Copenhagen is likely moot anyway. The two mega-nations — which together account for nearly a third of the world's population — said they won't go along with a new climate treaty being drafted in Copenhagen to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.
The deal was already in trouble. Three weeks ago, the Group of 77 developing nations met in Thailand to discuss what they wanted to do about global warming. Their answer: nothing.
William Hawkins, writing in the American Thinker, quotes a piece in China's Science Times journal that sums up how China — and other developing nations — feel:
"Why do the developed countries put an arguable scientific problem on the international negotiations table?" the article's author, Wang Jin, asks. "The real intention is not for the global temperature increase, but for the restriction of the economic development of the developing countries."
They see clearly what the rest of us seem to miss — that, for all its bad science, the Copenhagen Conference is about the world's Lilliputians tying down its Gullivers, not about global warming at all.
So, thanks to China and India, Copenhagen is dead — just as Kyoto was when it was signed in 1992, though no one knew it at the time. Without them, no global treaty on climate change will be workable.
The two nations are not only the world's most populous (with, together, more than 2 billion people), they are also the fastest-growing major countries. China is now the world's No. 1 emitter of greenhouse gases, and India is catching up fast.
Even with their participation, Copenhagen should have been a non-starter for the U.S. Indeed, the main reason for the greenhouse gas deal, all but admitted to by its major participants, is to cripple the U.S. economy — the most successful economy in the world.
True enough, as green critics keep saying, we produce nearly 20% of the world's CO2 and other greenhouse gases with just 5% of the world's population. But our GDP of roughly $14 trillion is nearly 25% of the world's total — in line with our gas output.
Update on the Copenhagen Express this week.
http://mrpgreen.blogspot.com/2009/09/train-from-kyoto-to-copenhagen-to-raise.html
Paris/Nairobi, 24 September 2009 - The International Union of Railways (UIC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the global conservation organization WWF today launched the symbolic one-month and nearly 9,000 kilometre-long train journey from Kyoto to Copenhagen to document the impacts of climate change and raise awareness of low-carbon transport solutions.
The project is done in partnership with the Seal the Deal! campaign led by the United Nations to galvanize political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement at the UN climate change conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen in December this year.
Train operators from around the world will participate in the Train to Copenhagen campaign with the aim of raising awareness of transport's influence on climate change.
Coverage of the India and China pact at businessgreen.com including The Emperor's Administrations attempt to "breathe life into the moribund negotiations to seal a global treaty on climate change in Copenhagen in December"
exerpt:
The Obama administration is hoping to win new commitments to fight global warming from China and India in back-to-back summits next month, the Guardian has learned, including the first Indian emissions trading scheme.
The US hopes the new commitments will breathe life into the moribund negotiations to seal a global treaty on climate change in Copenhagen in December, by setting out what action each country will take. But many observers say such bilateral deals also risk seriously weakening any Copenhagen agreement by allowing the idea of a global limit on greenhouse gas emissions to be abandoned.
Miss Earth Coming in November aboard the Copenhagen Express
Miss Earth 2009, the 9th edition of Miss Earth beauty pageant, will be held at the Boracay Ecovillage Resort and Convention Center, in the Island of Boracay, Philippines on November 22, 2009.The Miss Earth winner serves as the spokesperson for the Miss Earth Foundation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other environmental organizations.About 90 contestants from different countries and territories are expected to compete in the event. At the conclusion of the competition, outgoing titleholder Miss Earth 2008 Karla Henry of the Philippines will crown her successor.
Hey wait a minute, I thought was supermodel Gisele Bunchen's new gig, spokeperson for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)? Maybe this is the secret identity of one of the other memebers of GiGi and the Green Team?
Bolt kicks of "Long Run" to save the Planet:
