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Obama Presses China On Global Warming
HughPickens.com writes: The NY Times reports that President Obama spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Summit and challenged China to make the same effort to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and join a worldwide campaign to curb global warming. Obama's words were directly focused on putting the onus on China, an essential partner of the U.S. if a global climate treaty is to be negotiated by 2015. The U.S. and China bear a "special responsibility to lead," said Obama. "That's what big nations have to do." The U.S., Obama said, would meet a pledge to reduce its carbon emissions by 17 percent, from 2005 levels, by 2020 — a goal that is in large part expected to be met through proposed EPA regulation.
There were indications that China might be ready with its own plan, although many experts say they will be skeptical until Chinese officials reveal the details. A senior Chinese official said his country would try to reach a peak level of carbon emissions "as early as possible." This suggests the Chinese government, struggling with air pollution so extreme that it has threatened economic growth, regularly kept millions of children indoors and ignited street protests, was determined to show faster progress in curbing emissions. In recent years, the Chinese government has sent other signals about addressing carbon pollution, some of them encouraging to environmental experts. "Five years ago, it was almost unimaginable to discuss China putting a cap on carbon, but now that is happening," said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund's office in Beijing. "Chinese leaders have seen that it is imperative to move toward a low-carbon economy."
There were indications that China might be ready with its own plan, although many experts say they will be skeptical until Chinese officials reveal the details. A senior Chinese official said his country would try to reach a peak level of carbon emissions "as early as possible." This suggests the Chinese government, struggling with air pollution so extreme that it has threatened economic growth, regularly kept millions of children indoors and ignited street protests, was determined to show faster progress in curbing emissions. In recent years, the Chinese government has sent other signals about addressing carbon pollution, some of them encouraging to environmental experts. "Five years ago, it was almost unimaginable to discuss China putting a cap on carbon, but now that is happening," said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund's office in Beijing. "Chinese leaders have seen that it is imperative to move toward a low-carbon economy."
Remember the Kyoto protocol?
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The US consumes 1.6KW of power per person. China consumes 0.4KW.
An average US person consumes 4x more power than a Chinese person. The US ought to cut its fuel and power consumption before snubbing other nations.
I mean it seriously, we need to think about what kind of world we leave for our children.
There is global warming, leading to more chaotic and extreme weather patterns. There is also pollution in general/
I currently live in Hong Kong. In general that is a great experience but there are days when lots of smog comes from the Shenzen area. I first thought it was fog, that is how bad it can be.
We should all do an effort, on country, company and personal level to make this world more livable for our children.
Over the decades we have outsourced our most hazardous production to other nations such as China since in the US complying with our strict labor and environmental safety regulations makes it very expensive, and some industries probably can't be clean or safe enough to be legal. But now we stand at our clean and smog-free shores and pat ourselves on the back while pointing at the very nations we shipped our hazardous production to and accuse them of being unsafe and dirty.
Reminds of the scene from Game of Thrones when Joffrey says his mother has told him that a king should not strike a woman, then he orders Ser Meryn to hit Sansa. Meryn immediately obeys the command without hesitation or concern for the young lady. The US is Joffrey, Ser Meryn is China, Sansa is Mother Nature, and we are all hypocrites.
Hey if we slip into being a 3rd world country, we can call ourselves a 'developing nation' and ignore the kyoto protocol like china does.
Seriously, "China is running roughshod over us " is not accurate. WE are running roughshod over ourselves.
WE want our cheap stuff and our own companies are happy to invest in factories in China, Myanmar, Malyasia, etc. WE have financed their industrial growth. WE have voted on laws and politicians that enable 'free trade' with countries that cannot afford our own products.
If you want to say you think the US is going in the wrong direction, fine. But follow that up with REAL solutions. How do you suggest we reduce greenhouse gasses? -Gee-wiz, Mr. Keqiang, can you please stop using those coal-powered factories that we paid you to build? Ya, thats going to go real well.
oldhack: "Security is a waste of money until shit hits the fan. 5 minutes later, it becomes waste of money again. "
Honestly, right now I don't give much a fuck about greenhouse gases. I'll worry about that when we're rolling the economy along again.
I think I'd start by dropping corporate taxes to about zero. That would attract businesses back to the US. Of if not to zero, if they were here in the US and for every US citizen (documented) they hired, they'd be able to drive their tax debt to zero, that might be a good start.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........