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Bill Gates To Headline Paris Climate Talks
theodp writes: The NY Times and others report that Bill Gates will announce the creation of a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund on Monday at the opening of the two-week long Paris Climate Change Conference. The climate summit, which will be attended by President Obama and 100+ world leaders, is intended to forge a global accord to cut planet-warming emissions. The pending announcement was first reported by ClimateWire. A spokesman for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation did not respond to a request for comment. Let's hope it goes better than BillG school reform!
I realize that you're trying to score some +5 Funny modding, but honestly, can't we leave that self catering BS behind us? The fact is that Bill Gates has done a lot for international aid, fighting diseases and now apparently climate change. Your comment might have been funny 10 years ago, but it's clear to me now that Bill Gates is less of a tech figure, and more of a philanthropy figure, and perhaps we should change our commentary to reflect this.
The ISIS leader is not about to bomb any Syrian oil facilities. He refused for a long time to bomb any oil transport trucks on the lame excuse that some of the drivers might be civilians! Really?
Haven't y'all figured it out by now?
"The countries that have refused to sing/ratify"
Who are they?
The US (signed, but never ratified)
Canada (ratified, then withdrew in 2011)
Andorra
South Sudan
Palestine
The Vatican.
"collectively reduced their carbon emissions"
Ok, I'll ignore the minnows (I assume I can ignore the CO2 emissions of Andorra).
The idea is to reduce emissions from the 1990 base line, so how have the US and Canada done?
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in te United States increased by about 7% between 1990 and 2013.
and. looking at the graph, emissions rose steadily to 2008 then fell quite a bit. Seems causing a major economic downturn is the way the US cuts its emissions, not fracking.
And Canada? Same story, rose from 600 megatonnes C to 700, steady rise 'till 2008, sudden drop, then a slow rise since 2010-2011..
"by more than those that did sign up".
Well, no. The EU and Russia have reduced their emissions since 1990, Japan has very slightly increased them, but nothing like the emissions growth of the US or Canada.
Looks like you need to do a little more reading.
Watch this Heartland Institute video