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Many Nations Pin Climate Hopes On China, India As Hopes For Trump Fade (reuters.com)
Twelve readers share a Reuters report: Many countries are pinning their hopes on China and India to lead efforts to slow climate change amid a growing sense of resignation that U.S. President Donald Trump will either withdraw from a global pact or stay and play a minimal role. Delegates at the May 8-18 negotiations in Bonn on a detailed "rule book" for the 2015 Paris Agreement, the first U.N. talks since Trump took office, say there is less foreboding than when Washington last broke with global climate efforts in 2001. Trump doubts global warming has a human cause and says he will decide on a campaign threat to "cancel" the Paris Agreement, the first to bind all nations to set goals to curb emissions, after a group of Seven summit in Italy on May 26-27. "The time when one big player could affect the whole game is past," said Ronald Jumeau, climate ambassador for the Seychelles. "There would be a void without the U.S., but China and India seem to be increasing their effort." Big emitters led by China, the European Union and India have reaffirmed their commitment to Paris, which seeks to phase out greenhouse gas emissions this century by shifting to clean energies. By contrast, Trump wants to favor U.S. coal.
Leading from behind.
You know you have screwed things up when you have to look at China and India, two countries that have long been considered backwards when it comes to using renewable sources of energy, for a brighter tomorrow. Kudos to China and India to realize the problem and starting to get their act together. I mean, c'mon, look at India and the problems it has and it is still doing something about it. So much about us being the superior.
The amount of pollution is negligible compared to China. Have you been to China? They are in no way trying to fix this. The air is thick and metallic tasting. The only time they fix it is when they shut the factories down for the celebration of one of their communist holidays.
Zoid.com
As the world economy shifts energy focus from Fossil/Carbon fuel to renewables, the US will be left in the dust while the rest of the world community moves into the global middle class. Although the environmental concerns are the most worrisome, the administration should look at the economic impact of holding onto carbon like babies hold onto their binkies. The rest of the world will solve this crisis as best they can, and the US will be.. what?
The line that "we don't have problems, we have opportunities" has always seemed like garbage to me, but it applies here. There are huge opportunities. And this time, we would, in fact, be ending hunger and curing cancer at the same time.
"China and India to lead efforts to slow climate change "
We've sure seen the results of China's forward looking environmental policies. Especially in scenic untouched places like Baotou, and in the pristine air of Beijing.
So, good luck with that.
Climate change caused by man is accepted by 90% of scientists. The fact that a few claim otherwise is unimportant. Look at the morons who perjured themselves before congress claiming "cigarette smoking does not cause cancer". You can watch them on YouTube, and it happened in the '90's.
There's till flat Earthers too, but thinking creatures dismiss them; just like we dismiss you. Sorry.
You forgot all the rubbish that was manufactured there in the first place, then wasted fuel to be sent to us, used for less than a year and then wasted fuel to send it back over there for "disposal" (i.e. trash heap, no recycling).
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That would imply that Trump has the intellectual capability of taking responsibility for his own actions. Based on his past actions, it's very unlikely that he will. Try Trump and Impeachment instead.
Yeah, keep holding your breath, skippy. We've seen this kind of banter about every administration for my lifetime and it never really goes anywhere. The difference is that your soapbox is a little bigger but that doesn't make what you say any truer.
It's about time we focused on emissions from "developing countries."
The correct answer is "focus on both". You can't solve global problems by saying "let the other guy solve all the problems, we won't do anything." And you also can't solve global problems by saying "we'll work on our problems, but we'll ignore everybody else's contributions."
That's the thing about "global": it's everybody's problem.
The stuff the US emits is harmless plant food compared to the toxic shit these derelicts dump into the air and water on a day to day basis.
Well, per capita, the US emits far far more than the rest of the world. But the U.S. is a small fraction of the world.
He either got this from a pseudo-skeptic blog or just googled it. The deniers don't actually read the papers, they just look for certain key phrases and then declare "All the scientists are wrong!!!!"
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's already out of hand when one country's government believes the only way to solve its problems is to depend on another country's government; it's totally bonkers to think China and India will be environmental leaders, have you ever been to either China? There wasn't a single place that we went where the locals drank tap water and the air is terrible, except in rain forest areas (the people and food were great, I'd go back to visit). The Paris accord has no teeth anyway so why should a country hamstring themselves- maybe, just maybe, each country can follow environmental policies that balance their own climate concerns and economic well being instead of blindly following activist theology.
Why SHOULD the US shoulder the responsibility, when we aren't even the worst polluter?
America burns about 3 tonnes of coal per capita each year (900 million tonnes last year for 320 million people). China burns a little over two tonnes of coal per capita each year (2.9 billion tonnes last year for 1.4 billion people). India burns about the same amount of coal as America does to supply 1.3 billion people, about half a tonne per capita.
America IS the worst polluter of the three, and that doesn't even begin to take the oil and gas the US also burns into consideration. Americans use over twice as much energy per capita as the rest of the world and much of that energy is derived from fossil fuel.
I think it's called "The Tragedy of the Commons" but either way it's the same reason traffic jams happen. If everybody did the right thing then we'd all be better off, but for individuals doing the wrong things is beneficial. At least, until everyone follows suit. When you tailgate and drive aggressively it gets you to work sooner right up until everyone does it. Then it causes a jam and you're an hour late.
The US needs to lead here because we're why China is polluting. They're doing it to meet our demand for cheap consumer goods that can be sold at a high profit margin. Not that Europe isn't to blame too, but any time we want we could put our foot down, pay a few hundred dollars more for our electronics & consumer goods and stop the pollution. We don't because we don't want to.
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the government heavily interfered in the form of massive tax breaks for hybrids and for developing hybrids. Like most things that truly matter and are really difficult (like space travel, communication, and Basic Research) nothing happens until the government steps in because it's not profitable enough otherwise.
And you can't fix the environment with a president who is openly hostile to the EPA. Poor people still can't drink the water in Flint, MI you know? And your Honda's good millage & clean emissions is dwarfed by the number of Trucks calling themselves SUVs on the road.
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