A definition of political insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. Based on that, politicians supporting the so-called “solutions” to man-made global warming — Kyoto accord, cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, renewable energy — are insane.
That’s because none of these things has worked in the real world — assuming the goal is to lower man-made carbon dioxide emissions — and yet they keep promoting them.
The UN’s Kyoto accord is a fiasco, falsely billed as a global treaty to combat global warming.
In fact, Kyoto was ratified by a few dozen industrialized countries who are a small part of the problem — including (under Jean Chretien) Canada, with 2% of global emissions.
The accord places no demands on China, the world’s largest emitter, or on the entire developing world, where emissions are now rising the fastest.
It doesn’t impact the U.S., the world’s second-largest emitter, which never ratified Kyoto.
Since China and the U.S. are responsible for 40% of global emissions, Kyoto, or any successor treaty which doesn’t include them, obviously won’t work.
Cap-and-trade, now recklessly advocated by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff even in the absence of a bilateral agreement with the U.S., is another fiasco.
Europe’s had cap-and-trade since 2005. From its inception, the Emissions Trading Scheme failed to lower emissions — in fact, they rose — until 2008, when the global recession, not carbon trading, cut them.
Instead, the ETS drove up prices for such necessities as electricity and provided windfall profits to utility companies and speculators.
Thanks for the good comments and perspective Curt. The biggest thing I can carry away from this situation is that the rest of the world is no more on the ball than the US when it comes to solving problems.
If:
1) you accept that global warming is a problem.
2) you accept that humans are the cause of it.
Then it would seem that you have a pretty good starting place to work on a solution for it. Instead, everything is compromised into unworkability and you just create mistrust and scorn in the minds of others in the world you need to get on board to make a really determined global effort. An American gloryhog getting an award for MAKING A MOVIE about the situation just breeds more contempt in the minds of those who have a vested interest in NOT making economic sacrifices to cut emissions. Can any task in the world be accomplished before the most dire circumstances force us into it? Human nature seems to be betting that we can’t.
I have the personal opinion that global warming is indeed happening . Much of my confidence is based on the conclusions of NOAA and the thousands of scientists studying the climate and global changes. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#q2
However, NASA atmospheric scientists show some disconcerting anomalies in observations.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast21jul_1m/
The last two satellites (Feb 2009, Mar 2011) that NASA attempted to place into orbit never made it in expensive setbacks to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory program which would give large volumes of high reliability data. The next satellite in the program, OCO-2, is set to be launched in Feb 2013 but our current economic situation might have some impact on those observations that.
Regardless of global wide impact and homeless polar bears, it would be hard to find a scientist who would/could deny that our carbon based energy dependence and feckless manufacturing procedures are responsible for huge economic and LOCAL environmental afflictions. Some or all of us will pay for this, now or later.
List of the world’s most polluted cities from Time Magazine.
You might notice that Chernobyl is way down the list! Imagine what that implies for the city and its citizens at the top?
@Dink Newcomb: You said:
You mean these Polar Bears?
And that famous picture of the Polar Bears “clinging” to melting ice?
Pay attention at about the 1:10 mark. It was taken in the SUMMER when ice melts anyway. Also the Bears were also very close to shore, not out “miles” from shore.
Sorry Dink, but you won’t convince me about AGW.
Please, be open minded and watch this video. It is from John Coleman, respected meteorologist and founder of The Weather Channel.
John Coleman bebunks AGW
@anticsrocks:
Sorry that was unclear. I was not trying to convince you of AGW and I am not sure how you came to that conclusion. I do believe that the Earth IS getting warmer (partly due to NOAA’s statements) but during an edit, I somehow erased a sentence that stated how I have been unable to develop any clear conclusion about cause and impact (due in part to NASA’s statements) and that I find it just a massive waste of time at the moment.
The intent was –
Forget about global warming and the non-productive foolishness so well addressed by Curt in the original post. There are plenty of absolutely undeniable cases which clearly show how we are crapping our own nest WITHOUT worrying about what might happen to to pack ice in the arctic or whether the islanders in the South Pacific have to move in 30 years. It doesn’t make any difference if the water comes into my 120deg living room if I have died of lung disease or heavy metal contamination.
THIS is an issue of far more more compelling signifigance than global warming and it will never get on the UN’s radar. Follow that link and try to ignore what those people have done.
AND the world!!