GW: White Man’s Problem
If I were an environmental activist, I would be despairing right around now about ever getting meaningful action on global warming. Over the last eight years, eco-warriors had managed to convince themselves that the main obstacle to their grand designs to recalibrate the Earth’s thermostat was a stupid and callow U.S. president unwilling to lead the rest of the world.
But with Barack Obama in office they no longer have that problem. In fact, they have a charismatic and savvy spokesman who combines a deep commitment to their cause with considerable powers of persuasion. Yet his call to action at last week’s G-8 summit in Italy yielded little more than polite applause, and that only when he issued a mea culpa. “I know that in the past, the United States has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities,” he said amid cheers. “So let me be clear: Those days are over.”
What did this brave self-flagellation yield? To be sure, he got the attendees to collectively declare that they would never ever let the Earth’s temperature rise two degrees centigrade from pre-industrial levels. This is supposedly a prelude to the real horse-trading over emissions cuts that will begin in a Copenhagen, Denmark, meeting this December.
But the depressing thing for climate warriors was that Obama could not get developing countries, without whose cooperation there is simply no way to avert climate change, to accept—even just in theory—the idea of binding emissions cuts. India’s prime minister took the occasion to position his country as a major victim of a problem not of its making. “What we are witnessing today is the consequence [of] over two centuries of industrial activity and high-consumption lifestyles in the developed world,” he lectured. “They have to bear this historical responsibility.” And even before the summit began, China declared the West had “no right” to ask it to limit its economic growth.
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Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.
LG Says:
Oh puleeze. MSM – stuff the AGW nonsense already. We’re not buying it.
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 7:59 am
fernstalbert Says:
Its not “white guilt”, its the guilt of wealthy nations – everyone feels bad because they are not living in abject poverty and pollution. The developing nations of the world are not going to adopt “green” standards, they want to pull their countries out of the poverty mire and into developed nation status. Only the wealthy can obsess about environmental concerns, they have the time and money. Cheers.
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 8:40 am
nomdeblog Says:
Obama has already pleaded guilty on behalf of all Americans over the last 2 centuries for their mistakes. “I know that in the past, the United States has sometimes fallen short of meeting our responsibilities”. However, the next story not yet touched on by our brilliant media “experts” is the trillions upon trillions of dollars needed by the world to finance government debt issuance.
We are about to see the equation moving from the CO2 fiasco to the oxygen of capital that the world needs to finance growth and as the article says …China declared the West had “no right” to ask it to limit its economic growth.
But Obama is using up all the oxygen of capital in the tent to finance his massive deficits which are 3 to 4 times higher than that horrible Bush administration that he blames for everything. Obama is creating 3rd world victims yet again by soaking up the world’s capital supply to finance his massive deficits. He will soon have to apologize again for having “fallen short of meeting our responsibilities”, only this time the buck will stop at his Oval Office desk.
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 10:53 am
johndoe124 Says:
A very “reason”able perspective on “climate change”. As far as “guilt” is concerned. why in hell would I or my ancestors feel guilty about benefiting from one of the most successful cultures in history of civilization? We didn’t get here by accident, we got here through hard work and ingenuity. The hell with feeling guilty because other tyrannical, backward cultures have impeded the development of their societies. Personally I think this “guilt” trip is just part of the scam. We don’t owe anybody anything. Our wealth is well earned.
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Pat Says:
It is all going vell. Ze plan to destroy the US is nearly complete.
Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pm