President Obama didn’t do enough at Copenhagen to meet the legitimate demands of developing nations, especially the poorest of the poor. And while he deserves credit for moving the United States back in a positive direction on global warming after eight years of the know-nothingism of George W. Bush, he has adopted some of Bush’s scolding-parent tone.
The Obama administration has its own self to blame for much of the acrimony in Copenhagen.
His administration flat-out rejected the idea of the industrialized nations paying reparations to the rest of the world for the damage they’ve inflicted on the planet.
Nor did the Obama Administration offer nearly enough to developing nations to encourage them to use non-polluting technologies. Obama promised $10 billion by the year 2012. That comes to just 0.28 percent of the U.S. budget for next year.
Then, seeming to act in a generous manner while actually behaving like a bully, he said he would “engage in a global effort to mobilize $100 billion in financing by 2020, if – and only if –it is part of a broader accord” to his liking.
As he did in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize, in Copenhagen Obama talked about the United States doing the right thing not just because it’s right but because it’s in Washington’s “self-interest.”
In Oslo, he said rebuilding Europe, Japan, and South Korea after World War II was in the “enlightened self-interest” of Americans.
In Copenhagen, he said, “We’re convinced, for our own self-interest, that the way we use energy . . . is essential to our national security.”
Yet there comes a time when doing the right thing can’t always be squared with American selfishness. That time is now.
It was, after all, American selfishness and gluttony that polluted much of the earth. And now, American stinginess is preventing the kind of cleaning up that is necessary.
On global warming, the United States should do what is just – and not simply what is in its “self-interest.”
Washington should pay reparations to those nations that contributed least to global warming but that are suffering, and will be suffering, the most because of it. This sum should exceed the measly $10 billion Obama has offered developing nations to go green and go clean.
If Obama had made such a generous offer, he would have been greeted more favorably in Copenhagen.
Maybe the other delegates don't like being lectured on environmental
responsibility by someone who has flown to Scandinavia three times in
as many months, and was just in nearby Oslo only a week earlier before
flying all the way back to Washington then flying all the way to
Copenhagen, emitting several million tons of CO2 in the process.
Chavez was very well received, watch the videos.
T.Schmidt
P.S. People want better lives, the gringos are the problem.
Of course he was...
People want a better lives but, gringos do not want that...
/jat
I say, he was not. He made a fool out of himself. Chavez provide the
fuel for capitalism to attack the planet with poisonous emissions and
then he comes to this summit to pretend. He's a real clown. So are you
all.
Well, the jester has spoken.
/jat
even the jesters has their own story, and everyone should listen to
them.
That's exactly we do here, jester - You have every right to tell your
own stories. But, it doesn't mean those stories should be accepted
because they could wrong or misled.
/jat
because they could wrong or misleading.
/jat
That's exactly what we do here, jester - You have every right to tell
And onviously who ever gets misled and lost has to be an idiot.
T.Schmidt
Russia also tried to claim the moral high ground even as its own
economy has become dependent on oil and gas exports to the West, and
even though the only reason it has reduced its CO2 emissions is
because it suffered a total economic collapse. This is why Russia is
suddenly so concerned about global warming, because forcing other
industrialized nations to reduce their emissions will drag their
economies down to Russia's level.
no doubt about it.
Exactly...
/jat
Rusia is getting very rich exporting weapons. They would make a lot
more money if they started selling nuclear bombs to the enemies of the
USA. Have you been in Russia lately?
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/250357/russian_military_weapons/
(I like their sniper rifles)
This one is their modern version of the Katiushka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJZOpCJiSVI
This one is from 2006 (I like the music)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPdPKkZS6Pk
T.Schmidt