Copenhagen talks amply reflect the immaturity of the mature democracies  !!!

(picture courtesy: dailymail.co.uk)

Gordon Brown  PM of UK, became the first world leader to fly into Copenhagen last night where he warned there was a possibility the climate change talks may not end in agreement.

The prime minister is attending the talks two days earlier than planned in order to help broker discussions on who should pay to tackle global warming. But he immediately cast a gloomy pall, telling reporters in Copenhagen: "It is possible that we will not get an agreement and it is also true that there are many issues to be sorted out."
 
 

The Copenhagen summit talks are so deeply flawed that it would be better if they failed, one of the world’s leading climate change scientists, Dr James Hansen, has said. 

Dr Hansen, the head of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, said there should be no compromise, comparing the need to stand firm with Churchill’s stance against the Nazis and Abraham Lincoln’s opposition to slavery. 

Dr Hansen is vehemently opposed to the carbon market schemes currently proposed, where permits to pollute are bought and sold. 

They are seen by the EU and other governments as the most efficient way to cut emissions and move to a new clean energy economy. 

Dr Hansen said he would prefer the talks to “not happen” because they were “a disaster track” for future generations. 

"The whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation,” he said in an interview with The Guardian. 

"If it is going to be the Kyoto-type thing then [people] will spend years trying to determine exactly what that means. 

US and Emissions !!!

His failure to endorse the Kyoto Protocol is one of the many reasons why George W. Bush will be remembered as evil. Less well-known is that Barack Obama also opposed it: as Senator for Illinois, he voted for a motion pushed by the coal lobby which condemned the Kyoto treaty and prohibited regulation of greenhouse gases in Illinois. Now, as US President, Obama is proposing something far worse than the inadequate Kyoto target. 

Kyoto called for a 7 per cent reduction on 1990 levels by 2010. The Obama administration is promising to reduce US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. So even though vast quantities of additional CO2 will have entered the atmosphere from US industry in the intervening years, we will end up with a higher yearly emission rate 10 years after Kyoto was to expire! 

Double Standards

This is why it is so galling to hear so much of the media in the West blame rising industrial powers like China and India for the continuing threat of climate change. The argument runs that developed countries like Australia would be unfairly burdened if they heavily reduced emissions without India and China committing to the same reductions. This is a weak and hypocritical excuse. After all, developed nations like the US and Australia have been responsible for 70 per cent of all historical carbon emissions. 

This is not to say that China and India are particularly better than any other capitalist country. Both governments are arguing that they should be given targets for reducing carbon intensity rather than total carbon emissions. In other words, they are pledging to reduce the amount of carbon emitted per unit of economic activity - which usually happens automatically anyway as new technology is introduced in industry. Under this proposal, these growing economies could meet their "targets" while potentially increasing the amount of CO2 they emit. 

Sources:http://www.sa.org.au/   and other internet reports

Our Take:

We still need to grow up....before we pretend that we are statesmen and saviors of mankind...

Man has to learn some elementary lessons in conservation...

Please watch this video...MAN AND THE JUNGLE.... ( your feedback shall be welcome)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IVoh0Q8cFs