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The last or the lost opportunity
by Thanos Kalamidas
2009-12-08 09:34:07 |
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Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister in his opening speech for the UN climate summit in Copenhagen as an opportunity the world cannot afford to miss. The bad news is that the world has missed the opportunity already in Kyoto; the worst news is that now the world is running against time and the even worst news is that they are late!
And unfortunately there are not any good news, only bad news. Delegates from 192 countries including mainly presidents and prime ministers they look more like a beauty queen parade than the leaders who are ready to do something now to change the environmental situation. I’m sorry for my cynicism but if they were going to do something seriously why they didn’t do it back in the Kyoto times when they had the golden chance to prevent instead of running to correct the broken. Amazingly the UN secretary full of enthusiasm has welcomed the leaders saying that an unprecedented number of countries have promised emissions cuts. And naïve me, I thought that that was the whole thing about Kyoto protocol!
And oddly on the first day of the summit there have already appear some blocs of countries that lobbing for the one thing or the other with some of them emphasizing how big damage these cuts will bring to their economy especially this specific times of the economic crisis and recession. So from the day one some already started building the excuses that will bring the negotiations and the negotiations will bring the compromises and then we will all talk about the failure of the Kyoto II, because if nothing will seriously change that’s how we are going to remember Copenhagen and that because it will be the second global environmental failure after Kyoto and instead of opening new horizons it will close the last hopes for a better future.
Of course I’m aware of the G8 bloc decisions for the environment and of course I read China’s announcements and the African Union’s aims. So what? Did the G8 do anything in the past to change the situation? Let me remind you that USA hasn’t sign the Kyoto protocol despite the fact that it is the second country in producing gas emissions in the world. Did China, the first producer in the world, do anything with the Kyoto protocol? Of course they did sign it when everybody knew that it had failed and they were organizing the Copenhagen summit. And then it was Australia that made it clear that since USA don’t sign they are not willing to sign understanding the reasoning. I suppose Dick Cheney’s arguments that everything is a conjecture manipulated from liberal and socialist professors had a scientific base for them.
Oh yes, Europe did something. The EU countries announced pompously further cuts a year ago but all that because they knew too well that the Kyoto protocol had failed and the Copenhagen summit was coming and then because the environmental movements are more active in Europe, some of them even hold seats in member parliaments making them a dangerous opposition in national politics and a well of lost votes.
Africa also decided to do something while waiting for the Copenhagen summit but I have the feeling it was more about PR than anything else. All the gas emissions Africa produced the last ten years probably they don’t amount the gas emissions from USA and China the last half an hour. And before I forget it, remember that president Barrack Obama will join the Copenhagen summit one day before he flies to Oslo to collect his Peace Nobel Prize! A brief visit to make sure that everybody behaves accordingly. I suppose the Chinese leader will honour the summit with a visit as well, after all everybody is going to be there which means we can do some business, you never know some more Chinese products produced by criminally dangerous industries in China can be sold!
Did you by any way thought that they might do something really serious? Did you think that for example they might do something about the flights, one of the worst environmental hazards? And then who’s going to pay the next campaign or you thought that airlines and airplane manufacturers are going to forget or forgive any cuts? As you can see I’m full of great expectations!
P.S. there is already a report circulating the summit that says that the evidence that earth’s temperature is getting warmer is unclear! I suppose that there is no snow in Santa Claus village in Lapland is just a rumour. Apparently the argument is that the earth has been warmer the last century! That this is connected with the industrial revolution of the twentieth century is under investigation!!!
Copenhagen+summit Kyoto_Protocol Ovi+environment Thanos_Kalamidas Ovi Environment |
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