Little promise for climate agreement at G-8 summit
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Posted on June 6, 2007
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Greenhouse gas emissions, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
A couple of things I want to note this day. First, in terms of the international political debate regarding what to do about carbon emissions, a debate in the news because of the G-8 summit underway in Germany, I thought this article from today’s Washington Post business section, In battle for US carbon caps, eyes and efforts focus on China, helpful and revealing. It is about China and the shadow of China that hovers over the international conversation.
Very soon, China will be the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the gas most responsible for the human contribution to global warming. 
The Bush administration says it won’t sign on to any international agreements in which China is not a participant. China argues back that they are taking the issue seriously, that the first priority is their development, that we in the West created the problem so why should they have to pay the cost of global warming by halting their coal-fueled economic growth, and blah, blah, blah…
Of course, they have a point. They also argue that their per capita emissions remain far below ours, another valid point.
And while everyone makes their valid points, the atmosphere cooks.
Anyway, this article gives you a sense of the debate, and the point I want to emphasize comes more than halfway through. Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, is speaking of the Bush administration’s ‘blame China’ approach — we won’t do anything if they won’t do anything, wah, wah, wah! –
China’s rapidly growing emissions are a serious issue. But many diehard opponents of enforceable limits on global warming pollution who now can’t hide behind the science are trying to hide behind China. Note who keeps raising the China issue: the coal industry, the oil industry, members of Congress from coal states and the auto industry. They raise threats to American competitiveness that are bogus, on the whole.
Thank you, Mr. Clapp, for saying this out loud and exposing the truth behind the China complaints.
Don’t you wish everyone would just grow up?
Anyway, progress won’t be made this way, and now the story on the NY Times web site this morning indicates that the divisions on climate change among the G-8 are pretty serious. The BBC headline is succinct — Bush will not agree to carbon caps and insists that the US will not be part of a binding international regimen.
Well, in light of all this, I just want to mention another weather event — which may or may not have anything to do with global warming — just another in a growing serious of unprecedented storms — this time in the oil sensitive region of Oman and Iran.
A cyclone is blowing through. According to this story from Andrew Revkin, it is the “strongest cyclone ever recorded by scientists in the northwestern Arabian Sea…”
It is being driven by — guess what? — warm water temperatures. The strength of the storm, like hurricanes over the Gulf of Mexico, is being fueled by 87 degree seas.
Today, it was barreling towards the Strait of Hormuz through which 2/5 of the world’s oil supply passes. Expect a spike in prices at the pump. Again, a reminder of the vulnerability of our oil-based global economy. For more info, there’s this article from CBS News.
The weather event, plus ongoing troubles in Nigeria, plus tensions around Iran’s nuclear program, have put the price of a barrel of crude oil over $70 today.
Weather, climate change, political tensions, oil — just interesting stuff to ponder. More indications of how much our world has changed, and how bound we are to one another in a world linked by oil, global climate change, and ongoing political turmoil. Perhaps such huge changes should be matched by changes in global political behavior commensurate with the crises we face.
Just stuff to ponder…
Technorati Tags: china carbon emissions, G-8 summit, Bush refuses mandatory carbon emission reductions, cylcone oman iran, extreme weather event, oil prices
Photo credits:
Smog over Beijing, Earth Observatory, NASA
Cyclone Gonu, Earth Observatory, NASA
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