U.N. Chief: Act Now On Global Warming

Gore Addresses Delegates; Bush Skips Summit, Attends Separate Dinner

(CBS/AP)  With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global warming emissions.

The two headliners, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Vice President Al Gore, also highlighted by their presence President George W. Bush's absence from the eight hours of high-level speechmaking Monday on what to do about global warming.

Bush, who did take part later in a small, private U.N. dinner with key players on climate, rejects the idea of international treaty obligations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming - an idea central to U.N. climate negotiations.

The Republican Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, has taken the lead on emissions caps at the state level, signing legislation mandating such reductions in California.

"One responsibility we all have is action. Action, action, action," the former Hollywood action star said as he helped open the summit, winning warm applause from the assembled presidents and premiers.

"I do not believe that doom and gloom and disaster are the only outcomes," Schwarzenegger said. "Humanity is smart and nature is amazingly regenerative."

The Democrat Gore - a Hollywood figure himself as the lead in the Oscar-winning climate documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" - took his star turn at a summit luncheon, where he cited a lengthening list of global warming's impacts, from the shrinking Arctic ice cap to disappearing lakes in Africa.

"The need to act is now," Gore told delegates to the one-day summit, which drew more than 80 world leaders. "We need a mandate at Bali."

He was referring the annual U.N. climate treaty conference, scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia, where the Europeans and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

The 175-nation Kyoto pact, which the U.S. rejects, requires 36 industrial nations to reduce the heat-trapping gases emitted by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources. The 1997 agreement set relatively small target reductions averaging 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

The advocates of emissions caps say a breakthrough is needed at Bali to ensure an uninterrupted transition from the Kyoto deal to a new, deeper-cutting regime, something that almost certainly would require a change in the position of the U.S., long the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Bush objects that Kyoto-style mandates would damage the U.S. economy and says they should be imposed on fast-growing poorer countries such as China and India in addition to developed nations. He instead is urging industry to cut emissions voluntarily and is emphasizing research on clean-energy technology as one answer.

On Thursday and Friday, Bush will host his own Washington climate meeting, limited to 16 "major emitter" countries, including China and India, the first in a series of U.S.-led gatherings expected to focus on those themes.

"The Washington meeting is a distraction," Hans Verolme, climate campaigner for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, told reporters here. The Bush administration needs "to show they are serious and implement domestic legislation to reduce emissions," he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the summit, put the Washington meetings in a different light, describing them as designed "to support and help advance the ongoing U.N. discussion."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu said Tuesday that Xie Zhenghua, the vice director of the National Development and Reform Commission, will represent China at the meeting. "We wish the meeting success in promoting better cooperation between major economic entities ... to press ahead on the track of the U.N. (Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the Kyoto Protocol," Jiang said at a briefing.

Late Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was asked by reporters about Bush's position during the informal dinner discussions. "He made it quite clear that what he's going to do is help the United Nations' effort," he replied.

Japan's envoy, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, told the summit Tokyo believes the separate U.S. talks will "contribute to achieving consensus" in the U.N. process, in which all agree that China, India and others must eventually accept emission limits.

But Japan, the Europeans and others, to one degree or another, stressed that all nations - including the United States - must accept binding emissions targets, something Bush gives no sign of doing.

To try to spur global negotiations, the European Union, which must reduce emissions by 8 percent under Kyoto, has committed unilaterally to a further reduction of at least 20 percent by 2020.

Speaking for the EU, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Monday's gathering that "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. In a comment clearly aimed at Washington, he also said the U.N. negotiations are the only "legitimate framework," a point stressed repeatedly by Ban as well.

[voteronpaul3]

Ron Paul has it all. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about

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* to raise taxes
* for an unbalanced budget
* to raise congressional pay
* for a federal restriction on gun ownership
* to increase the power of the executive branch

He HAS voted:
* against the Iraq war
* against the inappropriately named USA PATRIOT act
* against regulating the internet
* against the Military Commissions Act

He will eliminate the IRS, Wasteful Government Spending & Stop The Iraq War Immediately!

Most importantly, he voted NO on anything in Congress that is not allowed by the Constitution.

He is the only candidate not a member of the CFR!

Shouldn''''t ALL members of Congress uphold the Constitution? Aren''''t they SWORN to uphold it? You can bet Paul won''''t call the Constitution "just a G**D***ed piece of paper" like George Bush is reported to have.

If you want a candidate you can TRUST due to a proven track record, visit ronpaul2008.com and get busy spreading the word. The Mainstream Media is a lagging indicator!!

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[octavianfdlr]

Now we know that Global Warming is reliable science. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told us so. Face it, the United Nations is a respected scientific body, and the assembled presidents and premiers are all respected scientists.

NOT!

Have you noticed how much the Global Warming operatives are beginning to sound like automobile salesmen? "The time for doubt has passed." "The scientific debate is over; only the political debate remains." "Pay no attention to the little dissenting scientists behind the curtain." (OK, that last one was not a real quote.) Why are they afraid of scientific arguments?

[hawksprings]

As I sit in Cheyenne, Wyo, where it is currently 44 degrees (Farhenhiet) and the forecast for tonight is calling for a 60% chance of rain mixed with SNOW, I continue to wonder, WHEN WILL GLOBAL WARMING HIT WYOMING? I can''t afford these heating bills!

Where is Algore when you need him?

Oh, and if you hate the idea of dissent with "The Consensus", then don''t go to this link of scientists who aren''t marching in lockstep with Algore.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,176495.shtml

...

[reasnmclucus]

There are no such thing as greenhouse gases with a magical power to control air temperature. Physics professor Gerhard Gerlich has disproved this claim in his essay
http://www.arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.1161v2.pdf

Heinz Thieme has published several essays that explain this fact in a form more understandable by non-physicists.

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/reasonmclucus/september_2007/greenhouse_gases_disproved_pt_1.htm

[erasmus6]

"WHEN WILL GLOBAL WARMING HIT WYOMING?" posted by hawksprings

I don''t know, but most everyone else is already witnessing it. Could it be that you just don''t WANT to see it?

[co2max]

The United Nations is NOT a world government. That body cannot coerce any of the nations to toe the line and enforce an arbitrary standard that will serve to no benefit. If they think there is an over-abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, then this is really just a veiled claim that we have an over-abundance of people. Perhaps the UN should strike at the root of their perceived problem?

[bobgee_1999]

Actually, all that has passed is the time for doing anything about it. Too late. Oops. Oh well. Had to happen sometime. Just be glad it happened before we could really get anywhere off-planet and destroy anything but ourselves. I look forward to dancing on the grave of humanity.

[slim1h2o]

@uck global warming!!! You sob sisters have been crying the blues for 30 years when the SCIENCE has proven that the earth goes thru warming and cooling cycles naturally.

You Canadians will just have to move further inland if seas start rising but I will have some beachfront lots available for you here in Ohio as Lake Erie will be my new front yard.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by didntinhale at 05:45 AM : Sep 25, 2007

Amen

[mcvet]

You know what I find really enjoyable about this situtation. Those who are the biggest sheep, the REAL idiots who buy into the Religious Reich Line and the Fascist approach? Those Sheep will pay the biggest price. RECORD heat and more storms than they can possibably get through. Have fun all you Facist crackers!! ROFLMAO No ONE, not even their Fuhrer now doesn''t admit that Global Warning is a fact but these poor fools, they just keep on keeping on! Then you wonder why they are the planets biggest losers!! ROFLMAO Right! ROFLMAO Sieg Heil Bush!!

[ecm1980]

Although I do think that this earth will come to an end when God decides, I do think that we need to take care of it. We need to do everything we can to ensure that further damage isn''t done. Hopefully, all coutries will begin to make a change.

[co2max]

MCVet-
Huh??
You don''t even make sense.
Are you even coherent? Perhaps you need six fewer cups of morning coffee.

[prinzowhales]

Man-caused global warming is the scam of new millenium. Naturally, Al Gore, the second-generation step and fetch of communist agent of influence, Armand Hammer, is its poster boy. Ice caps on other bodies in our solor systems are shrinking as well--as yet no fat people in SUVs have been discovered on them to blame. Moon wants a global tax, for a global bureaucracy to run the new globalist slave plantation.

[co2max]

Global Warming is for real.
But Human-caused Global Warming is just trailer-trash science. It''s not even science at all.

[antoniof123]

I wish all the stupid people would drop dead that would reduce CO2 emissions and help. For those of you the GOP candidates have stated that for every scientist that says there is global warming they can stack up an even number. Factcheck.org (keeping our politicians honest hated by all). Found that to be a complete lie, in fact no credible scientist will state that global warming is a myth. This of it like this for those of you who live in clean houses. If you dump garbage in your house how long till it becomes unlivable. Then you say sweep it out but we live in a big house call Earth so don''t be stupid. Have a nice day nut cases.

[abbe91]

"In fact no credible scientist will state that global warming is a myth.
Posted by antoniof123 at 08:19 AM : Sep 25, 2007"

Like to this day, no credible argument remains to link
global warming to CO2 emissions. This part is not science anymore: it became a religion.

[themurph2000]

The part that bothers me the most is that we''ve gotten too focused on what will happen 100 years from now and get too wrapped up in the "why aren''t they required to follow the rules" and what have you. We didn''t need global warming threats back in the 60''s, 70''s, and 80''s to realize we have to clean up the planet. It''s a mess!

Perhaps we can''t dictate what the government is going to do (and we haven''t for many, many years, long before I was born), but we can, as consumers, do our share. We can insist on heavier fines (and even some jail time) for those companies and individuals who litter, recycle any available items. (every town has SOME sort of recycling, even if you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it) We can, where possible, combine our trips, using public transit where available (and in some towns, it''s necessary) Auto manufacturers will stop building low mileage cars and SUVs when we stop buying them. (Anybody seen a Ford Excursion lately? Me neither.) If you can''t vote with the polling booth, vote with your wallet.

[briannorwood]

"Schwarzenegger told delegates that U.S. states are embracing emissions caps even if the Bush administration isn''t. "

I thought Schwarzenegger was a joke when he first was elected. However, he''s proven me completely wrong!

Way to go Arnold!

[co2max]

antoniof123-
When was your stroke?
I honestly cannot tell what in the world you are trying to say.

[perception5]

Interesting fact statement:

"By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and TAREK EL-TABLAWY, Associated Press Writers
1 hour, 6 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Iraq is the "tip of the bayonet" in the fight against terror, the country''s prime minister said ahead of a meeting with President Bush, stressing that the same group responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks was behind the destruction of the minarets of a revered Iraqi Shiite shrine.


Those "who destroyed the towers of the (World) Trade Center are the same as those who blew up the (Golden Mosque) in Samarra and carried out the bombings of hotels in Jordan and Algeria," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday."

Liberals, any questions?

[abbe91]

Posted by themurph2000 at 08:43 AM : Sep 25, 2007

I fully agree with you. There is also a threat which doesn''t make it to the media. See http://www.peakoil.net for details about it. The solutions to this threat are about the same as for controlling CO2 emissions, but the story is much more credible.

[barbaraf4]

I dearly hope all those who think global warming is a joke are correct. But what if you are wrong? I hear the background noise about how the Earth goes through normal warming and cooling cycles. This is possible; however, during the last 100 years, mankind has added an enormous amount of chemicals that can overload this process. Plus what about being prepared, just in case?

Someone please give Emporer Bush his fiddle.

[co2max]

Cleaning up the planet, as you suggest, has very little to do with the actual topic of dealing with global warming. Carbon dioxide is not pollution; don''t let the Supreme Court fool misguide you.
People buy cars and SUVs because they are useful. If the auto makers make less consuming cars, which are therefore smaller, people will just have to make more trips. What''s the gain there?

[rushlimpdrug]

"WHEN WILL GLOBAL WARMING HIT WYOMING?" posted by hawksprings

You sound like the fool on the hill.
Newsflash:
The world does not revolve around your little pasture.

Buy a car and drive to N.O. and see what the weather can do, it is not that far.
Buy a plane ticket and fly to China and see what is going on.
Or just stay in your comfort zone and watch from the peanut gallery.

[aaabee-2009]

Liberals, any questions?
Posted by perception5 at 09:02 AM : Sep 25, 2007


Ys, who died and left you that spiffy dunce cap?

[abbe91]

"Those "who destroyed the towers of the (World) Trade Center are the same as those who blew up the (Golden Mosque) in Samarra and carried out the bombings of hotels in Jordan and Algeria," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday."
Liberals, any questions?
Posted by perception5 at 09:02 AM : Sep 25, 2007"

Of course, what makes you believe al-Maliki ?
What makes you think he is not also cooking the books
for the WH, like Gen. "Betray us" ?

[iceman_1960]

Need a reliable answer fast ? Internet Guru Kim Komando recommends the Library of Congress website:

"You can post a question to the library%u2019s reference staff. You''ll receive an answer via e-mail. Or, if you don%u2019t want to wait, chat with a librarian. This service is available Monday through Friday, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern Time."

Library of Congress ("loc") website:

http://www.loc.gov/

[abbe91]

"If the auto makers make less consuming cars, which are therefore smaller.
Posted by CO2Max at 09:05 AM : Sep 25, 2007"

We are not talking about less consuming cars, but more fuel-efficient cars. Also, you don''t need a big SUV to go and buy bread next door.

[prinzowhales]

Perception5--While I''m not a "liberal", I am rather curious why you would choose to buy into Maliki''s spurious line...even FBI Chief Mueller said that they could make no case against Osama bin CIA. They don''t even know who the alleged hijackers are--and haven''t changed the names of those accused even though seven of them are alive--this would be the kiss of death to any other confabulation that depended on the existence of dead suspects.

At least Maliki, when he chooses to spread manure, has Americans ready and willing to gobble it up, not surprisingly, they are the same old War Pig supporters who gobbled up the manure regarding Saddam''s WMDs and al Qaeda links.

[abbe91]

"I dearly hope all those who think global warming is a joke are correct. But what if you are wrong?
Posted by barbaraf4 at 09:04 AM : Sep 25, 2007"

And what if we spend a lot of energy/money on CO2 emissions and scams like bio-fuels instead of addressing the real threats and looking for real solutions ?

[aaabee-2009]

What self-respecting oilman would ever put the environment over his profit margin?

This is the same person who wants to open Alaska to drilling and who has enabled American car makers to produce wasteful excessive vehicles, to their own detriment. This is the man who is in Iraq to get their oil.

Bush is in perfect sync with his personal agenda which is completely out of sync with the rest of the world. Do you know where Bush will be when the problem-solving we face now becomes crisis-solving in the near future, he will be living on his secure ranch finishing up an long life of privilage and luxury at the expense of the entire globe. Long live King George the 0th.

To REALLY save the planet, get rid of the Bushes.

[iceman_1960]

"Liberals, any questions?"
- Posted by perception5 at 09:02 AM : Sep 25, 2007

Can you define "Victory in Iraq" in realistic terms ? (Not Pie-in-the-Sky stuff)

[iceman_1960]

"What self-respecting oilman would ever put the environment over his profit margin?"

Bobby Ewing always did.

That''s why JR hated him so much.

[aaabee-2009]

Also, you don''''t need a big SUV to go and buy bread next door. Posted by abbe91 at 09:11 AM : Sep 25, 2007

Where I work, the parking lot is 60-65% full of those huge Dodge Ram type trucks, some of them double cabs, lifted with fancy chrome tool boxes, winches, shiney rims. These guys drive them in every day, no car pooling, one guy per truck, they aren''t hauling a dang thing but their lone carcasses.

All for show. All for ego. All for looks. I pull in with my base model Hyundai. LOL.

Since no one really can predict the consequences of our continued pollution, how about erring on the side of doing the right thing, which means putting our kids future ahead of our egos.

Reading the posts here, it is really sad all the excuses people are coming up with not to care about that future world, whether or not their kids will have a decent place to exist in.

[co2max]

You can deride the merits of the vehicles people drive, no matter how much bigger they are than yours is, but as soon as you do, you are dictating lifestyles to people, invading their privacy and interfering with how they live. This is wrong.
Take your dictatorial standards and apply them to your kids, but leave the rest of us out of it. Fuel economy makes sense when you consider that it is wasteful and expensive to drive a huge V-8 truck to go out for a loaf of bread, but by imposing higher standards (the CAFE regs) on all vehicles, you will be forcing a situation that ultimately will put more individual wheels on the road and increase emmissions of all kinds.

[co2max]

"Our leaders should have been acting on this issue all along. Its like Bush wants to be recorded in history as a dolt."
Posted by jh6379 at 09:35 AM
----------------------
So, are you one of those who thinks that Global Warming is all Bush''s fault? Are you one of those who wants to rename Hurricane Katrine, Hurricane Bush?
That is utter nonsense!

[barbaraf4]

"And what if we spend a lot of energy/money on CO2 emissions and scams like bio-fuels instead of addressing the real threats and looking for real solutions?" Posted by abbe91

But we aren''t doing either, and by the way, what are the *real* threats? Along the road to emission control, we might find a solution for world humger.

[drinuk]

Very clever this Global Warming Scam, impose serious and expensive restrictions and regulations upon your competitors, i.e. China, India, Russia and all the little developing nations so that the benefit of "Cheap" labour is nullified. It is pointless arguing with Green Lefties, Rockerfellas boy Gore is playing right into their hands, they are his mouthpiece. The World is changing, it always has and always will, we have coped with it previously and will do so again.

It will all be totally academic, if as scientists predict, the Super Volcano that is Yellowstone Park goes Bang, the World will go into oblivion for at least ten years.

Don''t believe the Bull, it is simply the Corporate Criminals striving to get their hands on the developing nations cash.

[co2max]

jh6379-
The basic premise of global warming is not a scam.
However, the propaganda machine that seeks to scare the world into action against a non-threat is a horrid scame and must be stopped. I don''t have confidence that social sensibilities will be enough to let this garbage die a natural death. We must preserve truth in science and make sure that the monster of climate change is only a myth.

[rwassel]

"As I sit in Cheyenne, Wyo, where it is currently 44 degrees (Farhenhiet) and the forecast for tonight is calling for a 60% chance of rain mixed with SNOW, I continue to wonder, WHEN WILL GLOBAL WARMING HIT WYOMING? I can''''t afford these heating bills!"

Funny - as I sit in MY home in Missouri, which hit 93 degrees yesterday (a little balmy for late September, huh?), I was asking myself the same question...then I remembered that 10 of the 11 hottest years on record all happened in past ten years. But I''m sure it''s just a hoax, right?

[rwassel]

"Liberals, any questions?" Posted by perception5

Uhhh, yeah...why are you talking about Iraq and 9-11 on a story about global warming? Freakin right wing idiot...

[clestes-2009]

How typical of shrub. He is great at destoying something, but can''t be bothered to help save anything!!

Worse president in US history, no doubt about it.

[clestes-2009]

rwassel,

They KNOW they have no solid ground to back up their claims that global warming is a myth. The evidence is overwhelming.

So they do what they always do when confronted with facts, they drag in some other topic and Bill Clinton to try and cloud the issue with irrevlences.

Bunch of cowards!

[co2max]

"then I remembered that 10 of the 11 hottest years on record all happened in past ten years. But I''''m sure it''''s just a hoax, right?"
---------------------------------
You can complain about the weather, but when it comes to climate and its long-term behavior, what you have expressed here is meaningless. Weather can be simultaneously extreme at opposing ends of the temperature sprectrum in locations not all so far apart from one another (as in Wyoming to Missouri, between which there is a significant elevation gradient). Even during The Little Ice Age, there were brief periods of intense heat and drought. The Medieval Warm Period was marked by cold snaps and freakish snowfalls too in some places. Anecdotal evidence of climate can be useful only to a certain extent.

[drinuk]

jh6379, You carry on believing what you wish, carry on being manipulated like sheep and as cannon fodder for the Corporate Criminals, pay the extra taxes they will impose upon you in the name of Global Warming. I expect you believe in Bird Flu too and support the collusion between our beloved government and their friends in Big Pharma who are spending billions of OUR dollars on useless vaccine. I think the word is Patsy! Get Real for Christs Sake.

[clestes-2009]

drinuk you are a complete idiot. You make no sense at all.

[drinuk]

celestes, strange comment, you usually write with such clarity and common sense.

[clestes-2009]

CO2Max,

global warming does not mean that every spot on the earth is heating up.

It is better titled global climate change because that is what is happening. The climate is changing. Areas that were wet are now dry. Areas that were cold ate now moderate. Trees that used to grow only below the Mason Dixon line are now growing far north of that. The most dramatic and scary is the melting of the ice caps at both poles.

People that expect their area to suddenly get warm do not really understand what global warming is. the important question is how much has the climate of your area, no matter where, has CHANGED. It does not always mean warm up.

[themurph2000]

Cleaning up the planet, as you suggest, has very little to do with the actual topic of dealing with global warming. Carbon dioxide is not pollution; don''''t let the Supreme Court fool misguide you.
People buy cars and SUVs because they are useful. If the auto makers make less consuming cars, which are therefore smaller, people will just have to make more trips. What''''s the gain there?
Posted by CO2Max

First of all, whether it cleans the air or not, getting more fuel-effecient vehicles DOES alleviate our dependence on foreign oil. Secondly, if someone has 4 kids and has to stop at the grocery store 2-3 times a week to bring home 10-15 bags of stuff, I can understand that. But I have at least 4 friends myself that drive SUV''s. My brother has owned 2 consecutive Dodge Durangoes. These SUVs get about 12-15 mpg in the city, which is where he primarily drives. I would have understood it better if 2 of his three kids weren''t already in college and had cars of their own. When his three kids were young, they had a minivan, which served them great for hockey and football practices. Buying a Durango only for himself and his wife is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, you can''t convince him of that. (and he has a Masters in finance)

[clestes-2009]

drinuk,

Your post was rambling and made ridiculous assumptions.

[co2max]

drinuk almost seems to have hope that the Yellowstone Supervolcano will blow in the near future. It would be a problem solver, sure. But it''s a case of the solution being worse than the malady it cures. This is nothing to plan for that volcanic burst is very likely centuries, if not more, in the future.

Meanwhile, as we consider climate change, think in the same terms. Real impact of climate change is a long-term proposition. Global warming has been going on at varying rates over the past 12,000 years. We''re not having much influence upon it, even if we were to try (to slow, stop or even to accelerate it).