U.N. Kicks Off Global Warming Conference

Biggest-Ever Climate Summit Aims To Build New International Agreement By 2009

(AP)  Delegates and scientists from around the world opened the biggest-ever climate conference Monday, aiming to build a new international pact by 2009 to combat global warming, or risk economic and environmental disaster caused by rising temperatures.

Some 10,000 conferees, activists and journalists from nearly 190 countries gathered on the resort island of Bali for two weeks of U.N.-led talks that follow a series of scientific reports this year concluding that the world has the technology to slow global warming, but must act immediately.

The Bali meeting will be the first major climate change conference since former U.S. Vice President Al Gore -- due to arrive next week -- and a U.N. scientific council won the Nobel Peace Prize in October for their environmental work, fueling the growing sense of urgency as ice caps melt, oceans rise and extreme weather increases.

"The negotiations have to move faster and more decisively here in Bali," said Kenyan Environment Minister Kivutha Kibwana, the outgoing president of the conference, which met last year in Nairobi. "We have an opportunity ... to save the environment and save the planet Earth for future generations."

The immediate aim of the Bali conference will be to launch negotiations toward a pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol on global warming when it expires at the end of 2012, and set an agenda for the talks and a deadline. The United Nations says such an agreement should be concluded by 2009 in order to have a system in place in time.

A main thrust of the conference will be to draw the United States, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, into the process. Washington did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that mandatory cuts in emissions would harm the economy and calling into question the veracity of global warming science.

Confronted with the scientific reports of the past year, however, the government of U.S. President George W. Bush has signaled a willingness to play a larger role in the negotiations, and U.N. officials agree that they must craft a post-Kyoto framework that Washington will go along with.

Among the most contentious issues ahead will be whether emission cuts should be mandatory or voluntary, as the United States favors. Also on the agenda will be to what extent up-and-coming economies like China and India will have to rein in their skyrocketing emissions, and how to help the world's poorest countries adapt to a worsening climate.

The United States could find itself isolated at the conference, now that Australian Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, whose party swept to power in general elections just one week ago, immediately put signing the Kyoto pact at the top of his international agenda.

"We see a lot of momentum," said Eric Young, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. "We need the U.S. to do as much as the rest of the world."

Trying to fend off charges that America is not doing enough, Bush said last week that a final Energy Department report showed U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas, declined by 1.5 percent last year while its economy grew.

The meeting comes after a Nobel Prize-winning U.N. network of scientists issued a landmark report concluding the level of carbon and other heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions must be stabilized by 2015 and decline from there to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

The solutions are within reach, they said, from investing in renewable energy to improving energy efficiency. Without action, temperatures will rise, resulting in droughts, severe weather, dying species and other consequences, they said.

The Kyoto pact signed a decade ago required 36 industrial nations to reduce carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses emitted by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources. It set relatively small target reductions averaging 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Much of what will happen behind closed doors in Bali will revolve around nuances, with debates over words like "commitment" versus "mandatory."

At best, analysts believe, Bali could lead to a two-year negotiation in which the United States under a new administration, the Europeans and other industrial nations commit to deepening blanket emissions cuts.

And they say major developing countries could agree to enshrine some national policies -- China's auto emission standards, for example, or energy-efficiency targets for power plants -- as international obligations.

[sbb2211]

The GW alarmists are finally starting to use their brains. They finally decided to meet somewhere that WON"T be snowed out!

If the ice sheets melt (of which the VAST majority are floating in the oceans already), the sea levels will NOT rise. For the same reason that the level of water in a glass with ice cubes in it does not rise when the ice cubes melt. They (the ice cubes) ALREADY displace an amount of water equal to their weight!

BASIC SCIENCE PEOPLE! I was taught this in elementary school!

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by SBB2211

It works for a glass of water, but understand that the ice caps, especially the largest, which are Antarctic and Greenland, are not floating in oceans, they are mostly on land, where they displace no water. (also junior high school)

When they melt, not only will sea levels rise, because water does expand with increasing temperatures, (remember that also, from junior high), but you will see an increase of tectonic earthquakes and volcanic activity as the weight shifts the balances between the plates. (geology, early high school)

If the inrush of cold, non salt water disrupts the flows of undersea currents like the Gulf stream, for example a major part of what keeps Europe habitable in the winter (also junior high)will be jeopardized, and the effects suitably unpredictable that it would be wise to begin planning for these shifts.

[micma-2009]

Ultimately we have a choice:

As a nation, we can lead the world in inovation and developement of sustainable energy technology and be net exporters of this technology. Or we can sit around denying the reality of global warming and ultimately have to import the technology from more intelligent countries.

[micma-2009]

Ultimately we have a choice:

As a nation, we can lead the world in inovation and developement of sustainable energy technology and be net exporters of this technology. Or we can sit around denying the reality of global warming and ultimately have to import the technology from more intelligent countries.

If we elect another Republican President, I can guarantee we''ll be importing the technology and fall behind other nations. A Republican would continue to invest in fossil fuels because their party gets so much money and support from these industries. Just look at what Bush has done as a model. As soon as he took office, he cut government funding on sustainable energy research, boosted subsidies to oil and coal companies and invaded Iraq to steal their oil. We will spend 2 trillion dollars securing Iraq''s oil for the oil companies as the rest of the world invests in and converts to alternative energy.

[monkfellow]

Okay,ya got me.
I deny global warming exists.
I teach college.I have a Master''s degree
Find me and have me removed.Have my degree revoked.
After all, only the ignorant or right-wing are the deniers, right??

[Solarrays247]

With all due respect, monkfellow, teaching some college level courses and holding a Masters''s degree (in what field??) are not indicators that an individual is capable of utilizing common sense, either. We do not deem you important enough to seek out, so relax. And you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

[ubrew12]

They''re in Bali for Booty. Talk about a junket.

[ubrew12]

SBB2211 said: "I was taught this [ice displaces water] in elementary school!"

Too bad that''s where your education ended. Latest results on CSPAN this morning: Antarctica is losing ~100 gigatons of ice/year, Greenland ~150 gigatons/year, and Alaska glaciers ~50 gigatons/year (gravity effect on polar satellites is how its calculated). All perched over sealevel, all going to contribute to sealevel rise. The experts disagree, but 1-4m of sealevel rise by 2100 is being quoted.

[rheola-2009]

Monkfellow

Is it not strange that a few experts here on this board, are so more knowledgable than the majority of the relevant scientists around the world, and have a better understanding of Global warming, than the relevant represantatives of the absolute majority of governments around the world,of course with the very noticable exception of that government that represents the people of most materialistic and wasteful society in the world.



I feel so humbled by these extraordinarily knowledgeable persons.

[denn034]

At one time you hear of the hole in the atmosphere getting smaller proves that global warming is decreasing, then, you hear at another time that it''s getting worse. One gets tired of the seesaw.

[mediapreachr]

''They''''re in Bali for Booty. Talk about a junket.
Posted by ubrew12 at 03:22 PM : Dec 02, 2007''
Yep,more bureaucrats looking for handouts.No,thanks.

[downtowner97]

Ozone layer hole and global warming = two different subjects. The ozone hole isn''t a problem any more due to the elimintation of most CFC''s. Global warming is cyclic and has happened at the end of every major and minor ice age.

Forget whether global warming is caused by burning oil, lots of pain, suffering, war and poverty are caused by burning oil, and that''s reason enough to stop. Go to fieldsoffuel.com and see the solution to the problem.

[hawksprings]

They shoulda had the conference in Des Moines, Iowa... oh wait, it was closed for a blizzard.
Global Warming hasn''t come to Iowa yet.

They''re always last to get everything.

[rheola-2009]

Hawksprings

I realize now what your problem is.

"There are none so blind as those who cannot see"

How is it going old fellow, I see you are still hanging in with the losers.

[octavianfdlr]

rheola,

I realize now what your problem is.

"There are none so blind as those who will not see"

"There are none so deaf as those who will not hear"

(Although the Global Warming conspiracy has come to New York, as well as Des Moines, Iowa, the alleged higher temperatures have not.)

[rheola-2009]

[alphaa10-2009]

octavianfdlr said, "...(Although the Global Warming conspiracy has come to New York, as well as Des Moines, Iowa, the alleged higher temperatures have not.)"
---
Even a grade schooler has better understanding of the consensus about global warming. And even Bush acknowledges much of global warming is man-made and remediable, and has issued public statements to that effect.

Said Bush, "Each country needs to recognize that we must reduce our greenhouse gases..."

Bush has been on both sides of this issue, but we should not forget it was Bush who abrograted the just-signed Kyoto Treaty, in order not to burden his political donors with pollution abatement costs.

Where Bush differs from the scientists is Bush recognizes global warming is a problem, but he doesn''t favor spending money to address the problem.

Denial of global warming is a pet GOP cause, because taking responsible measures against climate change threatens the GOP cash cow of Big Oil. Ultimately, the GOP argument against global warming is about money, not science.

Ironically enough, any postponement of climate measures will be even more costly for all of us, GOP bozos included.

[co2max]

Belief in a climate change caused by humans is hardly any different than the primitive and idiotic belief in witchcraft.

Science, true science, makes it abundantly clear that the current global warming (not quite so severe as many have been lead to believe) is just the latest phase of an ages-long natural process.

If the U.N. conferees really believe they can change global warming (for the better, of course), perhaps they can also find a way for us to run away from our shadow or to overcome gravity as well.

When will the U.S. population ever realize that the United Nations is NOT concerned about the welfare of this country? In fact, they will not be satisfied till they manage to squash this country, for whatever reason. The global warming campaign has finally given the U.N. and all its idiot member countries they handle they have sought to do the job--IF WE LET THEM.