U.S. Rejects Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Cuts

Despite Scientists' Declaration And Senate Action, U.S. Official Wants No Mandatory Reductions

(CBS/AP)  The United States, participating with nearly 190 nations in a United Nations conference on climate change, is holding firm in its opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, despite mounting international and domestic pressure.

Top scientists at the two-week-long conference have jumped into the political battle over global warming at the international gathering on global warming, held on the Indonesian island of Bali.

They urged mankind to make deep cuts in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.

More than 200 experts issued a declaration calling for a 50 percent reduction in such emissions by 2050 - a rare policy prescription by scientists who usually limit themselves to presenting evidence and leaving the politicians to choose which remedies to take.

The scientists aimed to spur talks here over launching negotiations, to extend over the next two years or so, on an emissions-cutting agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The current pact requires 36 industrial nations to reduce the gases by a modest 5 percent below 1990 levels. The United States is the only industrial nation to reject it.

"What this declaration is about is delivering a clear message. It's got the weight of the scientific community behind it," said Australian climatologist Matthew England, a group spokesman. "It means we have to have a radical change to the way we power this planet. We have to start reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possibly can."

Another petition spokesman, Andrew Pitman of Australia, said some scientists declined to sign the declaration, "on grounds that we need to cut much more deeply."

But top American negotiator Harlan Watson, the State Department's Senior Climate Negotiator, shrugged off the latest scientific declaration, without having read it.

Watson suggested the scientist's declaration lacked the weight of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, the scientific group that shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

"There are thousands of scientists involved in the IPCC. This is the opinion of 200," he told reporters.

"I haven't seen the statement and its content, so, no, I can't endorse something that I haven't seen."

The United States, the world's largest producer of climate-warming gases, resisted calls for strict limits on emissions, even as the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed a bill Wednesday to cut pollutants by 70 percent by 2050 from electric power plants, manufacturing and transportation.

The bill, introduced by Sen. John Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., also would create a "cap-and-trade" system whereby companies would have greenhouse gas pollution allowances that they could sell if they went below the emission limits, or buy if they found they could not meet the requirements.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the committee and a longtime denier of global warming, has promised a filibuster.

The U.S. Senate action cheered environmentalists and others in Bali clamoring for dramatic action to stop global warming. U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer led off his daily briefing Thursday by hailing the "encouraging sign" from the United States.

David Waskow, of the Oxfam humanitarian agency, said the Senate legislation suggested that many in the U.S. were eager to assume leadership in the fight against global warming.

"It does show the seriousness of the U.S. Congress in addressing these issues, and really sends a positive signal to developing nations in particular that the United States Congress is not going to sit idly by," he said. "That is quite distinct from ... the Bush administration."

But Bush administration officials at Bali said neither the Senate action nor the decision earlier this week by Australia's newly-elected Prime Minister to sign the Kyoto Protocol - after the country stood for years with the U.S. in opposition - would have an impact on Washington's stance at the conference.

The conference is marked by a tense standoff between two camps, with a majority supporting mandatory emissions cuts on one side, and opponents (such as the United States) on the other. Failure to act on greenhouse gas emissions, experts say, would allow rising temperatures to trigger devastating droughts, flooding and other environmental damage.

On Thursday, the Australian delegation said Canberra supported a U.N. document that mentioned cutting greenhouse gas emissions by between 25 percent and 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. The government has already proposed 60 percent cuts by 2050.

However, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused on Thursday to commit to the 2020 figures, saying it was premature to set firm targets before he receives a comprehensive report he has commissioned on the issue, due next year.

The United States and ally Japan are proposing that the post-Kyoto agreement favor voluntary emission targets, arguing that mandatory cuts would threaten economic growth which generates money needed to fund technology to effectively fight global warming.

Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, the host of the conference, said the mood in the closed-door negotiations was "serious, apprehensive," but that there were hopes the U.S. would slowly change its stance.

"I think the United States will be judicious enough to accept the changes of atmosphere," said Witoelar, who took over as president of the U.N. climate change conference this year.

"I don't think we should pressure them, they will come by themselves," he said. "We should not demonize anyone. We still have another week."

[erasmus6]

hawksprings

Maybe when I come I will bring you a little gift.

A nice framed picture of your favorite person, AL GORE.:):):)

[erasmus6]

"It sure is a beautiful snowfall, I''''m going to miss it when Global Warming hits." posted by hawksprings


I noticed you said, WHEN Global Warming hits, not IF global warming hits.:)

[erasmus6]

"And one of the Denver News stations just said that this storm has already put the snowfall in the Rockies west of Denver above normal for the year." posted by hawksprings


What is expected to happen in the beginning, is we are going to have erratic weather, which is happening right now.

[hawksprings]

Hey erasmus, you gotta deal.
I''ll even spring for a Denver Mattress. But you''ll have to wait for the boy to move off to college before a guest room becomes available.

You can go to the Night Shows at Frontier Days and skip the whole cruelty to animals thing. Tho if you''ll just watch some bull-riding, I think you would decide it''s the cowboys getting the raw end of the deal.

By the way, I just got done shoveling about 7 inches of Global Warming off my driveway.
And one of the Denver News stations just said that this storm has already put the snowfall in the Rockies west of Denver above normal for the year.

It sure is a beautiful snowfall, I''m going to miss it when Global Warming hits.

[toolmangler-2009]

posted on 16-8-2006 @ 03:58 AM

The Whole Solar System is Undergoing Global Warming.

This is a fact that not many people know about, and quite a few people, would like that there was no evidence to back this fact, because some people would like the world to believe that human activity is the cause for global warming on Earth. I am not advocating that releasing harmful gases, and chemicals in the oceans and atmosphere are good, but after a few years of research, I have come to understand that global warming is happening in the Solar System, not just on Earth.

Some people just want to listen to what some environmentalists are claiming, that global warming is happening because of human activity, and we are the cause for the extreme changes in climate we have been seeing lately getting worse and worse.


Martian Ice Shrinking:

New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune.
That''s just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA''s Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars. Boulders tumbling down a Martian slope left tracks that weren''t there two years ago. New impact craters formed since the 1970s suggest changes to age-estimating models. And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars'' south pole have shrunk from the previous year''s size, suggesting a climate change in progress.

mars.jpl.nasa.gov...

[erasmus6]

hawksprings

"If you come, I''''ll buy you lunch at the Tortilla Factory, a little dive on the south side of town."

Why thanks for inviting me! I think that I will pass on the rodeo though because I am not for cruelty to animals.:)

If I come, can I inspect my new digs? Remember you said that when it starts flooding I can come and stay with you? The only thing is, I think that I should be able to have the guest room with the NEW bed and not the kids room. I mean geez, I think that is only fair considering that WHEN that happens, it means that I will be proven right and you WRONG.

AND I think that I should get a reward for being right, like maybe breakfast in bed? What do you think?:)

[clestes-2009]

Another chance missed by the Bush admin to leave a legacy of something other than a failed war.

Bush will go down in history as the most uncaring idiot in our history. Time as time he has had chances to paint himself other than the wanna be war president he would like.

He is pathetic.

[formrusmcsgt]

"More than 200 experts issued a declaration calling for a 50 percent reduction in such emissions by 2050"....while Dubya keeps his head buried in the sand regarding the issue.

[gunownerdan]

All the Bush administration has to do is have Bush look outside. When he says "It doesn''t look like there''s too much CO2 in the air to me", that''s good enough for them.

[ubrew12]

hawksprings said: "There''''s NEVER been any drought on the planet until Global Warming came along: FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, ALL DROUGHT..IS..THE FAULT OF HUMAN BEINGS "
True dat. It''s hard to separate the one from the other. The people with the best means for doing so (climatologists) have been roundly ignored for 20 years, however. That smacks of massive-scale disinformation, by this time. Indeed, I call it conspiracy.