RUSUTSU, Japan, July 8, 2008
G-8 Agrees To Halve Emissions By 2050
Nations Stop Short Of Tougher Stance On Greenhouse Gases; Urges China, India To Join Effort
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Scientists say urgent action is needed to make greenhouse gas emissions peak in the next 10 to 15 years, and then to steeply fall to limit the increase in global temperatures to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). In the above picture, smoke billows from the chimneys of a brown coal power plant near Duesseldorf, Germany. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
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The Group of Eight countries - the United States, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Britain, Canada and Italy - also called on all major countries such as China and India to join in the effort to stem the potentially dangerous rise in world temperatures.
"This global challenge can only be met by a global response, in particular, by the contributions from all major economies," the G-8 said in a joint, five-page communique on climate.
The G-8 last year at a summit in Germany pledged to seriously consider the same target, and this year's Japanese hosts had hoped to solidify that commitment at the current meeting in Toyako, northern Japan.
The G-8 has been under pressure to voice commitments by wealthy nations to push forward stalled U.N.-led talks on forging a new accord to battle global warming by the end of next year to succeed the troubled Kyoto Protocol when its first phase expires in 2012.
The United States hailed the agreement as substantial progress, and a top European Union official called it a "new, shared vision" by wealthy nations on climate.
Tuesday's statement, however, addressed total world emissions rather than just those produced by wealthy countries, and critics attacked it for failing to go much beyond the G-8 statement last year. The communique also did not set a base year from which emissions would be cut.
"So little progress after a whole year of minister meetings and negotiations is not only a wasted opportunity, it falls dangerously short of what is needed to protect people and nature from climate change," said Kim Carstensen, Director WWF Global Climate Initiative.
Environmentalists have argued that the 50 percent reduction target was insufficient, and have clamored for ambitious midterm targets for rich countries to cut emissions by 2020. Japan itself has set a national target for cutting emissions by between 60 percent and 80 percent by 2050, but has not yet set a midterm goal.
"To be meaningful and credible, a long term goal must have a base year, it must be underpinned by ambitious midterm targets and actions," said Marthinus van Schalkwyk, South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. "As it is expressed in the G8 statement, the long term goal is an empty slogan."
Shorter-term targets have been much more difficult to reach consensus on, since they would require much quicker action than long-term goals. The United States, for instance, has argued that meeting a Europe-supported goal of reducing emissions by between 25 percent and 40 percent by 2020 is unrealistic.
In a nod to such disagreements, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda - the summit host - said the G-8 countries would set individual targets, and he did not mention a range. The statement also said that the issue would be discussed in talks on Monday among the 17-member Major Economies Meeting, a U.S.-led group working on climate change.
"The G-8 will implement aggressive midterm total emission reduction targets on a country-by-country basis," Fukuda said.
The agreement also urged nations to set high goals for energy efficiency, promote clean energy and technologies, and mobilize financing to help poor nations cut their own emissions and grapple with the effects of warming.
Scientists say urgent action is needed to make greenhouse gas emissions peak in the next 10 to 15 years, and then to steeply fall to limit the increase in global temperatures to under 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Temperatures beyond that could trigger the worst effects of warming, such as melting ice sheets and extreme weather.
The U.N.-led climate talks have been plagued by divisions. Quickly developing nations have urged wealthy countries to take the first, toughest steps. The United States, Japan and others, meanwhile, say they want to hear what up-and-coming economies like China are willing to do.
The Europeans have pushed harder for rich countries to reinvigorate talks by making unilateral commitments. Germany, for instance, has pledged to cut emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and by 30 percent if other countries join the effort.
The United States said Tuesday's pact fit with its stance that all major economies need to participate in reducing emissions.
"It has always been the case that a long term goal is one that must be shared. So the G-8 has offered today is a G-8 view of what that goal could be and should be but that can only occur with the agreement of all the other parties," said Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement would support the U.N.-led effort.
"This is a strong signal to citizens around the world," he said in a statement, calling for a renewed push behind the U.N. talks, which aim to conclude a new pact at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tuesday that his first meeting with U.S President George W. Bush since taking office brought no progress toward bridging deep disagreements between the former Cold War foes.
Deeply wary of creeping Western clout in former Soviet republics and satellite states, Russia adamantly opposes the Bush administration's plans to deploy missile defense installations in Central Europe and its support for bids by Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 98 CommentsNew evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests that a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.
Hidden 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes can range up to more than a mile (2 kilometers) in diameter and a few hundred yards (meters) tall. They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface.
The eruptions discharge large amounts of carbon dioxide, helium, trace metals and heat into the water over long distances, he said.
The research, detailed in Thursday''s issue of the journal Nature, was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation and Woods Hole.
BAN THE VOLCANOES!
The scientists say the heat released by the explosions is not contributing to the melting of the Arctic ice, but Sohn says the huge volumes of CO2 gas that belched out of the undersea volcanoes likely contributed to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. How much, he couldn%u2019t say.
And scientists have known this for years.
Which explains why Al Gore%u2019s carbon footprint is big enough to fill 20 men. He knows that what he peddles is snake oil.
"This kind of implosive seismicity is rare anywhere on Earth," said study author Robert Sohn, a geophysicist at the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Sohn''s team suggests that the amount of carbon dioxide would need to be at least ten times more than any other documented in seafloor samples in order to produce debris scattered over such a large area.
This earthquake swarm was the largest in recorded history along a spreading mid-ocean ridge and prompted researchers to return to the area for further investigation.
Powerful eruptions sent a plume of carbon dioxide, helium, and liquid lava up into the Arctic waters. When the material cooled, rock debris fell to the ocean floor, he explained.
Which explains why Al Gore%u2019s carbon footprint is big enough to fill 20 men. He knows that what he peddles is snake oil.
The volcanic events at Gakkel Ridge were not a one-off, the team says, and could be ongoing. Similar but smaller explosions were detected by seismometers mounted on the Arctic ice more than two years after the 1999 eruption and the rock fragments observed are of different ages.
"It opens the door to a lot of things that we didn''t suspect could happen," says David Clague of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, who was not involved in the research.
Gakkel Ridge is the slowest spreading ridge on Earth. Reves-Sohn and his team believe ultra-slow-spreading ridges create the ideal conditions for deep explosions because they give the CO2 enough time to accumulate into a single chamber.
He says the CO2 also may contribute to shallow-water explosive eruptions that were previously attributed to steam.
Posted by Dumbocrat at 07:10 AM : Jul 08, 2008
It is absolutely AMAZING how stupid some people are!! Even his Fuhrer now admits that Gore was right and what does this simple minded Nazi do? Attacks the Nobel Prize Winner! Yeah Sparky just keep up the denial and excuses... you are gaining ground.... toward that padded cell!! SIEG HEIL BUSH
Robert Sohn, WHOI geophysicist, lead author and chief scientist of the July 27, 2007, Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition, estimates that exploding mixtures of lava and gas were expelled at speeds of more than 500 meters a second.
Sohn says the large volumes of CO2 gas that belched out of the undersea volcanoes likely contributed to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
Icebergs breaking away and polar bears supposedly drowning are good theater, but they do not reflect reality. In April, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published a study, based on last September''s data, showing Arctic ice has shrunk from 13 million square kilometers to just 3 million.
What the WWF didn''t mention was that by March of this year the Arctic ice had recovered to 14 million square kilometers and that ice-cover around the Bering Strait and Alaska was at its highest level ever recorded.
Ice freezes. Ice melts. That''s what ice does.
Posted by Dumbocrat at 07:01 AM : Jul 08, 2008
What grade did you get through in school? Honest?? Your lack of basic knowledge of even simple things is lacking so badly, it would be funny IF it weren''t so sad. Now it has been CLEARLY documented over the last 10-15 years that the Ice Cap at the North Pole has been slowly melting. What does THIS poor uneducated loser point to as a fault? A Valcano! Yep that''s right folks we have had an eruption of 15 YEARS now that is melting the Ice Cap. Wow! Can you imagine anyone buying a 15 YEAR eruption?? THAT is REALLY REALLY stupid!! Sieg Heil Bush
At the 2008 International Conference on Climate Change, hosted by the Heartland Institute, keynote speaker Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute and the University of Virginia debunked claims of "unprecedented" melting of Arctic ice. He showed how Arctic temperatures were warmer during the 1930s and the vast majority of Antarctica is indeed cooling.
Earth is not a museum, but a geologically active place that reminds us frequently how relatively puny our activities are. The WHOI''s voyage to the bottom of the sea shows it is climate alarmists who are skating on thin ice
AlGore deserves the Nobel price, because he found a way to profit from this.
I know you libs can''t read or write well, so i will explain.
The Gakel ridge is not 1 volcano. It is a series of volcanoes hundreds of miles long where the earth plates are seperating. By the way Volcanoes account for 97% of all Greenhouse gases. This NEW discovery proves that this ridge got active about 10 years ago.
Posted by Dumbocrat at 07:23 AM : Jul 08, 2008
lollll...you''re copying and pasting something produced by the "Heartland Institute", Republi-con?
FYI, for all of you who don''t know those shysters:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute
You can buy any opinion you want from them...
Scientists at NOAA''s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory have put together a chart showing Arctic ice relatively stable until a precipitous decline began in 1999 %u2014 the very year the Arctic eruptions started.
By INVESTOR''S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, June 30, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Climate Change: While the media scream that man-made global warming is making the North Pole ice-free, another possible cause is as old as the Earth itself. They just have to look deeper.
The WHOI researchers found that evidence of a series of strong quakes and eruptions as big as the one that buried the ancient city of Pompeii took place in 1999 along the Gakkel Ridge, an underwater mountain range snaking 1,100 miles from the northern tip of Greenland to Siberia.
Their first glimpse of the ocean floor 13,000 feet beneath the Arctic ice through visual and sonar images showed an ocean valet filled with flat-topped volcanoes over a mile wide and hundreds of feet high that remain active. They''re not like Mount St. Helens or Krakatoa, but more like the less bombastic, oozing Kilauea variety that slowly built the Hawaiian Islands.
Robert Sohn, WHOI geophysicist, lead author and chief scientist of the July 27, 2007, Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition, estimates that exploding mixtures of lava and gas were expelled at speeds of more than 500 meters a second.
Sohn says the large volumes of CO2 gas that belched out of the undersea volcanoes likely contributed to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Posted by Dumbocrat at 07:29 AM : Jul 08, 2008
Funny you should ask, and I quote:
[bq]
CEQ [White House Council on Environmental Quality] routinely controlled which climate scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could speak with the media. The White House and the Department of Commerce used this control to steer journalists towards scientists that did not believe that there was a link between climate change and increased hurricane intensity. CEQ documents and a transcribed interview with Kent Laborde, a career public affairs officer at NOAA, demonstrate that all media requests to interview NOAA climate scientists were sent to CEQ for approval.
[eq]
http://www.climatesciencewatch.org/index.php/csw/details/oversight_report_contradicts_lautenbacher/
Volvanoes emit 97% of the CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
A NEW VOLCANOE RIDGE is discovered that contains hundreds of volcanoes and nearly 1,000 miles long.
IT IS UNDER THE AREA WHERE THE ARCTIC ICE IS MELTING.
The latest eruptions from this ridge startedin 1999 the same year the arctic ice began its retreat.
No COnnection? You libs need to smoke some more weed and enlightened yourselves a little more
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You''re obviously a low-educated bumpkin. Got and sources or links for your wild claim of 97%? My guess is no.
One of the biggest contributors of CO2 is plant decay.
You bumpkins are such a hoot.
Plus, more speed traps can be used to ensure that people are reducing their speed. An increase in traffic fine revenue will help alleviate the need for state governments raising taxes (in the short term at least).
(Speed limits for truckers will not change).
This is a clear WIN WIN for everyone! With only a couple of minutes of extra time (on an average route) sacrificed.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 07:22 AM
LOL! That''s a very good example. Apropos!
Posted by zoe2006 at 09:33 AM : Jul 08, 2008
LOL!!! No seriously...ROFLMAO!!!!
Actually, China is doing something...not nearly enough but they are acting. They''re implementing conservation measures more aggressively than the west
and have been acting for several years to address their rate of population growth. What has the west done?
They would do more if they saw that more prosperous nations were stepping up to the plate. Until that happens they have a ready excuse to not do more, so inaction on the G-8s part contributes to inaction on the part of less developed economies.
Clearly no one wants to sacrifice and the poorer nations will not lead the way while prosperous nations continue to be energy pigs. That means the G8 has to take the lead.
This aggrement is not taking the lead. A promise to do something long-term does not address the more important short-term. It''s erely matter of putting off the solution while making it sound like the problem is being addressed when it isn''t. When they agree to do something by 2020 they will be doing something.
Sulu just married his boyfriend.
Its a brave new world out there...
Posted by Fee1Free4U at 10:06 AM : Jul 08, 2008
And why is it that all these hippy, granola crunchers want to turn the planet green anyway??
Wake up! The planet is blue!!!
Sure we need to take care of the planet but I disagree with the poster who is lauding China and the steps they are taking. Just a year or so ago there was a massive problem in a chemical plant that polluted a river that went into Russia. This I know as a fact because our Russian daughter-in-law learned of it from her parents who live in the area.
As for the West, all I can say is that the Niagara River is full of birds, fish, osprey, minks and all sorts of wildlife that is returning to the area. As for our neigbors to the north, they are the greatest polluters of the Great Lakes.
I am just sick and tired of having us, America, labled as the great polluter of the planet.
Posted by godseyesore at 10:25 AM : Jul 08, 2008
Here it is people..here it is!!!!
It''s all George Bush''s fault!
LMAO!!!
Get a life, leeming. And say, how come the goracle did nothing while he was vp for eight years????
Idiot.
Get a life, leeming. And say, how come the goracle did nothing while he was vp for eight years????
Idiot.
Posted by Xlib at 11:00 AM : Jul 08, 2008
And he Gore-ball warming STILL does nothing to help the environment. His use of fossil fuel generated electricity has gone up by 15% since his last exposure! That leaves him at a whopping 23.5x the usage of an average US citizen.
*** is the justification for this???
We ban smoking in restaurants because of the concern of second hand smoke, yet first hand vehicle exhaust is just fine???
New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests that a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.
Hidden 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) beneath the Arctic surface, the volcanoes can range up to more than a mile (2 kilometers) in diameter and a few hundred yards (meters) tall. They formed along the Gakkel Ridge, a lengthy crack in the ocean crust where two rocky plates are spreading apart, pulling new melted rock to the surface.
The eruptions discharge large amounts of carbon dioxide, helium, trace metals and heat into the water over long distances, he said.
The research, detailed in Thursday''''s issue of the journal Nature, was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation and Woods Hole.
BAN THE VOLCANOES!
Posted by sdcjd1 at 11:48 AM : Jul 08, 2008
Probably. That''s when the next ice age is scheduled to begin.
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