APEC = climate change distraction, polar bears disappearing = climate change reality
George Bush and John Howard did their best this week to try very hard to appear to be doing something about climate change at the APEC meeting in Sydney. With other pacific rim countries they declared some completely meaningless “voluntary, aspirational” goals for reducing emissions which is just polluting business as usual.
As Catherine puts it: "The Sydney Declaration is really just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change"
The fact that Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile then had the nerve to call the distraction “historic” would be almost as funny as this APEC security breach stunt (video) if it wasn’t a very determined effort by Australia and the US to derail the Kyoto process (Kyoto being the only international way to actually reduce emissions).
Back in the real world distractions like this means that the US is fiddling while species head to extinction.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre reported that this summer, the polar ice cap in the Arctic has shrunk by almost one million square kilometres below last year’s record melt.
And yesterday the US Geological Survey reported that with the current rate of melting, by 2050 two thirds of the 16,000 polar bear population will be gone. They will disappear along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia and lose 42 percent of the Arctic range they need to live in during summer in the Polar Basin when they hunt and breed. A polar bear’s life usually lasts about 30 years.
This is what the leaders DIDN’T talk about. This is the science behind the concern on global warming. This is why we need countries to commit to deep cuts in C02. We need atmospheric C02 levels to stabilise and start dropping within 10-15 years.
This is a real, worsening planetary emergency, and in the real world no one in charge should ever be allowed to get away with “aspiring” to address a life threatening emergency.
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Comments
Get real Mr Bush, stop F$#KIN with the environment. All the money in the world won't help bring back polar bears and other species you have personally had a had in handing extinction to.
Posted by: Stephen J Shoppell | September 9, 2007 5:14 PM
Don't get me wrong, I definitely agree that all this feet dragging about changing how countries make energy from polluting methods to clean methods is getting very old and is ridiculously detrimental to improving our future climate, but Maybe President Bush's government and Prime Minister John Howard's government need to be strategically manipulated as one would with children who refuses to do what they have been asked. When a child is doing that, you let them have their moment, stop harping on the original request and start moving them toward the same goal, but along the path the child has now created. Getting someone to do what you want often starts with a compliment rather than a "dear Lord you're an idiot" as galling as that may seem when one is working with adults. So let's get started on convincing them to act on their Sydney Declaration and demand real outcomes and accountability based on it rather than Kyoto. Let's face it, once the child has made up his mind, there's no reasoning with him.
Posted by: Leah Share | September 12, 2007 5:35 PM
Australia has tried to sabotage Kyoto right from the start, as we sell heaps of coal. Hopefully this will change with the predicted change of government later this year, and Peter Garrett (who will hopefully be Environment Minister) will ratify Kyoto in December. Two good books on Australia's stance over the past decade+ is 'Scorcher' by Clive Hamilton (Australia Institute) and 'High and Dry' by Guy Pearse.
Posted by: BRATALIAN | September 19, 2007 5:08 AM