Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US must pay climate reparations
Washington Square News - NYU's Official Student Newspaper ^ | September 21, 2015 | Jesus Kumamoto, Contributing writer

Posted on 09/22/2015 9:37:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

With the Paris World Climate Summit taking place in three months, scientists and politicians are raising concerns over the speed at which the effects of climate change are being addressed. Recently, developing countries demanded that the United States and other wealthy nations pay reparations for climate refugees affected in their respective countries. It is past time for the United States to pay its dues as it has a long history of climate inaction, and in 1997 was the only wealthy nation not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a document which, for many nations, represented a first step in reducing their carbon footprint. The United States has already felt the effects of a changing climate, such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, and should mitigate the consequences of these disasters with the country’s abundant resources that poorer nations cannot afford.

The question of environmental reparations is a matter of ecology and humanitarianism. A changing climate could lead to a dangerous trajectory where the fight for resources in countries no longer able to provide for their own populations engage in civil wars or genocide. If a country’s resources are not enough to maintain an entire population, more extremist leaders would be willing to eliminate part of the population in order to have enough resources for the remaining inhabitants. Even if such drastic incidences are not repeated, it is undeniable that dislocated populations are often forced into war or forced to live as refugees. By paying reparations, the United States would allow poorer countries to put in place infrastructure that may help prevent ecological catastrophes which would force populations to be dislocated in the first place. This infrastructure could include seawalls in coastal areas to prevent severe flooding and proper tools for irrigation that would help reduce the impact of drought — things that, if implemented properly, could make the difference between life and death for thousands of people.

Finally, the United States should pay reparations because it is a matter of justice — the United States and China together account for more than a third of all CO2 emissions, and we are far behind other wealthy nations in reducing our emissions. Unless international organizations like the United Nations begin to financially penalize the United States for its irresponsible actions, it is unlikely that we will change our attitude. If the reparation proposals fall short, it should hardly come as a surprise to most of us. But at the very least, we must let American politicians and climate lobbyists know that their inability to take action against climate change will not go unpunished, and that those who suffer as a result shall be in some way compensated.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: aqw; china; climatechange; globaltax; globalwarming; kyotoprotocol; leftwingnuts; paris; reparations; summit
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last
Your tax dollars at work.
1 posted on 09/22/2015 9:37:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

2 posted on 09/22/2015 9:38:52 PM PDT by dead ("I'm up to my eyeball in virgin goats!" - Mullah Omar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Gee, wonder why they are t asking China for reparations? After all, China’s CO2 emissions dwarf ours. /rhetorical


3 posted on 09/22/2015 9:41:32 PM PDT by piytar (Good will be called evil and Evil will be called good.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: piytar

Aren’t*


4 posted on 09/22/2015 9:42:17 PM PDT by piytar (Good will be called evil and Evil will be called good.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is precisely why you can’t take this hyped-up stuff serious.

If we want to talk reparations....why can’t England get reparations for the Norman invasion? Why can’t we get reparations for having watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?


5 posted on 09/22/2015 9:45:20 PM PDT by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Fuch that.


6 posted on 09/22/2015 9:46:14 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

France owes me reparations for my Huguenot forebears who

were robbed of their property and driven out of the country.


7 posted on 09/22/2015 9:47:27 PM PDT by Calpublican (Boehner,McConnell,Corker,McCain,Alexander,Hatch,Graham+More=Corrupt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dead

Wow, I have never seen that video clip before. The idea of Mr. Rogers flipping the bird makes me chuckle.


8 posted on 09/22/2015 9:47:50 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: dead

well played.


9 posted on 09/22/2015 9:48:35 PM PDT by RC one (....and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

A student newspaper put out by students thoroughly indoctrinated by their commie professors.

To paraphrase a line from the Godfather — these students went college to get stupid.


10 posted on 09/22/2015 9:50:15 PM PDT by fatnotlazy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Nah. Retarded guilty feeling leftists should. They have to ease the conscience somehow! What, not their money!? How hypocritical of them!


11 posted on 09/22/2015 9:51:27 PM PDT by vpintheak (Man up and bring it politicians!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

>>If a country’s resources are not enough to maintain an entire population, more extremist leaders would be willing to eliminate part of the population in order to have enough resources for the remaining inhabitants.<<

I nominate college students who write such drivel. As for where money will come from, close all schools receiving federal and state money. Let them farm the unused arable land.


12 posted on 09/22/2015 9:51:58 PM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Can these people just die already?


13 posted on 09/22/2015 9:53:49 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (I'm fed up.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Well this guy, and the girl over to the side talking about the GOP’s War on Wymn...
Are sure well indoctrinated little morons, aren’t they?


14 posted on 09/22/2015 9:57:23 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: piytar

add in India,
add in Brazil...

add in all the developing G20 nations who seek to come into the 19th century...lol

Not a one of them are worried about climate issues nor pollution

It’s just that many are bitter of America’s ability to progress, yet all yearn for it! Yup a white-christian America.

and! lets not overlook the backward muslim nations


15 posted on 09/22/2015 9:58:45 PM PDT by himno hero (hadnuff)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The United States has already felt the effects of a changing climate, such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy,


The “big lie” technique is alive and well. To listen to this horse blank, you would swear that hurricanes never hit Louisiana or the New York/New Jersey coast until these two famous recent storms came along.

See how this puts people on the defensive? These assertions put you on the defensive from the get go. Before we can have any discussion, we have to debate the presumed fact that Katrina and Sandy were due to global warming.


16 posted on 09/22/2015 9:58:52 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Interesting note: The United States is the only country worldwide that has actually reduced CO2 emissions, due to conversion of coal fired electrical power plants to natural gas.

Obama’s war against the coal industry, and the declining cost and burgeoning availability of natural gas made new economic sense; the free market wins the reality battle again. Regardless, “Global Warming-Climate Change” as a man made phenomena and fantasy disaster... is a fraud.

This reality is ignored by those who wish to impose their idiotic and unscientific view of the world upon us all. What else is new?


17 posted on 09/22/2015 10:05:41 PM PDT by Richard Axtell (The March to the Abyss is speeding up.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is past time for the United States to pay its dues as it has a long history of climate inaction, and in 1997 was the only wealthy nation not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, a document which, for many nations, represented a first step in reducing their carbon footprint.

...

We met the CO2 goal, anyway, without signing, without trying, and without government force.

Now buzz off, Jesus Kumamoto, you uninformed, little girly man puke.


18 posted on 09/22/2015 10:10:50 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Richard Axtell
Interesting note: The United States is the only country worldwide that has actually reduced CO2 emissions

Well, yeah, but by as much as required by the Kyoto Protocol?

Wait, what do you mean by, "by more"?

19 posted on 09/22/2015 10:16:01 PM PDT by Darth Reardon (Is it any wonder I'm not the president?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why doesn’t this left-wing pajama boy puke Jesus Kumamoto allow someone in the medical field to harvest his organs?

He sounds like he’s into recycling.


20 posted on 09/22/2015 10:19:11 PM PDT by july4thfreedomfoundation (Liberals are like the Taliban and ISIS....destroying cultural icons they don't like.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-71 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson