Posted on 09/18/2007 10:17:07 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS - The science is clear and the time short, but the political will is lacking to confront global warming, the U.N. secretary-general said Tuesday.
Ban Ki-moon said he hoped next Monday's "climate summit" here will help galvanize leaders to take action "before it is too late."
Asked at a news conference about President Bush's planned separate meeting to discuss global-warming measures among a handful of countries later next week, the U.N. chief said Bush assured him it would be coordinated with the established U.N. process of negotiating climate treaty commitments among all nations.
The Bush administration rejects treaty obligations, such as the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. Bush favors voluntary reductions instead.
"All the measures and initiatives should fit into the (U.N.) process," Ban told reporters.
He said about 80 heads of state and government, including Bush, would attend Monday's all-day climate discussion. It is not designed as a negotiation, but rather to produce some political momentum for negotiations to take place in December in Bali, Indonesia, at the annual U.N. climate treaty conference.
In a series of major reports this year, a U.N.-sponsored scientific network said unabated global warming, potentially raising average temperatures by several degrees Fahrenheit, would produce a far different planet by 2100 — from rising seas, drought and other factors. The scientists said animal and plant life was already being disrupted.
"The science has made it quite clear, and we have been feeling the impacts of global warming already clearly," Ban said. "We have resources. We have technology. The only (thing) lacking is political will. Before it is too late, we must take action."
The Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 annex to a 1992 U.N. climate treaty, requires 35 industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by, on average, 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Talks at Bali are intended to initiate negotiations on a similar regime of mandatory cutbacks for after 2012.
Bush has rejected Kyoto and has signaled no new readiness to accept such mandates. The meeting he has called for Sept. 27-28 in Washington, involving major industrial nations and a few developing countries, including China and India, is expected to focus on "goals," not obligations, for reducing climate-altering emissions.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks during a news conference at the presidential residence, Los Pinos, in Mexico City July 31, 2007 .The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize could go to a climate campaigner such as Gore or Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, reinforcing a view that global warming is a threat to world security, experts say. (Henry Romero/Reuters)
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefs reporters during the 62nd session of the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007. (AP Photo/David Karp)
I’ll just fix the headline..........
UN demands panic extreme decisions to imagined and controversial predictions of imminent doom. Politics suspected.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The Senate, and not Bush, defeated the treaty 99 to 1. Funny how that fact was omitted.
Good to know the UN is intent on repeating its oil for food scam on a larger scale.
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They’re just getting warm’d up, is a fear of many. :-}
The Senate, and not Bush, defeated the treaty 99 to 1. Funny how that fact was omitted.
What the heck is he talking about? What "impacts"?
We’ve unplugged all of the microphones at the U.N.
Global Warming is no longer an issue.
+ 
= impact. One of the many reasons that the UN doesn't want you to have a gun.
I see that the 95-0 Senate vote against Kyoto didn't warrant mention. Instead, it's all Bush's fault.
LOL. Thanks, I wasn’t thinking...
Agreed. Kill all the environmentalists!
Before it’s too late — for what? For everyone to realize it’s a big damned lie and there is no more support for this tripe? LOL
In other words, let us get our hands in your pockets now! We don’t want your citizens to realize it’s all a sham!
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