Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 05/24/2008 9:52:45 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
KOBE, Japan - The world is losing momentum in the battle against global warming, the U.N. climate chief warned on Saturday, urging environmental ministers from wealthy nations to revive the effort by setting clear targets for reducing greenhouse gases.
The ministers gathered in the western Japanese city of Kobe for a three-day meeting as evidence mounted that rising world temperatures have been taking a toll on the earth at a faster rate than previously forecast.
The officials from the Group of Eight countries, joined by representatives from other countries including China and other organizations, were to lay the foundations for the upcoming G8 summit in northern Japan in July.
U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told the Associated Press on the sidelines that he was concerned about stalling momentum behind international talks to forge a global warming pact by December 2009 to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Its first phase ends in 2012.
"Much of the enthusiasm and ambition that we saw in Bali with the launch of negotiations doesn't seem to be present," he said, referring to a meeting on the Indonesian resort island in December, when some 190 countries decided on a timetable for talks on the new climate pact.
De Boer cited a recently announced U.S. climate plan that would allow an increase in emissions, Canada's indication that it will not meet its obligations under the Kyoto agreement, and European industry's skepticism about the EU goal of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
To rejuvenate the talks, G8 countries — the United States, Japan, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Canada — need to decide on midterm targets for reducing carbon emissions by 2020, make a clearer commitment to helping poorer nations deal with climate change, and form a dialogue with top developing countries such as China to run parallel with the U.N.-led talks, he said.
"Certainly my expectation is that ... the G8 leaders will now really take things to the next level, and I think need to take it to the next level, with December 2009 being just around the corner," de Boer said.
On Saturday the ministers heard from environmentalists and business leaders before moving behind closed doors.
Environmentalists urged quick action to stem the effects of the rise in world temperatures, which scientists say threaten to drive species to extinction, worsen floods and droughts, and thwart economic development.
The rapid melting of ice in the Arctic, increasing crop damage and other effects show the multiplying effects or higher temperatures, said Bill Hare, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Summer sea ice in the Arctic, for instance, shrank to a record low last year to nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000.
Hare warned that rising oil prices could speed that even further. Light, sweet crude for July delivery settled at $132.19 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The increase encourages the use of cheaper coal — a much dirtier fuel.
"The recent developments in the energy sector, particularly high oil prices and coal intensive development ... are pointing toward the risk of higher emissions," Hare told the ministers.
The initial meetings on Saturday illustrated the continuing divisions among nations over how to attack climate change.
The U.N. process has moved slowly, with nations clashing over how ambitious the world should be in stemming the rising in world temperatures, how reduction targets should be set, and how much rapidly developing nations such as China should be called on to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases.
Hilary Benn, British environmental chief, argued that the world had no choice but to act against climate change now that scientists have shown that the earth can only absorb a limited amount of greenhouse gases before temperatures rise too high.
"The fundamental problem we have is a political one," he said. "How do we divide up between all the nations of the earth in a fair manner the ability to emit that limited quantity of emissions so that we avoid dangerous climate change?"
.. and the UN and exploitational organizations and their frontmen like it pass into the dustbins of history.
That would be true progress for all of mankind.
I wonder if he broke down and cried like a girl this time.
There is no such evidence. All the evidence indicates the exact opposed. As a "Journalists" would know if they bothered to do any thing other then just rewrite the Press Releases sent them by Leftist nut job organizations.
No doubt the Climate Crazies are en route to Jupiter!
it’s slowing because the world is beginning to recognize a fraud when it sees it..........
They’re looking for job security.....without global climate crises....who would want to pay THEM????
31,072 American scientists have signed this petition,
including 9,021 with PhDs
http://www.petitionproject.org/
The hilarious part is that right now, the world is at great risk of being thrown into a period of extreme cold.
Not only are we in a decade of strong cooling, but the Chilean volcano Chaiten is showing signs of turning from a VEI5 volcano, like Mt St Helens and Mt Pinatubo, into a VEI6 volcano, like Krakatoa. Typically a plinian eruption, which this is, ends in a final large eruptive event.
Fortunately, it is inland, so after a cataclysmic eruption there is no chance of the sea rushing in and causing a horrific steam explosion.
However, the volcanic ash Krakatoa spewed lowered worldwide temperature by about 1.2 degrees Celsius, which means two or more degrees Fahrenheit. But it was located about on the equator. Chaiten is on a far southern latitude, so the southern hemisphere could get much colder.
Combine that with much greater cloud cover because of lower solar activity, clouds full of heat reflecting sulfurous acid, could make the southern hemisphere extremely cold.
A completely meaningless factoid. Another example of how the Climate hysterics pick a data set to validate their dogma rather then actually look at the evidence. What was the Summer Sea ice average bettween 500AD and 2000AD? They have no idea. For all we know the Summer ice for 1979-2000 was larger then normal.
I could use some global warming this week-end, instead, it’s overcast and in the 50s with a chance of dribbles the next couple days.. two of the last three years have been like this. Damn, where is that global warming when ya need some?
The key phrase is "wealthy nations." That's supposed to make us feel bad, from a Marxist point of view. But the real concern of the UN and the leaches who run it is to guzzle more money from the naive suckers who govern Europe and the other socialist states.
By far the worst polluter in the world is China. You can see the effects from outer space. And the Chinese have piled up more than a trillion dollars of American balance of payment deficits. But no one is going to ask them for money, because they will righteously refuse.
No, it's the designated "wealthy nations" who are being blackmailed to keep the UN party going.
I think that is the problem - The U.S.A. has no enviromental minister. Maybe President McCain can add a cabinet level department and appoint Algore to run it.
I think that is the problem - The U.S.A. has no enviromental minister. Maybe President McCain can add a cabinet level department and appoint Algore to run it.
—
See, now that is the kind of thinking that will help ya rise to the top of the pile, a big pile of carbon, that is. ;-)
Next thing you know, they’ll be trying to discredit Phrenology.
Gee I wonder why they picked those particular years as their baseline. Why not 1970 to 2000? Or 1977 to 2007? It still is laugable to call it "long-term average" but at least it would begin to approach impartiality.
Global warming will erase your hard drive. Not the data, but your actual hard drive! Not only that, but it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CD's you try to play.
It will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. It will mix Kool-aid into your fishtank. It will drink all your beer and leave its socks out on the coffee table when there's company coming over. It will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
Global warming will make you fall in love with a penguin. It will give you nightmares about circus midgets. It will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows while dating your girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Discover card.
It will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead, such is the power of Global warming, it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.
It moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. It will kick your dog. It will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.
Global warming will give you Dutch Elm disease. It will leave the toilet seat up. It will make a batch of Meth in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove while it goes out to chase gradeschoolers with your new snowblower.
Listen to me. Global warming does not exist.
It cannot do anything to you. But I can. I am sending this message to everyone in the world. Tell your friends, tell your family. If anyone else bothers me with fearmongering concerning Global warming, I will turn hating them into a religion. I will do things to them that would make a horsehead in your bed look like Easter Sunday brunch.
Sure, but some of Al Gore's 2,500(?) are government bureaucrats, journalists and others interested in global warming!
/S
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