Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he's heading up a new international climate team with the goal of securing a meaningful agreement on climate change in the next two years. Blair said he thought he could get the major emitting countries of the world, including the United States and China, to agree to a plan to cut carbon emissions 50 percent by 2050. "The fact of the matter is that if we do not take substantial action over the next two years, by 2020 we will be thinking seriously about adaptation rather than prevention," he said. Blair will formally announce the initiative in Japan at a climate meeting of the world's 20 biggest polluters this weekend. By summer 2009, the Blair team will release a report on major countries' continuing differences on climate change, followed up by a Stern-like report demonstrating that tackling climate change needn't be economically frightening. "The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that we are not going to get the action necessary by telling people not to consume," Blair said.
source: The Guardian, The Guardian, The Times, Agence France-Presse
Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success
Comments
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Delay And Deny Posted 2:20 am
14 Mar 2008
we will be thinking seriously about adaptation rather than prevention
Finally. A realist.
Global Warming will happen no matter what we do.
Even AGWers admit that.
So most of the effort should be towards what biology does best: adapt!
I'm looking forward to halter tops being business dress all year round.
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Pangolin Posted 3:47 am
14 Mar 2008
It's lipstick on a pig all around.
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Lihidheb mohsen Posted 6:21 am
14 Mar 2008
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javaearth Posted 1:25 pm
14 Mar 2008
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Blueplanet Posted 11:50 pm
14 Mar 2008
I see that he has failed as a Middle East Peace Envoy so he's trying something a bit easier - solving global warming.
You can't be all things to all men Tony.
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Angry African Posted 4:48 am
15 Mar 2008
But not sure he will. His Commission for Africa never really got going either.
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sycamore Posted 11:47 am
15 Mar 2008
Remember the best use of your money is not to donate to politicians. Instead donate the same amount to your favorite environmental group. Those millions in their hand can really get results.
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Wolverine Posted 4:17 am
16 Mar 2008
"The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that we are not going to get the action necessary by telling people not to consume."
That's the same as saying, humans are all pigs and there's no chance of anything good happening ecologically until they're off the planet. The two root causes of ALL environmental and ecological problems are overconsumption and overpopulation. Without solving these problems, all else is nothing but rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Specifically, global warming will only be solved, to the extent it now can be, by greatly reducing human consumption, because all fuels burned emit CO2 and all transportation, light, heat, and manufacturing processes burn large amounts of fuel. We could of course do a lot by requiring solar panels on every roof and wind generators in every yard and parking lot, but great reductions in consumption are still needed if global climate change is going to be adequately addressed.
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amazingdrx Posted 4:41 am
16 Mar 2008
But that can be done in such a way as to actually increase quality of life. Conservation alone can reduce energy consumption by 80%. Then organic agriculture could even reverse GHG levels within 20 years.
There is a slim chance it will happen, but it's free to join the bandwagon. To get these odds anywhere else it costs you a buck. For a lottery ticket.
Getting human population expansion to stop and even reverse? That's way out there, with believing in political change. Dangerous idealism.
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Eyal Morag Posted 2:17 am
17 Mar 2008
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sayno2gm Posted 10:47 pm
17 Mar 2008
Firstly, I did that wonderful job as president for the UK, phew resigned just in time..
then I became Middle East envoy, solved that didn't I? (sorry Iraq)
Now I am to become the Eco Green God.
Sorry won't be around in 2050, but Hey I got to travel round the world some more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jan/09/theairline ...
L00K AT ME, L00K AT ME I'm Tony Bliar!!!
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