Bush chats with Merkel and Barroso, agrees climate change is a problem
U.S. President George W. Bush met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and E.U. President Jose Manuel Barroso at the White House yesterday, chatting about international trade, air-travel policy, missile shields, and The Most Important Issue of Our Time. Though no climate action steps were agreed to, Merkel and Barroso seemed happy that Bush even acknowledged the problem. "We agree there is a threat, there is a very serious and global threat. We agree that there is a need to reduce emissions. We agree that we should work together," said Barroso at the post-convo press conference. Bush, as usual, was fixated on China's-not-cutting-emissions-so-why-should-we, leading Merkel to explain, "If the developed countries who have the best technology don't do anything, it will be even harder to convince the others. But without convincing the others, CO2 emissions worldwide will not go down." Climate is on the agenda at June's G8 summit in Germany -- we'll look forward to copying and pasting this blurb then.
source: The Wall Street Journal, 30 Apr 2007 (access ain’t free)
source: Yahoo! News, Reuters, Steve Holland, 30 Apr 2007
source: MarketWatch, Greg Robb, 30 Apr 2007
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Comments
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millwright Posted 7:25 am
01 May 2007
(There are some indications its a near zero sum game for the U.S. due to our advanced aggrarian practices and extensive foliated areas.)
If the present warming trend is valid and if its ever proven indisputably anthropogenic, and its causing a major global emergency, it then makes sense to deploy scarce resources in a manner achieving the most result for effort/wealth invested. That means aiding China, India and other emerging industrial nations in "cleaning up their act" as the most egregiouos current CO2 offenders. (We can safely postpone such aid to undeveloped nations in the Southern Hemisphere for the nonce as it appears from the record, "GW" hasn't crossed the equator.)
To argue otherwise is to admit the current "GW crisis" is far more about economic heat, than caloric/environmental.
In a similar vein, before we embark on a GWR crusade we ought to define some benchmarks and goals.
A climate history baseline that accounts for the Medieval Warm Period, the Maunder Minimum, and inexplicabe failure of the much ballyhooed "New Ice Age" to appear on schedule. As well as verified explanations for emerging discovery of "discontinuities" such as plants, bones and other debris emerging from beneath melting glaciers.
At least three "Climate Models" that successfully replicate known conditions when fed historical data and produce results congruent with alterations in that data before permitting their use as predictive tools.
Declaring a "Geoclimate Year" where the world's nations would undertake to discern, document and report both historical and current climate data by empirical and proxy methods.
Create a completely apolitical world congress of scientists, economists and engineers to examine Geoclimate data, and formulate reccomendations.
Require the data and work of the nos. 3 & 4 be publicly available 24/7 without restriction, hinderance or editing.
Declare an immediate world-wide moratorium on the international trading of CO2 "futures" or "credits" to continue in place until nos 1-5 are accomplished and the Congress determines such a program will enhance control.
Rant on !! >MW
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