Monday, December 12, 2005

Thanks Bill

The news in the UK is dominated by the huge fire at the fuel depot at Hemel Hempstead. A huge cloud of evil black smoke slowly engulfs southern England. And as part of their coverage the BBC asked an environmentalist how damaging this was to the Planet. And his response. “well, its terrible. But what do you think would have happened to this fuel without the fire? It would have been burnt. We destroy the planet every day. Every day its terrible. Its just a bit more obvious this time.”

And so to the Canadian environment summit. Well the countries that signed Keyoto agreed to come up with a new plan for post 2012. But since these countries count for less than one third of the planets pollution, with super polluters the USA & China refusing to sign, This may not mean much. Particularly as some signing countries are going to be no where near meeting the 2012 targets. Britain under Mr Blair in particular has made almost no significant attempt to reach its targets – nice one Tony.
The Canadians proposed further talks over two years involving all nations with a view to attempting some long term global emission reduction. The USA refused to agree even to talks. It was suggested that the USA did not have a divine right to screw the planet for profit & their delegation stormed out. And many other countries started to think ‘well, if the USA won’t even talk about reducing emissions what’s the point?’ And with just a couple of days to go the whole summit was collapsing.

Before I am accused of being anti US, let me say that the guy who saved it was one of your finest. Your president may be a retarded war-mongering pro-pollution scumbag, but that has not always been true. So, all was doom and gloom when Big Bill Clinton stepped up to the plate. I wish I had a transcript of his speech that I could post. It was brilliant.
The claim that the Kyoto treaty would damage the US economy is "flat wrong", former President Bill Clinton told the UN climate conference in Montreal. “(it is) crazy to play games with our children's future".

And the shamefaced US delegation agreed to Canada’s proposal for further talks. And the rest of the world fell into line. And ok, future talks. Its not much of a victory. But at least there is still a little hope. Thanks Bill.

5 Comments:

Blogger Daniel Hoffmann-Gill said...

Bill is a lord of politics.

God bless him!

2:02 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rich,

The explosion was unbelievable. It shook the house, rattled bits and bobs and woke us all up with with complete disregard for hangovers etc. The cloud was visible from the back garden and grew for most of the day. Schools here are closed as is the M1 again.

My drive back from work is 21 miles and the cloud is visible all the way as are the flames for part of it.

I was convinced it was an aircrash from Luton airport, the noise was that loud.

John

5:13 PM  
Blogger BigDaddyMerk said...

Even though the US administration has refused to sign the agreement a number (300+) of US City Mayors have followed Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels lead on reducing emissions inline with Kyoto Protocol targets.

So while the loon Bush thinks it's bad for his economy - 300 US Cities don't.

11:48 PM  
Blogger Jessica said...

Kudos to the environmentalist for a biting reply. If I could sign the Kyoto treaty in place of Bush, I would. As for the airborne toxic event, reminds me of a really good book, White Noise.

11:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MGS. Thing is Billy Boy tried. and thats all any of us can do.

JJ Glad your ok. You should move up here where we don't have planes or oil depots. Just lots of sugar beet. And how often do you hear about a horrific sugar beet incident?

BDM. With most of America seemingly opposed to Georges views it makes you wonder how he got elected. Oh, brother owns florida....

3:38 PM  

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