The US have said that they are not going to agree to a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 summit. However, certain sources in the US have said that there has been progress and they do want a deal, but not through the G8.
I'm not too clued up on recent politics, but what possible reason could there be for not wanting to sort out a deal at the G8 summit?
Bangs head in frustration...
There are almost too many factors in play, but I think a big part of it is the American tendency to not want to be seen 'caving in' to others--in other words, don't tell us what to do, we're bigger and more powerful than you are, so we are always right.
Kingfisher
Bangs head in frustration...
There are almost too many factors in play, but I think a big part of it is the American tendency to not want to be seen 'caving in' to others--in other words, don't tell us what to do, we're bigger and more powerful than you are, so we are always right.
Kingfisher
I think unfortunately you could be right, although at least it seems Bush has started to come around to the idea that global warming is real and something needs to be done about it, even if it is taking much longer than it should.
I'm not entirely certain that Mr. Bush has come around. I went and looked at the agreement more closely. It has no mandatory requirements--it's essentially just a 'suggestion' with no teeth.
Kingfisher
I know I'm going to be unpopular here, but I think this whole "greenhouse gases" thing is just a load of baloney! It's just not proven, despite all the hype, there is no evidence to support it. Any climate change that may be happening is much more likely to be a natural phenomenom. I believe that we are simply still emerging from the "mini ice age" which began c. 14th Century. However, I AM keeping an open mind.
Did you know that Scott's original base in Antarctica is threatened by heavy snow fall?
Incidentally, here's an interesting fact. In the fens of East Anglia, much of the drained fenland is now many metres below its original level. This is because in the hundreds of years since being drained, the original peat soil has dried out and oxidised, thereby shrinking the soil level. The carbon dioxide released by this process is enormous - apparently, the area by which the National Trust want to expand Wicken Fen and return it to proper fenland is at present releasing an equivalent in CO2 of a power station supplying power to half of Birmingham!
Wild canon, you could very well be correct!
I think what is discouraging, at least to me personally, is the perception that the US does not care about the concerns of the rest of the world. Even if global warming is not truly occurring, there are still enough concerns over the rest of the environment that one would think the US would play some small part in assisting to control further degradation. The current attitude in the administration is to make the facts fit the politics, rather than the reverse.
It's very difficult to balance the various equations.
Kingfisher
I have to agree with you Kingfisher. I feel that if the slant were changed towards making the world a healthier place to live in, this would make more sense. Far more children suffer from asthma these days and I can't help wondering if the cause has much to do with the pollution we are all forced to breathe.
We live on a flightpath to Manchester airport and although the planes don't come over us at a low altitude, I have to wonder what happens to all those exhaust fumes. While flying to Egypt a couple of years ago, the pilot informed us that the aircraft would consume 47 tonnes of fuel. When you multiply that by all the flights that are taking place, that's an awful lot of exhaust fumes, and if anyone says that planes don't give out fumes (I had someone tell me once that it's all water vapour!) then just notice the smell as the planes move around the terminals at airports. Makes the amount of fuel my tiny (2 cylinder deisel) car uses seem really puny!
The amount of CO2 emitted by a single airport is huge. If I remember rightly, Gatwick consumes more fuel than the whole of Surrey and Sussex in a year.
I have to say that I disagree that global warming is not a real effect. From what I have heard, there has been a lot of evidence that it is happening. What sways me from thinking it is a natural effect is that usually natural changes happen over geological time scales, and are completely irrelavent in a single human lifetime, whereas temperatures have noticably risen over the last 30-40 years.