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Published online 18 December 2007 | Nature 450, 1136-1137 (2007) | doi:10.1038/4501136a
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Climate deal agreed in Bali showdown
Gruelling session brings the United States back to the table.
Insults, threats, tears and booing: the latest round of international climate talks made for an entertaining, if gruelling, two weeks in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. These talks may well be remembered for the bold stand that developing countries took against the United States in the push for consensus on how to move forward in negotiating a new international framework on climate change.
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Now all that we need is a few US Senators and Congressmen with Ph.D.'s in Environmental Science... Here is the only one that I could find (apparently is the 1st candidate for U.S. Senate in history with a Doctorate in Ecology/Environmental Sciences): www.KnightForSenate.com maybe if we believe, then we should support him with $25? (yes, scientists should support good policymakers) http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/18096
will to power. who will will to power.
Although I have Kevin Conrad's (Papua-New Guinea) words lodged in my memory as having been: 'We have a saying: If You Don't Want To Lead Then Get Out Of The Way', the meaning is the same. His line amounts to tactics of rhetorical genius. Because precisely at this point the U.S. got hit home hard with what its diplomats so often employ themselves: a no-frills blunt one-liner that unequivocally showed them in what unenviable position the already are in by their own doing (in fact,it sounded like John Wayne berating a bunch of cowards in some local meeting). Conrad's words will stand.
Suggestions:/ Let us go to the UN General Assembly and propose to:/ 1. Build an index of the total greenhouse gas emissions per person (TGGEPP) since 1800 for each country on Earth, and keep updating it continually./ 2. Develop a program to cut the total greenhouse gas emissions (GGE) over the world, by 40% of 1990 levels by 2020./ 3. In this program: have the most polluting countries assume the larger emission cuts, and allow the less polluting countries to increase slightly their emissions (GGE allowances could be made inversely proportional to TGGEPP). The aim should be a world where the TGGEPP is the same for all countries by 2050, while the world emissions are substantially reduced such that global warming is averted./ 4. Impose a 10% import duties on all products from any country which violates that agreement. An improved version may be to estimate the GGE for each product, and to impose emission cuts per product. Then, import duties, proportional to its failure to comply with emission cuts, could be applied per product.
Sir, The subject is interesting to all who need a better earth for themselves and for their children. When we note the growing cities caused by Industries and employment, the problems is that the city has no place for expansion,thus limiting the air space by over=crowding and reducing the natural greenary and distrurbing the eco-system. The concret structure that cover the ponds and lakes with the garbage that is let to rot carelessly need attention. WE need a system to plan based on survival than economic greed. The prosperity and the ailments grow together because the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, who cannot afford the rising cost health care. Planning will equalise the industrial development with expansion not vertically, but laterlly that with less density of population will allow greenary to harmonize for better natureal growth. Paul Ponniah, jeevan Sagar Trust,