generalspeaking

Saturday, November 07, 2015

$99.3-Billion Short on Pledges

"We know that Canadians want a government that they can trust to protect the environment and grow the economy."
"The Government of Canada will work hand-in-hand with provinces, territories and like-minded countries to combat climate change, adapt to its impacts, and create the clean jobs of tomorrow."
"We are disappointed by the decision [Obama's rejection of Keystone XL pipeline] but respect the right of the United States to make the decision."
Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"While he expressed his disappointment, given Canada's position on this issue, we both agreed that our close friendship [Canada-US] on a whole range of issues -- including energy and climate change -- should provide the basis for even closer co-ordination between our countries going forward."
"This pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others."
U.S. President Barack Obama

CREDIT: Katie Valentine

Protesters gather outside of the White House to deliver anti-Keystone XL petitions on Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Coal fired plants, leading to plenty of black particulate matter circulating in the atmosphere? America has lots of them; dirty energy galore. Oil pipelines buried in the earth proliferate all across the United States bringing U.S. dirty crude to refineries and keeping production chugging along in the U.S. The method of extracting gas and oil through 'fracking', pumping water and chemicals deep into bedrock with concerns of polluting watersheds and wasting precious water resources continues apace.

Oil deriving from Canadian sources will continue to be shipped into the United States, despite Mr. Obama's choice to burnish his environmental credentials and in the process sour relations with his closest neighbour and trade partner. Over 11,600 miles of oil pipelines have been laid in states all over America. Some of these pipelines are located just a few miles away from proposed stretches of the Keystone XL.

With current conditions prevailing, oil Canada shipments by rail and truck (far more dangerous than pipeline) will be sold to the U.S. at bargain-basement prices; nice for the U.S., not so nice in reducing Canada's revenues. The 'dirty' oil Obama turned down will come instead from Venezuela. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are always ready and willing to ship their fossil fuels; profits that fund the extremism of Islamist jihad.

At November's conclusion, 40,000 politicians, officials, green activists, lobbyists and journalists representing 195 nations of the world will gather outside Paris for a climate-change conference that they anticipate will change much about how the world does its business. A treaty is expected to come out of this conference, committing each nation to massive cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, to prevent the Earth from resulting rising temperatures.

Kyoto's 1997 agreement presented a few little inconveniences to iron out. That was supposed to have taken place in Kyoto in 2009. So, once again it was agreed as it will likely be in Paris that "developing" nations must be given the opportunity to catch up to the advances that the developed, wealthy countries of the world have achieved, which made them responsible for human-caused global warming through made-made, industrial C02.

Dramatic cuts in energy usage are the pledges awaiting the conclusion of this conference. The developing nations are willing to make their cuts as well, as long as they're given the proper incentives to do so. And that's where a $100-billion yearly fund enters the C02 picture. This is a "Green Climate Fund", fittingly financed by the wealthy malefactors who produced greenhouse warming to begin with.

China, at the present time, contributes a whopping 24 percent of the global C02 emissions and it plans to double those emissions by 2030 by building 363 more coal-fired power stations. How that will impact on an immense population struggling with the effects of health-impacting smog hiding the sun and irritating lungs is evidently not up for discussion.

India presents currently as the third-largest C02 emitter, plans to triple its emissions, while Russia which closed down the bulk of its decrepit Soviet industrial plants now proposes to increase its emissions from 2012 levels by up to 39 percent. The fifth-largest emitter, Japan, lays claim to plans to cut emissions by15 percent, though planning to build more coal-fired power plants; the country has reason to have suspicions of the nuclear safety record.

South Korea, standing as the seventh-largest C02 emitter, plans to cut emissions by 23 percent, and this is where "carbon credits" are most useful, allowing it to "offset" its production of C02 for cash. Saudi Arabia and Iran (eighth and ninth-largest emitters) have no proposals as yet, while the United Arab Emirates which doubled their emissions since 2002, evinces little sign of slowing, though it is interested in "carbon-free" solar and nuclear power.

Brazil, swiftly increasing dependence on fossil fuels, plans to diminish the felling and burning of the C02 sink, the Amazon rainforest. And, so, the position of the United States, fully concerned with the degradation of the environment thanks to Climate Change, with a president committed to helping other countries make their needed sacrifices, stands offside itself any global treaties on the environment.

As for the Green Climate Fund meant to hand out $100 billion yearly to aid developing countries in their efforts to "adapt to climate change", pledges haven't quite met expectations, with $700 million in pledges so far having been received.

Labels: Brazil, Canada, China, Climate Change, Economy, Environment, India, Saudi Arabia, Science, United States