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Pollution Fight Fading as European Leaders Battle Crisis

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Monday, November 26, 2012 12:24
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Friday, November 23, 2012 6:10 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


I find this sadly short sighted:
Quote:

The next victim of Europe’s economic crisis is becoming the global effort to restrain fossil fuel emissions and curb pollution now at record levels.

The European Union, which led the fight by establishing the biggest market for carbon emissions, is letting the matter slip as a priority. EU leaders didn’t discuss climate strategy at their four summits this year, while France, Germany, Spain and Britain are focused on paring the region’s 10.5 percent unemployment rate and 10.8 trillion euros ($13.9 trillion) in debt. The matter didn’t emerge during U.S. presidential debates.

“What scares me is that climate policy is sliding off the international policy agenda,” International Energy Agency Chief Economist Fatih Birol said in an interview in advance of the United Nation’s annual round of talks on the issue that start in three days in Doha, the capital of the Qatar.

The inaction contrasts with widening concern among scientists that the time to react is passing. Sea ice in the Arctic shrank to its lowest on record this summer as drought devastated corn crops in the U.S. Midwest and superstorm Sandy pummeled the East coast after becoming the largest ever tropical system in the Atlantic. The World Meteorological Organization says greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere touched a high in 2011, and the UN says that will make the weather more volatile.

For now, the economy remains the focus of policymakers across Europe, leaving the biggest polluters in the U.S. and China with little impetus to break their deadlock over how to act. The 27-nation EU expects the economy to shrink 0.3 percent this year, the second recession in four years.

While the union is working on energy-efficiency measures and curbs for emissions for autos and industry, its leaders express frustration that other nations aren’t following their example with more aggressive action.

“Nothing is easy because of the crisis,” EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in an interview. “The big thing that people globally need to understand is that we don’t only have an economic crisis. We also have a social and job crisis, and we still have a climate and environment crisis. We can through climate policies also help create some jobs we need so badly.”

The EU will exceed its goal to slash emissions 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, she said. Even so, there’s less zeal in EU member nations to go further on environmental goals.
.....
“The Europeans must lead on climate protection to put pressure on others and ensure that the global debate on climate protection continues,” German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier told reporters in Berlin today. “That will only be possible if the Europeans at home ensure that everyone sees that we’re taking climate protection seriously and we’re willing to commit ourselves to ambitious targets.”

Leaders of the EU haven’t discussed climate strategy this year. They mentioned climate change in the concluding statement of just one of their three regular scheduled summits this year. That’s down from two out of five times in 2011. In 2009 and 2010, climate came up at all nine meetings. The lull leaves the U.S., China and India, the three biggest emitters, with little pressure for action.
.....
“The economic crisis, which is unparalleled in modern times, has caused everyone to stop and re-evaluate everything that the government is doing,” U.K. Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said in an interview. “Taking action in most cases isn’t without cost,” though the costs of climate change may outweigh the price of fighting it, he said.
.....
“We are now facing a timing challenge where we have to wait until 2020 for all countries to adopt legally binding emission-reduction targets,” Gambian envoy Pa Ousman Jarju, who speaks for the UN’s 48-nation Least Developed Countries group, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “The risk with this situation is that no one steps forward to reduce emissions because they are simply waiting for others to join.”

By 2017, it may be impossible to avoid warming greater than the 2-degree target, the International Energy Agency says. UN scientists in 2007 calculated that developed nations must cut emissions 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to stay on track.

“We are not seeing that from any quarter,” Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, the lead climate envoy for Brazil, told reporters on Nov. 14. “Science is telling us with increased certainty the dangers of inaction.” Much more at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-23/pollution-sets-record-as-euro
-crisis-slows-climate-drive.html


Sad day; I fear, given the situation, that little or nothing will improve, so we'd best get ready for what's coming. One of the problems is that, by focusing on the short-term problems of economy, it will end up costing everyone far more in both money and lives as things like Sandy become more frequent. Humans, with all our brain power, seem sadly deficient in long-term thinking.

Add this to the "Wimpy Factor", and I've pretty much accepted our fate is sealed.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012 1:50 AM

GEEZER

Keep the Shiny side up


In this case I really do hate to say "I told you so", since I'd rather see a better solution to this problem, but there's just too much other that folks are going to focus on in the short term, from economic problems to civil wars to invasions by proxy armies to just getting enough to eat, for things as far out in the future as climate change to seem imminently important.

The one 'bright spot', if you could call it that, is that most projections talk about things that will change in the next 100 years or so. Consider what the world was like 100 years ago and the conditions we've been able to improve in that time period. I would think that when water slowly starts to rise, folks will often find a way to deal with it, from dikes and levees to moving up hill.

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Saturday, November 24, 2012 3:58 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Geezer: I would think that when water slowly starts to rise, folks will often find a way to deal with it, from dikes and levees to moving up hill.


Moving up hill? OMG, how ridiculous and short sighted ! Just because humans have been coping with changes in Earth's climate for 10's of thousands of years, you seriously think that merely MOVING to a higher elevation is going to solve anything ?


Probably a good idea, actually.




" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Saturday, November 24, 2012 5:15 AM

HERO


Issues like global warming are luxuries. When times are tough people are less likely to buy into the latest fads.

H

Hero...must be right on all of this. ALL of the rest of us are wrong. Chrisisall, 2012

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Saturday, November 24, 2012 5:47 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!


Quote:

Originally posted by Hero:
Issues like global warming are luxuries. When times are tough people are less likely to buy into the latest fads.

H

Hero...must be right on all of this. ALL of the rest of us are wrong. Chrisisall, 2012



Much like art and free expression. Such things flourish in good times, times of peace, and tranquility.


" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "

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Sunday, November 25, 2012 8:09 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


I think taking care of the earth should be an important priority for humanity. I'm thrilled to announce that the river that runs through my city is now safe for me to swim in! That means that we are really getting somewhere in regards to doing a better job taking care of things, that river has been too polluted for decades and decades but thanks to our efforts it is getting better! We need to keep it up though because its easy to fall back into old patterns and irresponsability.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Monday, November 26, 2012 5:43 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Yes, Riona, that's happened in many places. The smog in L.A. was severely mitigated from what it once was; there are efforts to clean up and repair our Sacramento delta; there's been a lot of work done to clean up Lake Tahoe; any building now must be accompanied by an equal area of the Bay shore being returned to its original state and protected, etc. There are efforts that have been going on for a long time in this area, around the country, and it's been heartwarming to see.

I shake my head at all the poor fools who say it's a "luxury" to fight pollution, and that the economy is more important. It's such a simplistic attitude, which ignores the costs to us all of the results of pollution, and again, as in the other thread, the enormous costs to our country which will inevitably follow the changes ahead. People could be put to work bringing our infrastructure back; new industries could be built to accompany efforts at reducing pollution and, again, preparing for the future. Those and other things would HELP the economy. Unfortunately, it is because of those who don't believe the changes will come or who think fighting pollution is a "luxury", that the monied interests who only care for the buck they can make today can wield their power to keep things from happening.

Probably those people won't suffer--or won't suffer much--from their mentality. But others will, and those who come after them will big time. It's not a luxury to look to the future, it's deliberate ignorance or selfish stupidity, in my opinion.

Tit for tat got us where we are today. If we want to be grownups, we need to resist the ugliness. If we each did, this would be a better reflection on Firefly and a more welcome place. I will try.

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Monday, November 26, 2012 12:24 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht


Good post Niki.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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