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Archive for December 17th, 2009

Cop15 – Clinton says: “We Are in a Common Boat”

Posted in Children, Climate, Communications, Feminism, Finance, Human Rights, Justice, Men's Rights, Nature, Politics, War, Women's Rights, tagged , , , , , , , on December 17, 2009| 2 Comments »

Politico has a lot to say about Cop15 today:

By GLENN THRUSH | 12/17/09 7:20 AM EST

Updated: 12/17/09 10:23 AM EST

[COPENHAGEN — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton threw a climate change Hail Mary on Thursday in hopes of salvaging the Copenhagen talks from collapse – pledging U.S. participation in a multinational fund to provide poor nations with a $100 billion a year by 2020. This is considerably more than the 10 billion originally promised, though not as much as some would like the US to commit….]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30723.html

Since, however, President Obama is still planning to show up at the Conference on the 18th, we are all hopeful that she is again paving the way for one of his triumphant entrances.

Just in case you weren’t sure we had enough USAns rampaging through Copenhagen, Nancy Pelosi took 20 house members with various interests in Science, there on Thursday. Should I hazard a guess that this is the contingent of House members that will be expected to support the 100 billion pledge Clinton promised, to poor countries to keep from drowning when their islands disappear? Sub Saharan Africans, too are in the process of drowning in an ocean of sand, as skyrocketing maternal mortality rates, starvation, coastal fishing loss, and loss of water are enveloped by desperate and futile wars.

The consensus is that 90% of the new emissions will come from poor and developing countries, not China and the USA. We already reached close to our “full” capacity at production of airborne water and landborne garbage.

In counterpoint, certain senators, including one Ben Nelson, of recent abortion news fame, think that even though the US has been THE leading polluter, and therefore one of the MAIN causes of warming, the poor countries ought to just fix it themselves. After all, we are having such a difficult time at home, they ought to just give us a break. Can you believe this?

“They’ve got to come up with their own,” said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). “We’re not asking them for money, as far as I know.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30690.html

Why aren’t they suing us? Careful guys, your caste mentality is showing.

Finally, Dipnote sends a lovely factoid. Did you know that traditional cook stoves, per unit, are the considered the worst polluters in the world?

And who usually winds up slaving over them?

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December 16th, H.R. 3590

Posted in Children, Feminism, Health Care, Human Rights, Humanism, Justice, Politics, tagged , on December 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Part 6 of the continuing saga of H. R. 3590, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Today, one motion to table was agreed to by a vote of 56 yeas, 41 nays and 3 not voting.:

Question:

On the Motion to Table (Motion to Table Hutchison Motion to Commit H.R. 3590 to the Committee on Finance )

There are now FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR submitted amendments. Less the 15 amendments that have been dispensed; that leaves FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY NINE amendments to go.

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Cop 15 Negotiations Strained, but Ongoing

Posted in Climate, Finance, Humanism, Justice, Nature, Politics, tagged , , , , , , on December 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Against the background of the Chinese refusal to allow monitoring of green house emissions and insistence that the 1992 treaty be honored in which they are to receive assistance toward the reduction of such emissions, the US Agenda was that of “pragmatism”.  Meanwhile smaller nations, notably from Africa, walked out briefly in protest on Monday over proposed assistance and perceived sidelining of the Kyoto Protocol.

Through the week concerns continued that progress of the overall climate negotiations regarding technical, financial and emotional issues, for an interim agreement, was too slow and would leave too much unsettled when world leaders sit down to negociate a binding global accord next year.

SOS Hillary Clinton was scheduled to attend today’s conference and leaders events in advance of the President’s arrival on the 18th.

Then today, Japan Times reported the following:

Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009

Gridlock threatens to doom COP15

By ERIC JOHNSTON and SETSUKO KAMIYA

Staff writers

[COPENHAGEN — U.N. negotiators at the COP15 conference worked through the night Tuesday, increasingly desperate to reach agreement before more than 120 world leaders gather Thursday night and Friday and following an official warning that the stalemated negotiations could doom the conference….

…One of the main sticking points on financing is which developing countries should receive financial assistance. U.S. officials have stressed they would refuse to provide China with funds. On Tuesday, China said the world’s poorest and most vulnerable should be prioritized, a sign Beijing may agree to U.S. demands that funding target small island states in the Pacific or African nations threatened by global warming, rather than large, industrialized developing countries such as itself…]

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091217a1.html

Neither China nor the US has yet signed the Kyoto Protocol as regarding green house gas emission.  This is a continuing major issue for many signatory countries. Most would prefer to keep the Kyoto Protocol, however, there is negotiation ongoing to develop a second legally binding protocol that the US might sign.

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