Secretary John Kerry Makes History At The UN
By Thom Hartmann A...
While much of the mainstream media was focused on 2016 election cycle, Secretary of State John Kerry was making history with his granddaughter at the United Nations. Last week, Secretary Kerry joined a gathering of the majority of the world's nations and signed on to the historic Paris Climate Accord.
As of the end of April, more than one hundred countries have officially signed on to the climate pact, but there is still much more work to be done to make the agreement official in the eyes of international law.
To put the climate accord info force, at least 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global carbon emissions must sign the pact and approve it domestically. Here in the US, there is some debate on whether or not that means Senatorial approval.
And, there is also some dispute about whether the Paris agreement goes far enough to prevent the worst climate scenarios. But, those questions don't mean that this Climate Accord is any less historic.
During the opening ceremony last month, U.N. Messenger of Peace, Leonardo DiCaprio, said, “More countries have come here to sign this agreement today than any other time in human history.” He added, “That is cause for hope.”
There is no legitimate debate on whether or not we must act on our climate crisis, but that action will be much more successful if we can act together with the rest of our planet. At the agreement signing, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “Climate change will test our intelligence, our compassion, and our will, but we are all equal to that challenge.
In every possibly sense we are all in this together. Together we will make ours a better world.” There is still more work to be done to fight global warming, but that fight will be easier when we work together.
Comments
#2
The upstream driver of all climate change and human environmental destruction is, simply and undeniably, the exploding human population. We are 220,000 more of us on the earth daily. 220,000! At the conclusion of a 40 year medical practice, I realized that all human suffering and illness is the direct result of population density stress and that our own over-active stress responses have been actively attempting to reduce our numbers for centuries. The physiological details are contained in the free e-book, "Stress R Us", available as a PDF by simply Googling the title. Thank you, Thom, for one of the last actual news programs left in American media!
#3
The attendees at COP 21, including the comfortably wealthy Sec. Kerry, refused to address in any way whatsoever the true root problem behind climate change: too many humans using too many fossil fuels and creatinf too much waste.
#4
I would like to believe that Sec. Kerry's boss, President Barack Obama, will also show commitment and leadership on this grave issue by not renewing oil and gas leases in the Gulf or anyplace else. It is imperative that we now leave whatever proven reserves there are in the ground to stay.
#5
What if the Democratic Party suddenly realized that it would be advanced immeasurably for decades if it took back both the Senate AND the House this election cycle. Bernie would being out millions of independents while Hillary would not. A Democratic Congress could deliver on Bernie's agenda and cement a generation or more of Democratic Party control. Welcome back FDR!
Wait a minute, no, let's nominate Hillary and continue with incrementalism like "Single payer is off the table," and let's go to a Heritage Foundation plan so the "health" insurance banks and the pharmaceutical corporations can still take their cut off the top! Keep money in politics so the corporate persons can continue to speak and take control of everything we have held dear. Profit über alles!
Democrats, think big for a change, damn it!!!!
#6
Considering the enormity of the disasters that await us if we don't do something about the current climate mess we're in, it's remarkable that the subject of COWS, yes, animal agriculture, is never mentioned. Even at the Paris Summit. I guess it's still the inconvenient truth in the room. Please at least educate yourselves by watching the most important movie which demonstrates with perfect clarity this truth, "Cowspiracy." And another phallacy to placate the masses? Sustainable meat. Sorry to say, but there is NO SUCH THING! Come on, folks, being vegan isn't all that bad. Not only will you save the planet, but you will save yourself and your money by not being sick from an unsustainable diet!
#7
At least for the U.S., we will have the means in the next year to start to eliminate CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion but only for plants in the U.S. Unfortunately, that technology will not be available to China or India in the near future.
Alan
#8
It's hard not to become cynical. The same day I receive this warm notice about Sec. Kerry signing the Paris Agreement, I receive a notice that the Obama administration is going to open bidding on oil and gas leases in the Gulf and in the Arctic. Is this administration unable to adopt a consistent and coherent policy that addresses global warming? Apparently not.
#9
before you get too excited. This has been done many times before with no one really doing anything but making lots of promises so they look good in their photo ops. All that will come out of this is more federal debt. No has reduced CO2 levels anywhere. Ever.
#10
If the methane clathrate emissions already indicate a serious positive feedback loop has already been triggered then Kerry signing on at this late date may already be a case of too little, too late.
We are about 20 years delinquent to be making symbolic gestures. it may boggle minds but the FAILURE if the US and any other significant contributor to carbon emissions to already aggressively address abrupt climate change should be the ultimate in crimes against humanity.
I hope we still have time. The collective foot dragging of our government is unconscionable.
Also unconscionable is the tendency to move the goal posts and pretend we have decades to act. Because there is the possibility that it may already be too late; we need to stop thinking in a future tense and deal with the present reality of global warming..RIGHT NOW. Because any more delays may seal the majority of mankind's doom.
#11
I've been an Independent since 1982. I can truthfully say if Bernie was the choice of the Democratic party, I and my cadre would vote for Trump. We are near bankrupt as a country and all Bernie seems to think about are idealistic ways to become a socialist country.
A country can loosen the restrictions of socialism and embrace capitalist aspects but it is not sustainable the other way around.
Both my husband and I were born in Europe so are familiar with socialism AND the necessary underpinnings to making socialism work.
You want socialized medicine? Hospitals must be government owned and health care workers must have been trained by the government with wage and expenditures government dictated.
Free schooling? Career pathways, salaries, and institutional costs must be, like healthcare entirely government managed.
Any part not controlled will attract greed, graft, corruption and fiscal abuse.
American pockets are not limitless. Bernie Sanders is an idealist who negates the limits of socialism on a capitalistic system and fails to admit that as President he would HAVE NO POWER to grant free education which would necessitate hijacking all private colleges and removing partcof States rights.
To us, Bernie while well intentioned, is ignorant of the true effectiveness of socialism and is irresponsible in making promises he cannot keep about systems he only understands as an idealogue.
Bernie would make the inevitable slide of the US info chaos a Democratic failure and blunder..Trump's failure would be no less spectacular, but at least it would be consistent incompetence for the GOP.
#12
"John Kerry" : the man who won the 2004 presidential election!
Ohio is another reason we need NATO to oversee our third world like elections!
#13
If the methane clathrate emissions already indicate a serious positive feedback loop has already been triggered then Kerry signing on at this late date may already be a case of too little, too late.
We are about 20 years delinquent to be making symbolic gestures. it may boggle minds but the FAILURE if the US and any other significant contributor to carbon emissions to already aggressively address abrupt climate change should be the ultimate in crimes against humanity.
I hope we still have time. The collective foot dragging of our government is unconscionable.
Also unconscionable is the tendency to move the goal posts and pretend we have decades to act. Because there is the possibility that it may already be too late; we need to stop thinking in a future tense and deal with the present reality of global warming..RIGHT NOW. Because any more delays may seal the majority of mankind's doom.
#14
I like your very rational comments. Aside from the clathrates that are becoming unstable, the continuous permafrost has 1 trillion tons of carbon in the top 3 meters of which at least 50% is expected to thaw this century and much of it will be emmitted as methane. Just 1 billion tons of that carbon emitted as methane will dwarf CO2 emissions. Abrupt climate change is in the works.
I'm involved with a project that has technology which can remove the CO2 from smokestacks at coal-fired and oil-fired power plants and industrial plants without the need for sequestration. I causes the CO2 to dissassociate. We expect to start making the devices later this year. This is the only known advance in technology that could rapidly reduce CO2 emissions. However, manufacturing these devices will take time and it may already be too late but we need to make that effort because there's a chance it may help.
We have to save what we can. We really need to start focusing on adaptation as the abrupt climate change may be so abrupt that we'll have no infrastructure to handle the mass migration from the coasts. Also, we'll lose our coastal seaports and airports so we'll lose the means to deliver basic necessities we now get from overseas to the inland population. That has been poorly considered.
So, Queenbee, keep you comments coming!!
Alan
#15
I've heard these fights all my life! From litter, deforestation, pollution, poisonous pharmaceuticals, and the list goes on! But that's just it! It continues!
I've written letters, called congress members, protested where I could, spoken to my family members and friends when I felt the time was right.
Unfortunately, I'm considered a "Debbie Downer", because most don't want to hear the truth. It's a bummer. We don't need 10 or 20 years to adjust to a cleaner way of living. The technology is here and has been for a long time. Everyone just has to buy into it. We pay for wind power in our home and while it cost more we know it's for our future and for the betterment for this planet. Now, (alternative energy use),is here, it is here , end of story.
#16
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The undeniable and inescapable truth is that mankind will be extracting fossil fuels from the earth for many generations to come. That is the hard truth that liberals just do not want to accept. Deal with it.
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Great news indeed if only for its symbolic meaning.
The tech to meet those goals should be here in the next 10
to 20 years.
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