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Author Topic: Pollution  (Read 59468 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Pollution
« Reply #135 on: November 30, 2014, 01:50:29 am »
Who will pay for climate change?

November 25, 2013 10:13 PM

Quote
"But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and crushes truth and right into the dust. 'Might makes right,' and hoary folly totters on in her mad career escorted by armies and navies." Adin Ballou

Quote

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." Abraham Lincoln


At the moment the rich and the poor countries are fighting over who will pay for the damage that our collapsing climate is inflicting on the world.
Who should pay?

When I read that the United States was reneging on its obligation to pay into a $100-billion fund to help poor countries cut emissions and adapt themselves to a changing climate, it reminded me of something from 40 years ago.

 The year was 1973 and our war against Vietnam was winding down. President Nixon secretly promised to pay the Vietnamese nation $3.3 billion in reconstruction aid. We never paid a dime of it. We promised but did not pay.

Who cares?


We rarely find truth and justice outside of fairy tales and Hollywood movies. In real life, it is the rich and the powerful who often decide what is right. Might does make right. And who will tell them different? Are we Americans going to rise up and demand that Obama pay money to the poor countries that are suffering and will continue to suffer as our climate disintegrates? Why would we do that?

How many Americans would ever demand we do the right thing by other nations, knowing that it might negatively impact us? It would never happen. We believe in justice when we are wronged, but seldom when we are wrong. Let us be real.

We attacked an innocent nation in Southeast Asia, ended up killing three million men, women and children and "sprayed more than 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides over parts of southern Vietnam and along the borders of neighboring Laos and Cambodia. The herbicides were contaminated with dioxin, a deadly compound that remains toxic for decades and causes birth defects, cancer and other illnesses. "To this day, dioxin continues to poison the land and the people. The United States has never accepted responsibility for these victims - it denies that Agent Orange is responsible for diseases among Vietnamese that are accepted as Agent Orange-caused among American veterans."

We do not care what we do to others


We did that to one nation. One of dozens. Just about every nation in our hemisphere has a story to tell about how we brutalized them at one time in their history. Believe it or not, I do not say this with any malice or judgment. It is just a fact and one we conveniently and perversely ignore. We are a self-interested nation. We look out for us. Any damage we do to another nation in the pursuit of our interests is forgettable. Forgotten. By Americans anyway.   


Climate change is real. Most of the CO2 in our atmosphere came from America. This is a fact.
China is the main polluter but they have a long way to go to catch up to us in total accumulated pollution. And when we consider per capita in the world's major nations, no one will ever catch us. Look in the mirror. Each of us on average exceeds the average of every other nation's citizens. We win. We are the worst. As Americans we love to blame others but we hate to take responsibility.

As a nation, we have no plans to take responsibility for our contribution for climate change. Ever. And most Americans will never lose sleep feeling guilty about it. We don't take responsibility for our actions in the world. We get defensive. We deny, avoid and evade. And focus elsewhere. And that is human nature. It is what we do. It is what everyone does.

Governments will argue about it for the next few years until eventually it won't matter anymore. Our climate will keep changing until the culprits become irrelevant.

Should the rich pay the poor for what they have done to them?


"Negotiators at the UN climate talks in Warsaw have split over who should pay for the damage caused by climate change. Developing countries have drawn a 'red line' on the issue of loss and damage. They say the US, EU, Australia and other developed nations should take responsibility for the damage caused by their emissions. 


"The Guardian's John Vidal reports from Warsaw that loss and damage is a defining issue for developing countries.

"'This is a red line for us,' said Munjural Khan, a spokesman for the Least Developed Countries (LDC). 'We have been thinking of ways to harden our position, to the point of walking out of the negotiations.'

"But Vidal says that wealthy nations have been similarly intransigent.

" Meanwhile, "Newly leaked documents have revealed how U.S. negotiators at the U.N. climate summit in Warsaw are opposing efforts to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

"According to an internal U.S. briefing memo seen by Democracy Now!, the U.S. delegation  is worried  ;) the talks in Warsaw will 'focus increasingly on blame and liability' and that poor nations will be 'seeking redress    for climate damages  from sea level rise, droughts, powerful storms and other adverse impacts.'"

http://blogs.redding.com/redding/dcraig/archives/2013/11/who-will-pay-fo.html#sthash.Lfw0wN0B.dpuf

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2013/10/one-percents-planetary-assets-equals-80-responsibility-for-funding-a-100-renewable-energy-world
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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