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skyline5k
Shanghai Royalty
Joined: Sep 06, 2004
Posts: 8701
Location: i am ERROR
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
May 06, 2007 - 12:52 PM |
 
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| Post subject: No, Global Warming is YOUR Fault! |
From this weekend's Shanghai Daily:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/print.asp?id=314863
| Quote: |
Global warning: Time for action is right now
Created: 2007-5-5 0:00:01
INTERNATIONAL delegates agreed yesterday that the world has the technology and money to limit catastrophic global warming.
However, they said action must be taken now to reduce the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
Promptly adopting biofuels, renewable energy sources and greater energy efficiency can mitigate worldwide disaster, according to a report adopted by government-appointed delegates from 120-plus countries at a Bangkok conference.
"It's stunning in its brilliance and relevance," Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the panel that convened the meeting, said of the report yesterday. "It's a remarkable step forward."
The United States was pleased the report "highlights the importance of a portfolio of clean energy technologies consistent with our approach," said the head of the American delegation, Harlan Watson.
"The US leads the world in deploying a range of technologies that scientific and economic experts have now agreed can provide a global solution to reduce emissions and sustain economic growth," he said.
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of 2,000 scientists, makes plain that the world must act immediately to cap the global temperature increase at two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial-age levels.
Peter Lukey, a South Africa delegate, said everything his country had wanted to see in the report was there "and more."
"The message is: We have to do something now," he said.
Delegates at the weeklong meeting bickered over how to share the burden of cutting emissions, how much such measures would cost, and how much weight to give certain policy measures, such as advanced nuclear power, an option supported by the US.
The report follows two studies by the IPCC earlier this year warning that unabated greenhouse gas emissions could drive global temperatures up as much as six degrees Centigrade, triggering a surge in ocean levels, destruction of vast numbers of species, economic devastation in tropical zones and mass human migration.
Even an increase as small as two degrees could subject up to two billion people to water shortages by 2050 and threaten extinction for 20 percent to 30 percent of the world's species, the IPCC said.
The full version of the final report was not made available when the meeting ended, but delegates said it largely resembled a draft version that said emissions can be cut if the world shifts away from carbon-heavy fuels like coal, embraces energy efficiency and significantly reduces deforestation.
"This is a roadmap that the IPCC is delivering," said Hans Verolme of World Wildlife Fund International. "It's time for the politicians to do more than just pay lip service to the issue of global warming, and to stop climate change before it's too late."
Environmentalists said nations must decide on concrete action at the Group of Eight summit of leading industrial nations in June in Germany and at a UN climate summit in Bali in December. |
Sounds all well and good, right? At least something is happening with the Global Warming issue, and even the Shanghai Daily gave it front page placing! Good right? Not quite...
From the Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/India_China_hol d_up_climate_talks/rssarticleshow/1994323.cms
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India, China hold up climate talks
[3 May, 2007 l 0000 hrs ISTlAFP]
BANGKOK: A demand by China, India and Brazil that rich nations accept they are mainly responsible for global warming has held up progress at a key UN climate change conference here, delegates said Wednesday.
The three nations’ insistence since the talks started on Monday that the developed world recognise their dominant role in climate change has stolen precious time meant for debate on how best to tackle global warming, they said.
“Progress is slow,” one delegate from a European nation, who asked not to be identified, said.
“Brazil, India and China are trying to put on the shoulders of industrialised nations the historic responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, in order to clear their own emissions (of blame) and to protect themselves in any discussion.” At least 400 scientists and experts from about 120 countries are attending the week-long session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s leading authority on global warming.
Their report, expected to be released on Friday after the closed-door meeting ends, aims to lay out ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent a climate catastrophe without seriously hurting the global economy.
But China has also insisted on specific figures, which lay the blame for global warming on rich nations, be inserted into the conclusions, according to documents obtained by AFP.
Developed countries should formally recognise they were responsible for 95% of greenhouse gas emissions from the pre-industrial era to 1950, and for 77% from 1950 to 2000, according to China’s submission to the IPCC.
China also rejected phrasing that places the onus on the entire world to deal with climate change, instead urging the focus to be on rich nations whose per capita emissions of greenhouse gases are far higher than those of the developing world.
Various delegates told AFP the demands, made by China but backed by India, Brazil and other developing countries, were not relevant to this week’s meeting because it was meant to specifically look at ways to mitigate climate change.
“This is not the point of this meeting. We are meant to be looking to the future,” the European delegate who did not want to be named said.
Another sticking point has been China’s insistence that cutting greenhouse gases will cost more to the global economy than the IPCC scientists had estimated, according to the Chinese submission and other sources at the conference.
One of the French delegates, Renaud Crassous, said China was proving to be a dominant force in this week’s talks, while others said the US — the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — was remaining low key. “China is distrustful regarding everything that could draw a conclusion that it is easy to reduce emissions,” Crassous said. |
By the time all of this is done, Shanghai will ALREADY be underwater. Yes, it's going to cost money, but when millions have to relocate due to rising sea levels in the future, that's going to be a HELL of a lot more expensive than preventative measures now.
Also, that means that the "world's tallest building" next to Jin Mao will have to have an entrance around the 10th floor or so. Hope the contractors keep that in mind while they build. |
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theAutumn45
Rocker
Joined: Oct 28, 2005
Posts: 796
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| Posted:
May 06, 2007 - 01:19 PM |
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It would be a scene of a great movie, Shanghai sinking along with New York.
But they do have a point, the effect of technology advancement and luxurious life style of developed countries on the climate change.
Think about how many wars of advanced weaponry were originated from the west and using the western technology. Here I have been trying hard saving electricity using energy saving light bulbs, and then how much energy waste and the warming effect of Iraq war is causing. |
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