G8 Leader Agree to Cut Carbon Emissions
Leaders of the world’s richest countries committed Tuesday to “move toward a low-carbon society” and set the goal of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. The plan was approved at the annual summit of the Group of Eight — the U.S., Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia — held this year in Hokkaido, Japan.
Environmentalists were quick to criticize the plan, which has few specifics and sets no short-term goals. Oxfam called it a “stalling tactic,” and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said that the lack of progress was “pathetic.” Still, the agreement is a first for U.S. President George Bush, who had previously agreed only to “seriously consider” any plan to eliminate greenhouse gases. In their efforts to bring Bush on board, the G8 leaders also called on developing nations to aim for the same goal. Bush has long insisted that big emerging economies such as China and India be part of any climate change treaty.
Leaders of five major developing countries — Mexico, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa — will join the G8 leaders on Wednesday. In advance of the meeting, they called on the G8 countries to take “into account historical responsibility and respective capacities” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 percent by 2050, while also urging developing countries to commit to a 25-40 percent cut by 2020.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are blamed for the global climate change, a threat the U.N. Secretary General has described as “the defining issue of our era.”
WIDE ANGLE follows a 29-year-old Australian entrepreneur with his own plan for cutting carbon emissions. The film Burning Season premieres on July 22. Check back here for updates.
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Aaron:
Were you aware that you were pegged as a tabloid news monger by Renée Poussaint on CUNY’s Democracy for America ( http://www.learner.org/resources/series173.html#jump10 ) for selecting Robert Blake fluff over Weapons Inspector reports from Iraq in 2003 on CNN NewsNight.
Poussaint’s programs are notorious for spinning right wing religious and corporate influence on SCOTUS decisions, weapons manufacturers and multinational OIL companies control over media coverage via advertising dollars, K-Street bribes (eg: FISA), etc., as STATUS QUO for Democracy in America. As opposed to proto-fascist iron triangle manipulation being a cancerous legion on journalistic integrity and antithetical to media objectivity that has been universally corrupted at least since the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, if not earlier via CIA Operation MOCKINGBIRD that morphed into current TV Consultant Generals Pentagon propaganda arm (excluding Batiste who was fired for being truthful).
Perhaps you can reduce the blemish stamped on your forehead by doing an EXPOSE on the MORA (US Rep Hinchey’s bill http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3302&tab=summary#questionsubmitresponse ), to illustrate your commitment to JUSTICE and what was known under Cronkite and Ellsberg as THE AMERICAN WAY.
Either that, or do a story and DEPLETED URANIUM’s effects since DESERT STORM and SHOCK & AWE. Better yet, a report on the state of US BORDER SECURITY since the “19 HIJACKERS” struck on 9/11 that traces their visa applications, ties to Abramoff’s Florida cruise casino business, FBI “incompetence” regarding Coleen Rowley’s Phoenix Memo and their financial links to Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistani ISI (Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, Saeed Sheikh, Mustafa Mohamed Ahmad, Aftab Ansari, Mustafa Ahmed, Lieutenant-General Mohammad Aziz Khan http://www.historycommons.org/essay_pf.jsp?article=essaysaeed ) with its connections both to BCCI and Condi’s State Dept. including operation Bojinka, not to mention ISI’s association to Daniel Pearl’s decapitation. in light of ongoing Usama Bin Forgotten inaction and the BOOMING OPIUM Afghan QUAGMIRE.
BTW:
Since global climate change, a threat the U.N. Secretary General has described as “the defining issue of our era”, what era does the WAR on DRUGS financing CIA backed TERRORISTS belong to?