Government negotiators are already writing off chances for a global treaty to fight climate change, nine months before the annual talks begin in Cancun, Mexico.

Yes, the big UN conference will be in the exotic vacation spot of Cancun. Oh, and did you catch that part about it already being written off?

Kunihiko Shimada, principal international negotiator at the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, said a deal this year is “almost impossible.” Jos Delbeke, who spearheads European Union climate policy at the European Commission, ruled out a “comprehensive legal agreement” in 2010.

Their remarks call into question whether efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions are progressing after failing in Copenhagen in December. President Barack Obama’s energy proposal is bogged down in the U.S. Congress. Without a U.S. commitment, China and India, two of the fastest-growing polluters, may be reluctant to limit greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

So, question: if it is already set up for failure, why have it? Oh, that’s right: exotic vacation spot of Cancun. The alarmist conference was originally meant to be held in Mexico City. Mexico City’s mayor also points out that Cancun is “nice and warm, but not very green.”

Elsewhere:

• The Hockey Schtick: Arctic has still not received the memo on AGW – Arctic temperatures stable since 1958
• Telegraph: Climategate: two more bricks fall out of the IPCC wall of deceit – rainforests and polar bears
• Yid With Lid: Latest Global Warming Fear, Massive Build-up of Microbe Flatulence
• Tom Nelson: Rasmussen: 72% of American voter don’t believe global warming is a “very serious problem”

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

The governments of the two economies must balance bringing down their debt burdens without damaging growth by removing fiscal stimulus too quickly, Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London, said in a telephone interview.

Under the ratings company’s so-called baseline scenario, the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K., and will be the biggest spender from 2011 to 2013, Moody’s said today in a report.

“We expect the situation to further deteriorate in terms of the key ratings metrics before they start stabilizing,” Cailleteau said. “This story is not going to stop at the end of the year. There is inertia in the deterioration of credit metrics.”

… Under its adverse scenario, which assumes 0.5 percent lower growth each year, less fiscal adjustment and a stronger interest-rate shock, the U.S. will be paying about 15 percent of revenue in interest payments, more than the 14 percent limit that would lead to a downgrade to AA, Moody’s said.

This has caused stocks to drop as fears about the US economy continue to grow. Right now, our debt loads are stretched to the max. If our rating drops, it will become more expensive for us to borrow money. We aren’t the only country with this problem — stocks are dropping in the UK and in China as well — but it certainly doesn’t make the matter any better to know we aren’t alone.

Our deficit is over $1.5 trillion right now. Considering our lackluster economy, and the way our government is spending like there’s no tomorrow, it’s not surprising that Moody’s isn’t all that confident about our credit. And the economic geniuses in Washington right now have no plan besides exactly what Obama campaigned on: hope and change. They hope that we’ll see rapid GDP growth, which will change the amount of money in our treasury.

For now, our credit rating is safe. But if things keep going the way they’re going, we’ll no longer be one of the seventeen countries with a AAA credit rating. But look at this graph, and tell me how optimistic you are about us getting our debt and spending under control:

If things keep going the way they are going, we will lose our AAA credit rating. Stocks will continue to drop. The unemployment rate will rise. And yet, Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are working to take over 1/6th of the US economy. Clearly, this isn’t the best time to be taking on more government expansion. Right now, politicians should be working on getting our deficit and our spending under control, not taking over health care.

What will it take for Obama to get that message??

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary, or follow her on Twitter!

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Headline – We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change

He’s right. Mother Nature will do as Mother Nature wants, no matter what we say or do. But, of course, that isn’t what he means. And he wants to keep the money train rollin’.

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

No scare-mongering there. Funny how human civilization prospered the best during the current warm period and the Medieval Warm Period.

Of course, we would still need to deal with the national security risks of our growing dependence on a global oil market dominated by dwindling reserves in the most unstable region of the world, and the economic risks of sending hundreds of billions of dollars a year overseas in return for that oil. And we would still trail China in the race to develop smart grids, fast trains, solar power, wind, geothermal and other renewable sources of energy — the most important sources of new jobs in the 21st century.

Which is a separate issue that most, including myself, would agree with. We do need to do those things, as we import entirely too much oil from radical Islamist countries. We do need to look towards renewable sources as our economy progresses (though, the fast trains thing just doesn’t work too well in the USA.) However, that has nothing to do with Gore’s fake science, which he cannot even call “global warming” anymore.

But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands. We could instead celebrate the naysayers who had doggedly persisted in proving that every major National Academy of Sciences report on climate change had simply made a huge mistake.

Is Gore talking about globull warming in that second sentence, or the Stimulus legislation and other spending by Obama and the Democrats? As for the 3rd sentence, isn’t that the way science is done? I didn’t realize that we were supposed to simply take alarmist reports at face value, and never respond. Perhaps we hurt their wittle feewings when say examine the reports and find that they are full of mule fritters.

Anyhow, I could keep going on and on, picking apart Gore’s fanciful and mega-alarmist, not too mention scare-mongering, op-ed, but, that would make for a really, really big post. So, let’s end with this cute one down near the bottom of page one

Here is what scientists have found is happening to our climate: man-made global-warming pollution traps heat from the sun and increases atmospheric temperatures. These pollutants — especially carbon dioxide — have been increasing rapidly with the growth in the burning of coal, oil, natural gas and forests, and temperatures have increased over the same period. (note: the rest of the paragraph is a recitation of many recent “we’re all going to die!!!!!!” news reports about AGW)

Yet, despite the continued increase in CO2 levels, and what the computer models say, there have been several downturns in the global temperature. One of the main climate alarmists even told us there has been no statistical increase in the global temperature over the last 15 years, as well as stating that the Medieval Warm Period being warmer than the current warming period. Let us jump over to the OC Register and a story by Mark Landsbaum called “Arguing global warming with Arnold”

Tiny carbon footprints – All greenhouse gases worldwide make up 2 percent of the atmosphere. Only 3.6 percent of that 2 percent is carbon dioxide. Only 3.4 percent of that 3.6 percent is man-made. If California shut down every man-made CO2-emitting source the result would be atmospherically unnoticeable. In fact, even using their favorite government and U.N. computer calculations, warmists admit that if every nation on Earth had rolled back CO2 emissions to the economy-killing extent called for in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, there would have been no noticeable change in global temperatures.

It’s a bit early on a Sunday morning to work the math, but, damn! that is a tiny percent, isn’t it? But, it was never about saving Gaia: it’s always been about money, prestige, and power. And if Gore’s pet rock, er, theory, dies, he loses all three.

BTW, anyone think he will testify before Congress, as Jim Inhofe wants him to do?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

As the writer himself acknowledges, it is an unwritten rule that the holier-than-thou crowd must never blame poor countries for anything. Only the “rich West” can do wrong. But apparently China is now rich and powerful enough to have lost that protection. So our climate apostle has got daring.

But the funny bit comes towards the end of his article when he concludes in sorrow and in anger that China is not playing the Guardianista game at all. He seems surprised that he has to conclude: “This is fast becoming China’s century, yet its leadership has displayed that multilateral environmental governance is not only not a priority, but is viewed as a hindrance to the new superpower’s freedom of action”.

China is not interested in global governance! How awful! How concerning! How disillusioning! What is left? Fancy China wanting to run its own affairs! How can those nice Communists be so awful? It’s all a terrible shock to a Guardianista!

The Guardian has its flock, however. My first wife (the first of four) has always been Left-leaning and she has just emailed me to tell me that she is now very angry with China! LOL! She would once have turned a deaf ear to any criticism of China.

It reminds me of Israel. For a couple of decades after WWII, the Left were supportive of Israel. But after Israel won the six-day war, that steadily eroded and Israel is now regarded with widespread hostility among Leftists. Leftists just hate other people doing well for themselves. They only like people that they can look down on and patronize. One of the reasons I support Israel is that it gives me pleasure to see other people doing well — but that makes me a conservative, of course. No Leftist would understand that. I even think highly of Bill Gates!

Posted by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The White House’s forthcoming state dinner with the Prime Minister of India is expected to be larger than those of President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. But another upcoming White House event will be smaller than in years past: The White House’s annual Hanukkah party.

The guest list is expected to be shrunk by more than half, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Though several Jewish leaders expressed understanding for the economic and other reasons behind the cut, they acknowledged that it would likely help feed feelings in some quarters of the American Jewish community that the White House is giving them the cold shoulder.”

The move comes on the heels of Obama’s cancellation of an appearance before the General Assembly of North American Jewish Federations last week.

Interesting. Obama had no problem having a big dinner to celebrate Ramadan. Nor flying all over the world to speak to Muslims. But, you Jewish folks? Well, looks like the economy is just too poor to celebrate your Holy time, which the Politico tells us as they try and read the White House’s mind

The White House’s decision is likely a response to tough economic times and a desire to keep the holiday festivities reasonable.

Reasonable? The Obama admin didn’t seem to have a problem celebrating China’s 60th anniversary, along with a Chinese flag flying next to the U.S. flag near the White House. As Pam Geller points out, the first paragraph, about the party with India’s P.M. being bigger than previous one, doesn’t quite jibe with the one about the Hanukkah party being reduced because of tough economic times.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

BEIJING – President Barack Obama prodded China about Internet censorship and free speech, but the message was not widely heard in China where his words were blocked online and shown on only one regional television channel.

Irony? Serendipity? Coincidence? Or just plain pwned?

“I’m a big supporter of non-censorship,” Obama said. “I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet — or unrestricted Internet access — is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged.”

Hmm, we’ll see how that non-censoring thing will work out as Democrats put together plans to take down Conservative talk radio. Oh, and then there was that little spat with Fox News, initiated by the White House.

Obama may have been hoping to set a personal example for China’s leaders when he said he believes that free discussion, including criticism that may be annoying to him, makes him “a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”

Spat. Fox News. Fight with Limbaugh. Fight with Hannity. Joe the Plumber. Kevin Miller. Barbara West. Hiring Cass Sunstein, a man who is all about censoring the Internet.

Look, I applaud Obama’s cajones in answering the question in that manner as he stands on Chinese soil. Kudos to him, in all seriousness. But, considering his own opinions and actions here in the US, he really does not have the moral authority to lecture the Chinese.

Just for reference, Pirate’s Cove is banned in China, along with my test site. Not sure about Stop The ACLU or Right Wing News, since the site designed to tell you if your site is blocked has been taken down. Unsurprisingly, The Huffington Post is now unblocked in China, though, the Huff Post’s opinions are farther left then the Chinese governments. But, they have blocked I Can Has Cheeseburger! That’s just mean. See here and here for lists of some who have been blocked.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The worst thing that you or I can do for the planet is to have children. If they behave as the average person in the rich world does now, they will emit some 11 tonnes of CO2 every year of their lives. In their turn, they are likely to have more carbon-emitting children who will make an even bigger mess. If Britain is to meet the government’s target of an 80% reduction in our emissions by 2050, we need to start reversing our rising rate of population growth immediately.

All children are bad, but Western children are particularly bad, because according to the Gaiaist religion,

the poorer you are, the less carbon you emit. By today’s standards, a cull of Australians or Americans would be at least 60 times as productive as one of Bangladeshis. …one less British child would permit some 30 women in sub-Saharan Africa to have a baby and still leave the planet a cleaner place.

As usual, the role model for liberals is communist China, which is praised for reducing its population by hundreds of millions by dictating to parents that they can only have one child — a policy that often results in infanticide for baby girls.

If communism and Nazism could leave tens of millions dead, what will be the death toll if the evil freaks driving the environmentalism movement get the leverage to inflict their anti-Western and anti-human fantasies?

In the US, we already have a Science Czar who has advocated putting sterilants in the water supply. Why not use poison instead? After all, it may only be a matter of years before global warming inconveniences the polar bears unless the human race is reduced to a few barefoot peasants cowering before their socialist overlords.

Hat tip: The Blogprof. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

President Obama recently shifted authority for approving sales to China of missile and space technology from the White House to the Commerce Department — a move critics say will loosen export controls and potentially benefit Chinese missile development.

The president issued a little-noticed “presidential determination” Sept. 29 that delegated authority for determining whether missile and space exports should be approved for China to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. …

The presidential notice alters a key provision of the 1999 Defense Authorization Act that required that the president notify Congress whether a transfer of missile and space technology to China would harm the U.S. space-launch industry or help China’s missile programs. …

Section 1512 of the 1999 law requires the president to certify to Congress in advance of any missile equipment or technology exports to China that the export will not harm the U.S. space-launch industry and that “missile equipment or technology, including any indirect technical benefit that could be derived from such export, will not measurably improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People’s Republic of China.”

Why was this law necessary? Because Bill Clinton was so far in bed with the Chicoms, he probably snores in Chinese. As a result, technology was passed along to them that may be used to vaporize American cities. But laws don’t apply to The Anointed One, who rules by fiat while his media enablers look the other way.

Henry Sokolski, director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, said restoring Commerce Department control over the sensitive exports is a “step backward.”

“It’s as though Commerce’s mishandling of missile-tech transfers to China in the 1990s never happened,” said Mr. Sokolski, a former Pentagon proliferation specialist. “But it did. As a result, we are now facing much more accurate, reliable missiles from China.”

Mr. Sokolski said he expects the U.S. government under the new policy to again boost Chinese military modernization through “whatever renewed ‘benign’ missile technology” is approved.

“It was foolish for us to do this in the 1990s and is even more dangerous for us to do now,” he said.

The director of the Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control, Gary Milhollin, isn’t happy either:

It is shocking that it would be delegated to the secretary of commerce, whose job it is to promote trade, rather than to the secretary of state or the secretary of defense, who have far more knowledge and responsibility within their organizations for missile technology. … In fact, the delegation turns the present law upside down because Congress passed it after finding that the Commerce Department had improperly helped China import U.S. missile technology in the 1990s.

They needn’t worry. Comrade Obama believes in nuclear disarmament — at least for the USA, which liberals inform us is the source of all evil in the world.

On a tip from Conan. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

The US threatened to derail a deal on global climate change today in a public showdown with China by expressing deep opposition to the existing Kyoto protocol. The US team also urged other rich countries to join it in setting up a new legal agreement which would, unlike Kyoto, force all countries to reduce emissions.

The Senate rejected it and Clinton refused to sign on because it would “result in serious harm to the US economy” as well as not including developing nations. Like China and India. Bush 43 rejected it for the same reasons.

In a day of high international rhetoric, chief US negotiator Jonathan Pershing said the US had moved significantly in the last year. “There has been a startling change in the US position. There is now engagement. We have had a 10-fold increase finance from the US. We have put $80bn into a green economic stimulus package. One year ago there was no commitment to a global agreement.”

But he forcefully outlined America’s opposition to the Kyoto protocol. “We are not going to be in the Kyoto protocol. We are not going to be part of an agreement that we cannot meet. We say a new agreement has to [be signed] by all countries. Things have changed since Kyoto. Where countries were in 1990 and today is very different. We cannot be stuck with an agreement 20 years old. We want action from all countries.”

At least the Obama admin. is staying strong for the moment in wanting an agreement that all nations are going to destroy their economies and takes us back to partying like it is 1799. How soon till President Neophyte caves?

In other AGW news, when we say that AGW is like a religion for the Left, well……..

A man who claims he was unfairly dismissed from his job because he believes in climate change is attempting to have his environmental views recognised under religious law.

Tim Nicholson, 42, says his beliefs on the environment are so strong they led to clashes with other senior staff at Grainger, one of the UK’s biggest property companies.

In March, employment judge David Neath gave Nicholson permission to take the firm to a tribunal over his treatment. The company is challenging the ruling, arguing that environmental beliefs are not the same as religious or philosophical ones.

Oooooooo-kay.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

In an attempt to gain favor with China, the United States pressured Tibetan representatives to postpone a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Obama until after Obama’s summit with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, scheduled for next month, according to diplomats, government officials and other sources familiar with the talks.

For the first time since 1991, the Tibetan spiritual leader will visit Washington this week and not meet with the president. Since 1991, he has been here 10 times. Most times the meetings have been “drop-in” visits at the White House. The last time he was here, in 2007, however, George W. Bush became the first sitting president to meet with him publicly, at a ceremony at the Capitol in which he awarded the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’s highest civilian award.

Did I mention that he also was a Nobel Peace Prize recipient? One who actually deserved and earned it? And fights hard for human rights?

The U.S. decision to postpone the meeting appears to be part of a strategy to improve ties with China that also includes soft-pedaling criticism of China’s human rights and financial policies as well as backing efforts to elevate China’s position in international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund. Obama administration officials have termed the new policy “strategic reassurance,” which entails the U.S. government taking steps to convince China that it is not out to contain the emerging Asian power.

Well, I suppose Obama has to do that, considering he has saddled America with tremendous debt which is held by China.

U.S. officials also said they are not pulling punches with the Chinese. They have, however, indicated that they want to try something new on Tibet, figuring that the old policy — of meeting with the Dalai Lama regularly and calling for substantive talks between China and his representatives — had achieved little. American officials told Tibetan representatives that “this president is not interested in symbolism or photo ops but in deliverables,” the Asian diplomat said. “He wants something to come out of his efforts over Tibet, rather than just checking a box.”

Yeah, that old policy of pushing for human rights.

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post