November 8th 2008
China: “You Guys Pay For Our Mess”
C
hina, the world’s largest polluter, is also the world’s least responsible nation. At least that’s what Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao told representatives of 76 nations in Beijing this week:
“The developed countries have a responsibility and an obligation to respond to global climate change by altering their unsustainable way of life.”
China aparently feels no such obligation, even though it pollutes more than America, even though it has about a tenth our gross national product. Even so, the Chinese government’s position is that it is under no obligation to clean up after itself; no, that’s our job.
The Chinese government used a two-day conference in Beijing, which ended Saturday, to trumpet proposals for rich economies to devote up to 1 percent of their gross domestic product to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (WashTimes)
China is working to stack the deck against the countries that are working to clean up after themselves as the UN works to find a replacement to the dismally failed Kyoto treaty.
But it’s just a percent, right? No big deal. Well, just a little deal: $300 billion a year from the G7 alone.
China argues that taking charge of its pollution would limit its own goals to reduce poverty. Someone better dial up Obama. He seems to think that a massive, government-forced conversion to clean energy will grow the economy, expand jobs and be good for everyone.
Amoebas glide toward their prey with the help of a protein switch that controls a molecular compass, biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered.
