Pay very close attention to THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS. Scientific ignorance/suppression in the energy sector, skewing our view of reality, is the greatest profound wonder and threat to the survival of civilization in the world today. Scientific ignorance carries a clear and present, lethal danger. The preposterous, comical 'worst case scenario' proposed solutions to global warming confirm an absolute, fanatic belief in a crippled science devoid of simple evolutionary energy options which modern civilization requires for survival. For the majority, the thought does not even exist that simple scientific fundamentals could be missing, blocking advanced energy systems applications which eliminate lack, limitation and unbalanced threats through the normal evolutionary progression of energy systemsU.N. Chief: Act Now On Global Warming
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 25, 2007
(CBS/AP) With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global warming emissions. What's needed is "action, action, action," California's environmentalist governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, told the assembled presidents and premiers. The Bush administration showed no sign, however, that it would reverse its stand against mandatory emission cuts endorsed by 175 other nations. Some expressed fears the White House, with its own forum later this week, would launch talks rivaling the U.N. climate treaty negotiations. President Bush wasn't among the more than 80 world leaders on hand for the summit. But former Vice President and ex-Senator Al Gore was - delivering a luncheon speech on changes already attributed to global warming, including last week's scientific report that the Arctic ice cap this summer shrank to a record-small size. "We cannot continue a slow pace," said Gore, proposing that heads of state meet every three months beginning in 2008 to ensure the world is doing all it can to meet the threat. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set the day's theme in his opening address, calling for action and describing the U.N. negotiating umbrella as "the only forum" where the issues can be decided. "Two decades ago, here in this hall, climate change first surfaced on the world's political agenda," said the U.N. leader, warning that the stakes are nothing less than "the protection of the global climate for present and future generations of mankind. Much has happened since those early days, but the fundamental challenge remains unchanged and has become even more pressing." "I'm convinced that climate change and what we do about it will define us, our era and ultimately the global legacy that we leave for future generations," said Ban. "Today, the time for doubt has passed. The United Nations panel on global climate change has unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate and linked it to human activities." At the day's end, Ban said he believed the scores of speeches showed a "major political commitment" to success in the global talks. Monday evening, President Bush attended a dinner, a gathering of key climate players hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Late Monday, U.N. chief Ban was asked by reporters about Mr. Bush's position during the dinner discussions. "He made it quite clear that what he's going to do is help the United Nations effort," he replied. Ban organized the one-day summit to build momentum for December's annual climate treaty conference in Bali, Indonesia, when Europe, Japan and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The 175-nation Kyoto pact, which the U.S. rejects, requires 36 industrial nations to reduce carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. It set an average target of a 5 percent cut below 1990 levels by 2012 for emissions from power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources. Advocates for emissions reductions say a breakthrough is needed at Bali to ensure an uninterrupted transition from the 1997 Kyoto pact to a new, deeper-cutting regime, something that almost certainly would require a change in the U.S. position. The chief U.N. climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, told the summit of the mounting evidence of global warming's impact, including the accelerating rise in sea levels as oceans expand from heat and the runoff of melting land ice. "The time is up for inaction," he said. A Pacific islander, President Emanuel Mori of the Federated States of Micronesia, told the summit that encroaching seas are already destroying crops, contaminating wells and eating away at his islands' beaches. "How does one explain to the inhabitants that their plight is caused by human activities done in faraway lands?" he asked. The United States has long been the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. President Bush objects that Kyoto-style mandates would damage the U.S. economy and says they should be imposed on fast-growing poorer countries like China and India in addition to developed nations. He instead is urging industry to cut emissions voluntarily and is emphasizing research on clean-energy technology as one answer. On Thursday and Friday, Mr. Bush will host his own Washington climate meeting, limited to 16 "major emitter" countries, including China and India, the first in a series of U.S.-led gatherings expected to focus on those themes. "The Washington meeting is a distraction," Hans Verolme, climate campaigner for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, told reporters. U.S. leaders "need to show they are serious and implement domestic legislation to reduce emissions," he said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the summit, put the Washington meetings in a different light, describing them as designed "to support and help advance the ongoing U.N. discussion." Japan's envoy, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, said Tokyo believes the separate U.S. talks will "contribute to achieving consensus" in the U.N. process, in which all agree that China, India and others must eventually accept emission limits. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Washington sessions show "the Americans are back in the climate process." But Japan and others, to one degree or another, stressed that all nations - including the United States - must accept emission targets. To try to spur global negotiations, the European Union, which must reduce emissions by 8 percent under Kyoto, has committed to a further reduction of at least 20 percent by 2020. Speaking for the EU, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Monday's summit that "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. He also said the U.N. negotiating process is the only "efficient and legitimate framework." Schwarzenegger told delegates that U.S. states are embracing emissions caps even if the Bush administration isn't. California's Republican governor and Democrat-led legislature have approved a law requiring the state's industries to reduce greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020. "California is moving the United States beyond debate and doubt to action," Schwarzenegger said. "What we are doing is changing the dynamic."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 25, 2007
(CBS/AP) With tales of rising seas and talk of human solidarity, world leaders at the first United Nations climate summit sought Monday to put new urgency into global talks to reduce global warming emissions. What's needed is "action, action, action," California's environmentalist governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, told the assembled presidents and premiers. The Bush administration showed no sign, however, that it would reverse its stand against mandatory emission cuts endorsed by 175 other nations. Some expressed fears the White House, with its own forum later this week, would launch talks rivaling the U.N. climate treaty negotiations. President Bush wasn't among the more than 80 world leaders on hand for the summit. But former Vice President and ex-Senator Al Gore was - delivering a luncheon speech on changes already attributed to global warming, including last week's scientific report that the Arctic ice cap this summer shrank to a record-small size. "We cannot continue a slow pace," said Gore, proposing that heads of state meet every three months beginning in 2008 to ensure the world is doing all it can to meet the threat. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set the day's theme in his opening address, calling for action and describing the U.N. negotiating umbrella as "the only forum" where the issues can be decided. "Two decades ago, here in this hall, climate change first surfaced on the world's political agenda," said the U.N. leader, warning that the stakes are nothing less than "the protection of the global climate for present and future generations of mankind. Much has happened since those early days, but the fundamental challenge remains unchanged and has become even more pressing." "I'm convinced that climate change and what we do about it will define us, our era and ultimately the global legacy that we leave for future generations," said Ban. "Today, the time for doubt has passed. The United Nations panel on global climate change has unequivocally affirmed the warming of our climate and linked it to human activities." At the day's end, Ban said he believed the scores of speeches showed a "major political commitment" to success in the global talks. Monday evening, President Bush attended a dinner, a gathering of key climate players hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Late Monday, U.N. chief Ban was asked by reporters about Mr. Bush's position during the dinner discussions. "He made it quite clear that what he's going to do is help the United Nations effort," he replied. Ban organized the one-day summit to build momentum for December's annual climate treaty conference in Bali, Indonesia, when Europe, Japan and others hope to initiate talks for an emissions-reduction agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. The 175-nation Kyoto pact, which the U.S. rejects, requires 36 industrial nations to reduce carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. It set an average target of a 5 percent cut below 1990 levels by 2012 for emissions from power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources. Advocates for emissions reductions say a breakthrough is needed at Bali to ensure an uninterrupted transition from the 1997 Kyoto pact to a new, deeper-cutting regime, something that almost certainly would require a change in the U.S. position. The chief U.N. climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, told the summit of the mounting evidence of global warming's impact, including the accelerating rise in sea levels as oceans expand from heat and the runoff of melting land ice. "The time is up for inaction," he said. A Pacific islander, President Emanuel Mori of the Federated States of Micronesia, told the summit that encroaching seas are already destroying crops, contaminating wells and eating away at his islands' beaches. "How does one explain to the inhabitants that their plight is caused by human activities done in faraway lands?" he asked. The United States has long been the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. President Bush objects that Kyoto-style mandates would damage the U.S. economy and says they should be imposed on fast-growing poorer countries like China and India in addition to developed nations. He instead is urging industry to cut emissions voluntarily and is emphasizing research on clean-energy technology as one answer. On Thursday and Friday, Mr. Bush will host his own Washington climate meeting, limited to 16 "major emitter" countries, including China and India, the first in a series of U.S.-led gatherings expected to focus on those themes. "The Washington meeting is a distraction," Hans Verolme, climate campaigner for the Worldwide Fund for Nature, told reporters. U.S. leaders "need to show they are serious and implement domestic legislation to reduce emissions," he said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the summit, put the Washington meetings in a different light, describing them as designed "to support and help advance the ongoing U.N. discussion." Japan's envoy, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, said Tokyo believes the separate U.S. talks will "contribute to achieving consensus" in the U.N. process, in which all agree that China, India and others must eventually accept emission limits. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Washington sessions show "the Americans are back in the climate process." But Japan and others, to one degree or another, stressed that all nations - including the United States - must accept emission targets. To try to spur global negotiations, the European Union, which must reduce emissions by 8 percent under Kyoto, has committed to a further reduction of at least 20 percent by 2020. Speaking for the EU, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told Monday's summit that "all the developed countries and the largest emitters" must commit to a 50 percent reduction by 2050. He also said the U.N. negotiating process is the only "efficient and legitimate framework." Schwarzenegger told delegates that U.S. states are embracing emissions caps even if the Bush administration isn't. California's Republican governor and Democrat-led legislature have approved a law requiring the state's industries to reduce greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020. "California is moving the United States beyond debate and doubt to action," Schwarzenegger said. "What we are doing is changing the dynamic."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc
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