Until the Tea Party Starts
Published in Die Tageszeitung
(Germany) on 2 April 2015
by (link to original)
(Germany) on 2 April 2015
by (link to original)
Translated from
by Ron Argentati.
Edited by Gillian Palmer.
The United States wants to reduce its CO2 output, but after Obama leaves office that could rapidly be reversed. The tea party believes protecting the climate is the devil's work.
The United States announced it wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent! Wow! Could this be the same country where every chocolate chip cookie is double packed in two plastic bags, while outside the supermarket the engine of a gas guzzling truck is idling while the driver shops? Have the yanks gone green?
Nope. Here's what's happening: An international agreement for climate protection is scheduled to go into effect in December of this year. Because such agreements have always historically failed, the U.N. negotiators have decided on new tactics. Governments have to inform the U.N. what they plan to do in order to halt global warming. These are voluntary targets that are totaled up at the end of the year. The U.S. reports that by 2025, the emissions measured against 2005 numbers will be reduced by 26 to 28 percent.
Actually, emissions in the U.S. have been sinking for the last five years, but that's just a happy byproduct of the gradual shift from coal-fired to gas-fired power plants. It's also not the first time an American government has pledged to do more for environmental protection.
In 1997, Bill Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocols for the reduction of greenhouse gases, but it failed to be ratified by the Republican-controlled Senate. And even today, some American citizens live in a parallel universe made up of pseudo-science, Fox News, and eternally growing oil reserves.
The Republicans and their extremist tea party faction deny even the possibility that climate change exists, and see the whole concept as the work of Satan. Unfortunately, the poor fools hold a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and have a chance to elect one of their own as the next president. The Republicans leave no doubt that if they succeed, they will do away with any changes to climate regulations made by the Obama administration. So judgment day for the climate is November 8, 2016 — the day the next U.S. president is elected.
The United States announced it wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent! Wow! Could this be the same country where every chocolate chip cookie is double packed in two plastic bags, while outside the supermarket the engine of a gas guzzling truck is idling while the driver shops? Have the yanks gone green?
Nope. Here's what's happening: An international agreement for climate protection is scheduled to go into effect in December of this year. Because such agreements have always historically failed, the U.N. negotiators have decided on new tactics. Governments have to inform the U.N. what they plan to do in order to halt global warming. These are voluntary targets that are totaled up at the end of the year. The U.S. reports that by 2025, the emissions measured against 2005 numbers will be reduced by 26 to 28 percent.
Actually, emissions in the U.S. have been sinking for the last five years, but that's just a happy byproduct of the gradual shift from coal-fired to gas-fired power plants. It's also not the first time an American government has pledged to do more for environmental protection.
In 1997, Bill Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocols for the reduction of greenhouse gases, but it failed to be ratified by the Republican-controlled Senate. And even today, some American citizens live in a parallel universe made up of pseudo-science, Fox News, and eternally growing oil reserves.
The Republicans and their extremist tea party faction deny even the possibility that climate change exists, and see the whole concept as the work of Satan. Unfortunately, the poor fools hold a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and have a chance to elect one of their own as the next president. The Republicans leave no doubt that if they succeed, they will do away with any changes to climate regulations made by the Obama administration. So judgment day for the climate is November 8, 2016 — the day the next U.S. president is elected.
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