The Democratic leadership in the US Senate has suspended efforts to pass a climate change bill. It abandoned not only its planned comprehensive cap-and-trade measure, similar to one already passed by the House of Representatives, but also a more modest bill aimed at electric utilities. The Senate will most likely pass an energy bill of some sort, but this will barely even pretend to make progress on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.This surrender concludes a story that began with the Kyoto protocol in 1997 and reached its climax last December at the Copenhagen climate change conference. At that long-anticipated gathering, the world's governments expected to replace the Kyoto system, which had made no perceptible dent in the problem, with a new and more effective regime. They left with nothing.No matter, smiled Barack Obama and other leaders through clenched teeth: this would not stop the US and its partners moving forward with plans of their own. Oh, really? The whole enterprise, from top to bottom, has now collapsed.
This surrender concludes a story that began with the Kyoto protocol in 1997 and reached its climax last December at the Copenhagen climate change conference. At that long-anticipated gathering, the world's governments expected to replace the Kyoto system, which had made no perceptible dent in the problem, with a new and more effective regime. They left with nothing.
No matter, smiled Barack Obama and other leaders through clenched teeth: this would not stop the US and its partners moving forward with plans of their own. Oh, really? The whole enterprise, from top to bottom, has now collapsed.
So why didn't climate-change legislation get through the Senate? Let's talk first about what didn't cause the failure, because there have been many attempts to blame the wrong people....So it wasn't the science, the scientists, or the economics that killed action on climate change. What was it? The answer is, the usual suspects: greed and cowardice.
The answer is, the usual suspects: greed and cowardice.
It is absolutely maddening since back in the 70's there was a great and effective push to clean up a lot of industry (and by consequence, a lot of air and water and ground). And case by case, it added efficiencies to the plants that ended up being free or more than paying for themselves.
Granted, to go the next step would have likely tipped that price/benefit negative, but technology has changed and this is no longer the case.
And thus, it is greed.
Since corporations are set up, allowed by, trusted by, the states for the purpose of benefiting the state and her people, when a corporation doesn't benefit--or worse, degrades the state and her people--then that is a violation, a betrayal, of that trust.
Violation and betrayal after trust is Treason. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
