May 2007
Monthly Archive
May 31, 2007
Oxfam believes the world’s industrial giants should begin paying tens of billions of dollars a year in reparations for climate change damage being sustained in the Third World. From Financial Times:
“The US should pay $22bn a year to developing countries to help them to adapt to the effects of climate change, according to a calculation published on Monday by the charity Oxfam.
“Japan should pay about $6.5bn, Germany about $3.5bn a year and the UK at least $2.5bn a year in order to give developing countries the aid they need. Other countries, such as European Union member states and Australia, should pay between $1.5bn and $2.5bn in climate change reparations, or “compensatory finance”, said Kate Raworth, senior researcher at Oxfam and author of the report.
“Oxfam said it would cost about $50bn a year for developing countries to build sea and other defences needed to handle problems caused by climate change.
“Ms Raworth said: ‘This is not about aid, it is about the world’s biggest and richest polluters covering the costs forced upon those who are most vulnerable – an entirely separate and added responsibility [to conventional overseas development aid or disaster relief].’”
May 30, 2007
May 30, 2007
It’s right there in today’s NatPo. John Ivison reveals that the Harpies’ priority is to change public opinion, not combat global warming.
“Environment Minister John Baird would unveil the government’s own detailed emissions reduction targets, province by province, based on what he yesterday called “the architecture of a regulatory regime” that he rolled out earlier this spring.
“This calls for greenhouse gas emissions for existing industrial emitters to be 16% below 2006 levels by 2010, with annual 2% reductions to follow thereafter.
“The hope appears to be that once the debate comes down to Earth from its current level somewhere in the stratosphere, and people at ground level become aware of how onerous the Conservative cuts will be on industrial plants in their immediate area, they will have no stomach for the even deeper cuts that would be required to meet Kyoto.”
So, according to Ivison, the ploy is to drive the debate “down to Earth” by making GHG emission cuts the public will find unpalatable. From a global warming denier’s point of view, which is the viewpoint of Ivison, this all makes sense.
The Tories haven’t got the slightest intention of dealing with this critical issue. This is a threat of such scope and complexity that it requires powerful moral and political leadership. Too many people in this country still do not understand global warming and its ramifications while many others flock to the false comfort doled out by the climate change denial community with the collusion of some of Canada’s major media.
By not employing that scale of moral and political leadership, Baird and Harpo are counting on the recoil effect of slapping some carefully chosen restrictions that will be painfully felt by an unprepared population. If the only thing you understood about idodine was the sting, you would never use it to treat a wound would you? These vermin don’t want to treat the wound, they want you to recoil from the treatment. Mission accomplished, Harpo style.
May 30, 2007
Forget Keegstra, forget Zundel, there’s a brand new breed of holocaust deniers infesting Canada and they reach all the way to the top levels of government, industry and our media.
There’s a holocaust coming that’s going to make the WWII holocaust look like a bad traffic accident. The coming holocaust is forecast to result in scores of millions of dead and upwards of a billion people permanently displaced from their homelands.
What’s really galling about our 21st century holocaust deniers is that they know this is coming, they know they must act now to deal with it, but they have elected to preserve their prosperity and indulgence by spreading confusion about the problem and by claiming to be acting on it while actually subverting any meaningful action.
Today’s holocaust deniers are the likes of Big Oil, our federal Tories and their handmaidens in the Canadian media (and you know which papers those are). These types, and their supporters, have made a choice knowing it will be the men, women and children of the far north and the tropics, particularly sub-Saharan Africa who will pay the price for their choice.
That’s the ugly side of the global warming debate, the one that the TarSanders, NatPo and the Harpies never mention. Harpo will drone on endlessly about bringing faux democracy to Afghanistan while 55-year old men sell their 12-year old daughters to other 55-year old men. Why won’t he talk about bringing real peril – drought, famine and dislocation to Africa – in his quest to transform Canada into an “energy superpower”? I’d love to know how, when Stevie gets on his knees at night and says his prayers, he rationalizes this to his God. I’ll bet when it comes to the devastation of climate change, God is as far from Harpo’s mind as those kids in Africa.
Canada’s last crop of holocaust deniers was bad enough but they merely argued that history didn’t happen. Our new crop is so much worse. They deny what is already happening and about to happen on a horrific scale and work to ensure that it does. But this is Canada, a place where these people are still treated with great civility and respect. I guess that alone makes us all a bit culpable.
May 29, 2007
BULLSHITTER
BULLSHITTER IN CHIEF
May 29, 2007
Friends of the Earth Canada has launched a suit in Federal Court against the Harpo government. The suit alleges the government has breached Canadian law by rejecting the country’s Kyoto commitments.
From The Guardian:
“A target announced by the Canadian government last month, which would see emissions cut by 20% on 2006 levels by 2020, would still leave the country 39% over its Kyoto target for 2008-2012, the group said.
“It added that, of the countries signed up to the Kyoto agreement, only Australia was further behind on its targets.
“The case is being brought under Canadian legislation which incorporates the international agreement to cut emissions into domestic law and says ministers have to act if the country is found responsible for an increase in greenhouse gases.
“In October, the Canadian government was presented with legal opinion which indicated it had failed to show “demonstrable progress” on meeting its target, as required by 2005.
“Although this should have triggered action by the environment minister, Friends of the Earth said nothing had happened to suggest the country would meet its targets and it was applying for a judicial review, which would force the government to act.”
May 29, 2007
There was a time when we in the West could be comfortable in our affluence. We had this belief, unspoken usually, that the rest of the planet wasn’t as well off as we were but could be anytime they wanted to pull themselves up by the bootstraps – just like we had done. If only they could be as diligent and principled and hard working and creative as we had become, they too could enjoy the good life.
That was never more than a self-serving myth designed to assuage our consciences while we rapaciously pursued the world’s resources and wealth. If some upstart decided his nation’s oil should belong to his nation’s people – off with his head. If someone else decided his nation’s banana plantations should benefit his nation’s people – off with his head. If some leader’s people opted for a system of government we didn’t like – off with his head. What we couldn’t dominate colonially, we subverted by influencing, even controlling, the selection of a compliant head of state. The underlying myth made this all possible.
That myth is pretty much gone today. We cannot afford the environmental costs of allowing developing nations to follow our path to prosperity. If China or India began generating the same level of per capita greenhouse gas emissions as, say, the United States or Canada, the most dire scenarios of global warming would become a certainty. The planet can’t sustain the levels of industrial activity we have today. Two more industrial revolutions are out of the question.
So, how are we to go about telling China and India not to aspire to what we have achieved? How are we to frame the argument that we have a right to certain benefits that they do not? How do we tell them not to touch those bootstraps?
Read any major Indian newspaper and you will see that this is going to be a very tough sell. The Indian people seem positive rapturous about their country ascending to a top position – economically, militarily and politically – in the family of nations. There is a level of nationalism sweeping India that may pose a huge obstacle to any pleas for restraint. The Chinese too look toward a bright and expansive future for their nation. With economic capitalism wedded to political communism and a domestic market of 1.3-billion (far more than Europe and North America combined) their advance seems unstoppable.
It’s pretty tough to ask “have not” nations to forego becoming “haves” at the very moment they’ve arrived at the opportunity, so how do we persuade them? We have the trade “stick”, such as it is, if necessary but what do we have in the way of “carrots” to dangle in front of them? They’ve already said, quite justifiably, that they want to see the current, great polluters set a clear example before they’ll follow suit. The thing is, in North America at least, there’s no political appetite for doing that, at least not yet.
Our pathetic leader, Harpo, says he wants a global warming agreement that embraces all major emitters, including India and China, and he’s going to work to bring that about. This from the same guy who has scored political points by snubbing China at every opportunity. I’m sure they’ll be eager to hear from that bozo. Of course he could always remind them that, now that we’re in Afghanistan, we’re a major player to be reckoned with. I’m sure that’ll have them laughing in the aisles in Beijing.
No, if there is any possibility of an agreement that can be forged, it will be Europe that will have to find the consensus. Harpo’s not going to bridge anything. On global warming, he’s a thoroughly spent force.
May 29, 2007
Are we onside or are we not? Do we support the G8 global warming proposals or are we really just playing for time? Do you believe John Baird or do you believe Harpo? Is John Baird actually just playing green, talking the talk so to speak?
One newspaper claims the wallowing government supports the G8 policies, another says that we’re holding back. Something for everybody, Harpo style.
Baird says we’re ‘very supportive’ of the G8 call for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. ‘Very supportive’ is very subjective at best, an outright lie at worst. It was telling that, when asked whether Canada would accept the G8 call for a 30% GHG reduction by 2020, Baird responded, “We’re not going to conduct G-8 negotiations in the media.” Huh?
Baird acts like he’s just heard about the 30% reduction target. It’s as though he sees himself on the other side of a horse trade. Just where the hell has this loudmouth been since he took over from Rona (remember her?)?
2020 is a problem. 2050 is half a century off so you can promise just about anything and forget about it. 2020, however, is just around the corner. That means coming up with policies – today – to sharply curb GHG emissions. That means lowering the boom on the tar sands and other major GHG emitters. Yeah, 2020 is a problem for the Harpies.
What to do? Why not try sleight of hand? Let’s point some stinky fingers at those yellow folks and their brown friends. They’ve each got a billion people plus. We’re less than 5% of that. So, let’s see how each country stacks up on overall GHG emissions. Why, suddenly we look lily white.
Isn’t it curious that we’re not willing to consider GHG caps for our own country but we want something similar from the Chinese and Indians? What if they offered to cap their per capita GHG emissions at half our own? They’re nowhere close to that, at least not yet. If they ever do get to that point, the planet is pretty much screwed anyway. But it’s a hell of an argument, one that leaves us no fallback except to say that we’re entitled to create vastly more GHG than them because, well just because.
What if the Chinese and Indians offered to guarantee that their per capita GHG emissions would never exceed half of our own in exchange for our guarantee to bring our per capita GHG emissions to a level no more than twice theirs, say within 10-years? That’s when Harpo’s grand lie would be stripped as bare as a tar sand pit.
Harpo, as usual, is a two-legged sack of hypocrisy.
May 28, 2007
Don’t laugh, not yet. According to the BBC, “The US has called on Iran to stop arming militants in Iraq.” Don’t those Iranians know that America and its stooge, Maliki, are already doing a fine job at arming the militants, especially the Shiite militias.
Today’s New York Times reports on how members of the elite, 82nd Airborne, are coming to have a change of heart about the Iraq war:
“Staff Sgt. David Safstrom does not regret his previous tours in Iraq, not even a difficult second stint when two comrades were killed while trying to capture insurgents.
“But now on his third deployment in Iraq, he is no longer a believer in the mission. The pivotal moment came, he says, this February when soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb. When they searched the bomber’s body, they found identification showing him to be a sergeant in the Iraqi Army.
“’I thought: ‘What are we doing here? Why are we still here?’ said Sergeant Safstrom, a member of Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division. ‘We’re helping guys that are trying to kill us. We help them in the day. They turn around at night and try to kill us.’
“His views are echoed by most of his fellow soldiers in Delta Company, renowned for its aggressiveness.
“With few reliable surveys of soldiers’ attitudes, it is impossible to simply extrapolate from the small number of soldiers in the company. But in interviews with more than a dozen soldiers in this 83-man unit over a one-week period, most said they were disillusioned by repeated deployments, by what they saw as the abysmal performance of Iraqi security forces and by a conflict that they considered a civil war, one they had no ability to stop.
“They had seen shadowy militia commanders installed as Iraqi Army officers, they said, had come under increasing attack from roadside bombs — planted within sight of Iraqi Army checkpoints — and had fought against Iraqi soldiers whom they thought were their allies.
“On April 29, a Delta Company patrol was responding to a tip at Al Sadr mosque, a short distance from its base. The soldiers saw men in the distance erecting barricades that they set ablaze, and the streets emptied out quickly. Then a militia, believed to be the Mahdi Army, began firing at them from rooftops and windows.
“Sgt. Kevin O’Flarity, a squad leader, jumped into his Humvee to join his fellow soldiers, racing through abandoned Iraqi Army and police checkpoints to the battle site.
“When the battle was over, Delta Company learned that among the enemy dead were at least two Iraqi Army soldiers that American forces had helped train and arm.
“Captain Rogers admits, ‘The 29th was a watershed moment in a negative sense, because the Iraqi Army would not fight with us,’ adding, ‘Some actually picked up weapons and fought against us.’
“The battle changed the attitude among his soldiers toward the war, he said. ‘Before that fight, there were a few true believers.’ Captain Rogers said. ‘After the 29th, I don’t think you’ll find a true believer in this unit. They’re paratroopers. There’s no question they’ll fulfill their mission. But they’re fighting now for pride in their unit, professionalism, loyalty to their fellow soldier and chain of command.’
“To Sergeant O’Flarity, the Iraqi security forces are militias beholden to local leaders, not the Iraqi government. ‘Half of the Iraqi security forces are insurgents,’ he said.”
May 28, 2007
As a psychological failure, Iraq probably isn’t as bad for the US as Vietnam was. It’s easy to forget just how troubled the 60’s and 70’s were in the United States. Iraq, for all of its frustrations and disasters, hasn’t left the same scar on the American people.
Where Iraq has eclipsed Vietnam, however, is in terms of its aftermath. Yes, I’m talking about aftermath. It’s over. Iraq is a failure, a genuinely earned defeat for the US and Britain. You can’t screw up something that badly without working at it. This fiasco was no accident. There was nothing unforeseeable in it.
There were fears that the aftermath of Vietnam would be a “domino effect” that would see communist revolution sweep across Southeast Asia and beyond. That didn’t happen. There was bloodshed but nothing on the scale we’d been warned would be inevitable.
The aftermath of Iraq, however, is already taking place and the Americans haven’t even bailed out yet. There’s a brand new generation of terrorists being minted in today’s Iraq. I suppose they could fairly be called the “Bush Brigade” because they are the direct result of George Bush’s idiotic invasion of Iraq. The bad guys are doing so well at churning out these fledgling terrorists that they’ve saturated the Iraqi market. As The New York Times reports, Iraq is now exporting terrorists:
“The Iraq war, which for years has drawn militants from around the world, is beginning to export fighters and the tactics they have honed in the insurgency to neighboring countries and beyond, according to American, European and Middle Eastern government officials and interviews with militant leaders in Lebanon, Jordan and London.
“Some of the fighters appear to be leaving as part of the waves of Iraqi refugees crossing borders that government officials acknowledge they struggle to control. But others are dispatched from Iraq for specific missions. In the Jordanian airport plot, the authorities said they believed that the bomb maker flew from Baghdad to prepare the explosives for Mr. Darsi.
“Estimating the number of fighters leaving Iraq is at least as difficult as it has been to count foreign militants joining the insurgency. But early signs of an exodus are clear, and officials in the United States and the Middle East say the potential for veterans of the insurgency to spread far beyond Iraq is significant.
“Militant leaders warn that the situation in Lebanon is indicative of the spread of fighters. “You have 50 fighters from Iraq in Lebanon now, but with good caution I can say there are a hundred times that many, 5,000 or higher, who are just waiting for the right moment to act,” Dr. Mohammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident in Britain who runs the jihadist Internet forum, Tajdeed.net, said in an interview on Friday. ‘The flow of fighters is already going back and forth, and the fight will be everywhere until the United States is willing to cease and desist.’
“There are signs of that traffic in and out of Iraq in other places.
“In Saudi Arabia last month, government officials said they had arrested 172 men who had plans to attack oil installations, public officials and military posts, and some of the men appeared to have trained in Iraq.
“Officials in Europe have said in interviews that they are trying to monitor small numbers of Muslim men who have returned home after traveling for short periods to Iraq, where they were likely to have fought alongside insurgents.”
George Bush is fond of claiming that America is fighting terrorists in Iraq so that Americans won’t have to fight them at home. This moron suggests that his military has these bad guys pinned down in Iraq. Sorry George but that’s nonsense. Your adventure is now actually creating terrorists for the export market.
How are we going to stop these guys? I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s going to take a crop of leaders vastly better than the Bush, Blair, Howard and Harper gang that have created the current mess with their ideologically-bound incompetence.
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