Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up.

 Good Grief!


It's nearing that time again when the community of nations gathers to figure out what in hell to do about climate change. Round 26, Glasgow, November 1-14, 2021.  It reminds me a lot of Lucy and Charlie Brown and that damned football - if Charlie Brown fell for Lucy's empty promises 26 times.

This year is going to be different. Where have we heard that before, 25 times before?

In 2015 a star rose in the east and a newly minted prime minister with a celebrated name strolled onto the floor of the Paris climate summit to boastfully proclaim "Canada's back." No longer would Canada be a climate pariah. Stephen Harper had been vanquished, sent packing.  Canada was to again become a leader in the fight to arrest global warming.  Yeah, well. 

This year will be different, right? Sure.

Every one of the world’s leading economies, including all the countries that make up the G20, is failing to meet commitments made in the landmark Paris agreement in order to stave off climate catastrophe, a damning new analysis has found.

Less than two months before crucial United Nations climate talks take place in Scotland, none of the largest greenhouse gas emitting countries have made sufficient plans to lower pollution to meet what they agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

This means the world is barreling towards calamitous climate impacts.

I know, I know. That sounds bad, depressing in a way. Good grief!

Climate Action Tracker has produced a summary of the good guys and the rest:



Canada is right up there with Brazil and China, India, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.  We're in the immensely popular fourth tier, the good-for-nothings. A tad better than the fifth tier, the debauchees. A tad worse than the third tier scoundrels. A good measure worse than the second tier rascals. And then there's the first tier - Gambia. Who?

Canada may be represented by a scarred and thread worn prime minister, the guy from 2015, who is pimping one pipeline. On the other hand we may put forward another fresh prime minister, a guy who is vowing to push through two pipelines, the Trans Mountain and a resurrected Northern Gateway. 

Governments are supposed to periodically improve their emissions reduction targets in order to fulfil the promises made in Paris but progress has “stalled” this year, the researchers said.

“Anyone would think they have all the time in the world, when in fact the opposite is the case,” he added.

Comments

  1. Northern PoVSeptember 17, 2021 at 9:24 AM

    "Time ... is on my side" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSRvcdlgSI
    NOT
    Sorry Mick, these ditties from our youth are, alas, are no longer valid assumptions, we're all out of time.

    and more grist for the mill:
    "What’s at risk at COP26?

    Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs answers that all-important query in a summary report intended for heads of governments, entitled: Climate Change Risk Assessment 2021.

    The report introduces the subject with three key statements:

    1) The World is dangerously off track to meet the Paris Agreement goals.

    2) The risks are compounding.

    3) Without immediate action the impacts will be devastating in the coming decades."
    https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/17/whats-up-with-cop26/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibSeptember 17, 2021 at 9:36 AM

      Contrast that now inarguable opinion with what's on offer from Canada's next prime minister (take your pick) and we really are in a Good Grief moment.

      Delete
    2. Northern PoVSeptember 17, 2021 at 9:56 AM

      Not to worry. Apparently the Libs get an "A" for their "sincere" climate plan.

      (Warning: Aliens have kidnaped Marc Jaccard and replaced him with a bot.)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Navigating the Minefield of Short-Termism

Image
Its disappearance went largely unnoticed. There was no post mortem, no eulogy, no deep sighs for what had been lost. Posterity slipped from our consciousness as we ushered in the neoliberal era 40 years ago. Populations would now be administered, not led. Grand vision was a quaint artifact of generations past. Besides, the invisible hand of the marketplace would see to all our needs today, tomorrow, forever. Politicians grew smaller and smaller until they shrunk to fit the mold of technocracy.  Like sheep being dipped we were plunged into a world of supply-side economics in which lower taxation and deregulation would deliver manna from heaven. We focused on skinning the economy, and society, right to the bone. Everything would be maximized, nothing would be wasted, not even the offal.  We were surrendered to a world of short-termism. We elected governments of technocrats - grey suits stuffed with wet cardboard - whose horizons were measured in electoral cycles. They would do what they
Read more

The Gun We Point at Our Own Heads

Image
  If you're sitting at a table and there's a loaded pistol in front of you, do you pick it up and point it at your own head?  Probably not, unless something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. How would you feel if someone else was holding that pistol to your head? But there is a pistol pointed at our heads and, unless we do something about it, we're goners. It's not a Glock. It's fossil fuels and the industry is slowly squeezing the trigger. Proven fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to generate 3.5 trillion tons of greenhouse gas emissions .  Russia and the United States each have massive reserves of fossil energy sufficient to push humanity through the 1.5C heating limit, sometimes called the "carbon budget."  I have it on reliable authority that Washington and the Kremlin aren't getting along very well these days. After all, if you won't hold the line on nuclear proliferation, you might not be inclined to voluntarily give up a major source of na
Read more

The Cognoscenti Syndrome

  There is a group of people I think of as the Cognoscenti, people who are well educated, very informed and of rapidly diminishing relevance. Their ranks include writers such as Chris Hedges and Glen Greenwald. These are people who have honed an almost Puritanical value system, readily finding fault in any direction. They are scathing in their attacks on Republicans and Democrats alike to the point where they become nihilists. They don't endorse. They prescribe. This is where they fail. They're unable to advocate for anything that might resonate with the public whose interests they argue are being trammeled. Donald Trump was bad but Joe Biden is scarcely better. This is where their elitism comes in.  74 million may have voted for Trump but, hey, they didn't know any better. The mob that stormed the Capitol. They were just victims of the system venting their frustrations. All the racism, bigotry, xenophobia, misogyny, white nationalism - inevitable side effects of their oppr
Read more