Rich Nations Blamed for Global Warming
SINGAPORE - Developed countries are hypocritical for criticizing China’s greenhouse gas emissions while using the country’s cheap labor to power industries that pollute, Asian business and government leaders said Monday.
“This is green imperialism,” Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Malaysia’s deputy finance minister, told a panel discussion on global warming at the World Economic Forum on East Asia, a two-day conference.
China has come under increasing pressure from the United States in particular to take more forceful measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions. China relies on coal, among the dirtiest fuels, to provide two-thirds of its energy.
Asian leaders also criticized the U.S. and Australia for not signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which caps the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that can be emitted in industrialized countries.
China signed the treaty but is exempt from emission reductions because it is considered a developing country, a situation often cited by the U.S. and Australia for rejecting the treaty.
Nor Mohamed said there was no point singling out one country when climate change is a global problem.
“Companies that are polluting in China are owned by American, European, Japanese and others. They are benefiting from the cheap labor, from the resources and at the same time accusing China of pollution,” the Malaysian official said.
“Let’s take the hypocrisy out of the equation,” he said.
China overtook the United States in carbon dioxide emissions by about 7.5 percent in 2006, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency’s report. While China was 2 percent below the U.S. in carbon dioxide emissions in 2005, voracious coal consumption and increased cement production caused the numbers to rise rapidly, the agency said.
China also uses other numbers to contend that it is not the worst offender: With 1.3 billion people, China spews about 10,500 pounds of carbon dioxide per person, while the United States releases nearly 42,500 pounds per person, about four times as much.
Chen Feng, the chairman of China Hainan Airlines, said now was not the time to assign blame but to create an international solution, saying developed nations were the original polluters.
“So the way I see it is, you were robbers and bandits before you became right-minded people,” he said of said.
President Bush recently proposed a meeting of the 15 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to set an emissions goal. Japan’s environment minister called the proposal “significant” but said it was crucial that the top emitters participate.
“Without the participation of United States, China and India - the main emitters - we will not stop global warming,” Masatoshi Wakabayashi said.
Ralph R. Peterson, the chairman of a U.S. management, design and construction firm, said Asia’s economic growth path appears unsustainable because of high and inefficient energy consumption that contributed to pollution.
He said Southeast Asian nations produce 11 percent of global output and use 21 percent of world oil. China’s output is 5.5 percent of world gross domestic product while it uses 15 percent of global energy. India’s energy efficiency is one-tenth the global average, while China’s water use per unit of GDP is four times the world’s average.
“If it takes much more energy to produce one unit of GDP in Asia, then we have a problem,” he said.
Associated Press reporters Eileen Ng, Derrick Ho and Vijay Joshi in Singapore contributed to this report.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
The pollution president is setting the example.
When Americans buy goods made in China, they should be paying for clean air and clean water in China.
China needs to throw out the foreign countries and own all of its own land and natural resources; then enact living wage laws for its citizens.
It is my rough estimate that 25% of all energy for lighting, heating, cooling and transportation is wasted. It may be much more.
Whatever the amount the excess environmental damage is criminal.
Then we can start to really dig in to the rest of the problem as a joint effort. Blame games are just an excuse to do nothing.
Gee, through the eons there have been many “Ice Ages” that have ended (Global Warming) without nasty humans burning fossel fuels. Who got blamed then???? Humans are blamed now because they are easy to control if they fear something and the puppetmasters want to control them……
Beware the governments that want to control peoples lives because the globe has warmed.
Vfor911 wrote:
…..Beware the governments that want to control peoples lives because the globe has warmed…..
***
Beware the insidious goons who are working overtime to convince people that the simple act of facing reality will leave them vulnerable to “control.”
“So the way I see it is, you were robbers and bandits before you became right-minded people,” he said of said.
We still are.
We have now emerged from the stage of denial regarding global warming to the stage of assigning blame and responsibility for global warming. As oldtimer demonstrates, a few people are still in the denial stage.
Although much of China’s pollution is caused by making exports for the Western World, China is still reaping tremendous financial benefits from manufacturing. They hold far too much of US debt to be able to claim that they are too poor to curb pollution.
All nations must act to decrease carbon output in order for us to have a shred of hope for the future.
Does anyone out there have any ideas as to how to do something about our consumption and waste and pollution, or are we all like children going to just examine our navels? Talk is cheap—–How do we solve this? We cannot change what others and other countries do, but what are we doing to make a contribution to the solution on an individual basis?
“what are we doing to make a contribution to the solution on an individual basis?”
I think that a lot of us are looking at more efficient cars or better yet public transport, biking or walking. Many of us buy organic and local wherever possible to cut down on chemicals and transport, both of which use energy.
As a craftsman, I would suggest that people buy local hand made goods like quilts, ceramics, furniture and food. Hand made objects are pure pleasure to use, they last longer and your neighbors benefit rather than corporations or people in China.
If you buy a table from Ikea you use it for 2-5 years and then it goes in the dump. If you buy one local, you pay 10x the price, but the table is going to last you and your family 100 years or more.
If you buy a set of plates or bowls from a local source, you get unique pottery that no one else has and that feels good to use and that will not break or chip as easily as junk from Cost Plus or Crate and Barrel.
If you buy one nice quilt from someone local you feed them and warm yourself not some machine that makes hundreds of thousands of blankets a day.
If you buy from the local bakery or the local farm stand, even if some of the things are shipped they are probably not shipped as much as they are in Safeway and even if they are, they are probably shipped BY THE FARMER not some middleman.
Buy local and change the world.
I wrote a letter to McDonalds Corp. this morning and asked that they stop including a plastic toy made in China in their meals for children, and that they educate their employees to refrain from tossing a handful of napkins, plastic silverware and condiments into every takeout sack. I pointed out to them the tremendous cost savings and public relations improvement they would enjoy if they merely eliminated waste.
There is a great deal of packaging waste in mail ordered goods. I always contact the company and let them know I won’t buy anything from them until their packaging is appropriate. It may do something; it may do nothing, but it at least doesn’t hurt. The amount of waste imposed upon consumers is incredible, and illogical as it increases costs for the company with no benefit.
Donkey Hote and Goose2 -
REDUCE THE HUMAN POPULATION !!!
Sharing will save the world.
The unbridled greed of the richest 1%, who take as much as they can from the have nots - are the cause of more misery than all our minds together can even begin to imagine.
From their vantage point, they see nothing that suggests that the world has any true system of justice. They are blind. They live in a fog. Their hearts like those of mad dogs, only pump blood. The laws of cause and effect (karma) are absolutely perfect & inescapable. We have to fight the bastards til they lose their cancerous grip on the world. We have to show them justice.
Caring about what’s going on and fighting for justice in one way or another is a good thing. Never stop!
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“Working within the complexity of coalitions might enable us to tackle another complexity: that the war against terrorism can only be truly won when we also declare war on the roots which cause such acts of barbarity: poverty, illiteracy, injustice, and disease…. Unless
there is an equally dedicated attack on the causes of terrorism, there will never be victory in the war against terrorism.”
Jim Garrison
Founder & President State of the World Forum
http://www.worldforum.org/
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“Peace will be the result of understanding and
sharing, and not the origin of them…” Djwahl Khul
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“Without sharing there can be no justice;
without justice there can be no peace;
without peace there can be no future…
Man must change or die.
There is no other course.”
Maitreya, the World Teacher
http://www.share-international.org
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Peacealluia!
The Church of Stop Shopping
http://www.revbilly.com/
MaxheMust,
No matter what cause you promote, if it fails to reduce the human population, it is a lost cause.
Entelechy:
As most who are involved in the efforts to eradicate poverty know, as the standard of living increases, the birth rates decrease.
I agree that there are way too many people on this planet, but it is not acceptable to let them starve to death or be bombed by warmongering American capitalist pigs.
In time, the Earth’s population will go down to an optimum of around 3 billion, but not as a result of Pentagon or economic terrorism. It will go down because people will want to help solve global problems by having fewer kids and because the political/social/economic structures in place will enable them not to worry about whether or not anyone will help take care of them when they get old.
Soon, man’s basic needs for food, shelter, healthcare and education will be the guaranteed rights of all.
Believe it or not, this dysfunctional human family is destined to become functional and to flourish!
In Korea the fast food places ask that you return unused napkins, ketchup, etc..