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Obama Will Attend Copenhagen Summit Before Picking up Nobel Peace Prize
WASHINGTON - President Obama will travel to Copenhagen next month to attend the climate change conference, ending weeks of uncertainty over whether he would go and after intense pressure from Europe for his presence.
US President Barack Obama will attend the climate change conference in Copenhagen on December 9, according to a US administration official. (AFP/Saul Loeb) Mr Obama will join another 65 heads of state at the climate change conference on December 9 in the Danish capital, before heading the following day to Oslo to accept his recently awarded Nobel peace Prize, White House aides said. He will then return to the US.
The move to attend the conference came days after the White House said the US will present a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target at the forum, removing what had widely been seen as the biggest obstacle to an agreement at the summit.
Mr Obama conceded during his trip to China earlier this month that a binding treaty with firm emissions targets to replace the expiring Kyoto protocol is beyond reach, despite two years of negotiations. The most that can now be hoped for in Copenhagen is a "political agreement" with individual nations setting their own targets.
Mr Obama is expected to present a "provisional" near-term target for reducing American greenhouse gas emissions, in line with legislation currently before the US Congress. That would mean a reduction of about 17 to 20 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020.
As America is the world's greatest polluter, other nations attending the conference, nearly all of whom have set their own emissions targets, have been insisting that the summit will end in failure unless the US sets its own target.
All eyes are now on China - the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world - because Beijing has yet to set its own reduction target. Mr Obama will be hoping that his decision to attend the conference and to set a target will convince the Chinese to do the same.
There are fears among European and US negotiators that China will set an overly cautious carbon reduction target. If that happens, it will make it significantly more difficult to reach a deal in Copenhagen.
It would also further complicate Mr Obama's hopes of convincing skeptical senators to pass a climate change Bill at home, because they will argue that China - a rapidly rising economic rival to the US - is refusing to do the same.
When he took office, Mr Obama had hoped that he could attend the Copenhagen conference with a climate change bill passed by the US Congress. Instead, the Bill sits bogged down in the US Senate, casting serious doubt on the president's ability to actually enforce reduction targets at home.
The US Congress failed to ratify the Kyoto treaty and since it was signed in 1997 America has increased greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent.
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36 Comments so far
Show AllSomeone has to explain WHY this president who is escalating the war he claimed as his own DESERVES anything called a "peace" prize. It makes a total mockery of the process.
As far as global warming (let's call it by its real name), Obama has YET to show any backbone. The pathetically weak bill that is now in the Senate gives breaks to both big coal and nuclear power.
HOPE???? NOPE!!!!
I wonder if he's going to take those hacked emails from the climate researchers who wrote among themselves about the need to fudge the data and delete their conspiracies? He could read them to the conventioneers and then tell the citizens of the world why such highly respected and renowned scientists would need to lie about such things.
Every bit of climate science is published in thoroughly peer-reviewed journals. There were plenty of opportunities to find defects in the science during the review process.
The theft of private citizen's e-mails is a criminal act.
Whatever personal remarks, wisecracks and statements lifted entirely out of context by a handful of scientists in their personal e-mails is totally irrelevant to the science involved.
Now, what are your qualifications to argue the science? Please furnish a CV.
"Every bit of climate science is published in thoroughly peer-reviewed journals." Said bits are now suspect, as well as the scientists' motivations. If they were so smart they should have refrained from antics which could come back to haunt them. Any thefts of emails, I'm certain, can be solved via the extensive survielance grid if the political will exists to examine such. My qualifications? Years of observing liars and cheats stepping on their own appendages.
You are talking just like the best Johnny Cochran-style ambulance-chasing lawyer. You are detached from reality and truth except that which you fabricate for politics and profit.
As a scientist and engineer for a certain federal mine safety regulator, I occasionally have to deal with scum like you, so I know your kind.
So your fellow scientists decided to send emails back and forth in a counter-intelligence type operation designed to discredit the skeptics? Or is this a simple case of deleting data which casts doubt on their assumptions, conspiring to hide THAT fact, and conspiring further to advance the faulty conclusions. Something tells me you're getting ready to blame George Bush for this fiasco.
Right now, at the LHC at CERN, scientists e-mails are discussing the non-zero probability that they might inadvertently make a black hole that will swallow the earth. People write lots of flippant things in e-mail.
And even there was evidence of data cherry-picking in a single paper, what about the hundreds of other peer-reviewed papers published on the topic?
Go here to see what real science looks like:
http://www.realclimate.org/
Nah, I'll stay right here and see what real apologists for fraudulent researchers look like.
The is no secret conspiracy, there was, at most, some unprofessional behavior on the part of a couple individuals.
But unless you can produce some credible research debunking AGW. Not just questioning it's high degree of certainty. But debunking it. Better yet, please go troll somewhere else.
Since you're so all-fired self-certain in your scientificness and so well-educated in the practices of mines, etc why don't you solve a localized heating phenomenom in the form of those pesky mine fires still smoldering in Pennsylvania. You've had decades to ponder the problem. Why no solutions yet? Or are you awaiting an empty suit Messiah to say that there is wealth to be transfered in the process and social justices to be exacted? If you give liars and cheats a pass, then your position becomes indictable.
I know that Mr. Clarence Beeks' opinions come (either directly from the source or through Faux News or some other rabid-right-wing manure-spreader, perhaps on radio) from that paragon of objective research and wisdom, the capitalist-pig shill that is the Competitive Enterprise Institute. For it is that 'renowned scientific power-house' organization which is disseminating the hacked e-mails, e-mails that were of course cherry-picked for CEI's purposes of confusion and obfuscation regarding the state of climate science, in order to further CEI's own pre-determined and destructive neo-con right-wing agenda. So now these random bits of notes have been given attention and importance far beyond their real meaning.
It is the same as in the case of those ACORN-video-sting operators who finally found some unwitting sympathetic saps for their nefarious purposes, after being most of the time booted out of other offices, and threatened with arrest. But that vast majority of incidents turned out to be ignored in the 'explosive' video report on the couple of sad exceptions found, of course. And that rabid-right-wing attack is how the relatively powerless ACORN became more vilified and condemned than Mega-Corporations with Actual Nastily-Harmful Felony Convictions against them, and billions of dollars in fines paid.
In the same way as the rabid-right absurdly impugnes ACORN, the rabid-right is vilifying the entirety of climate science, and its research, and its scientist-practitioners. And I know climate scientists, and they are truth-seekers who desire to understand and to enlighten. They are definitely not politicians nor money-grubbers, especially not right-wing ones. Not even close.
So one must ask oneself why the CEI, with its below-absolute-zero scientific standing, is inserting itself in this particular way into a scientific debate. This is typical right-wing-bullshit modus operandi. It is political gamesmanship, ad hominem attack, and gotcha politics, It is not truth-seeking. It is nowhere near science.
Sorry Mr. Beeks but you do not know what you are talking about. But rabid-right-wingers seem to think that Politics trumps Reality and, as the evil Republican neo-conman Frank Luntz might put it, the word 'science' only means what they say it means, and any science is important and correct only so long as it supports and agrees with the same rabid-right-wingers' political worldview.
So are we to trust Mr. Beeks (who apparently despises 'scientificness' and who sees it only as a front for "wealth to be transfered in the process and social justices to be exacted" - so in his view global warming science and in fact any and all 'scientificness'-science is obviously in reality a socialist-commie plot to get his money) and are we to trust his source of the reputation-damaging stolen e-mails, the Competitive Enterprise Institute?
Or should we instead trust the near-unanimous judgements of climate scientists, working at the world's most important research centers, who have studied climate phenomena for decades using all the tools and wisdom at their disposal?
Gee, what a hard choice.
"If you give liars and cheats a pass"... then you get a nation defrauded and degenerated by the grifters and goons that are the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Inhofe, Boehner, Palin, McCain, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, the rabid-right, the neo-cons, the banksters, the capitalist-pigs, the corpo-fascists, the Neanderthal Republican Party, and last but not least, the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The Real liars and cheats all.
Poor Earth, that has such malignant cratures allied against her.
Glad to see you're equating these falsifying scientists with happless ACORN saps, which furthers my point that the research is irrepairably tainted and is to excluded from all rule makings. That's not my fault by the way. Seems also that you're equating these scientists with the criminality of the Bush regime, and that too seems to fit with Mr. Obama's mode of governance to date and prompted my comment to lead this discussion off. I'll forgive you your arrogance in asserting that poor mama Earth is so weak and frail and thereby reliant upon grifters to come to her rescue. I would think that a consciousness capable of surviving Krakatoa would want the unassailble best and brightest working on her behalf. As this climate change study continues I suggest you shout from the mountaintop your insistence upon honest scientists doing the work rather than waiting until the cheaters and liars are exposed and making spurious apologies for them after the fact.
Obama should be ashamed to receive this award.
Nobelprize.org press release, paragraph 2:
"Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama's initiative, the USA is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened."
They should withhold his Nobel until he signs on to fight climate change in Copenhagen
"Top NATO Military Brass Meet Behind Closed Doors
Realities Collide at Halifax “War Conference”"
by Anthony Fenton, IPS, Nov 23 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=16256
I posted an excerpt of much of the article in a post for the following article.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/25-6
Peace prize my ASS!
Can we change that name to the Noble War Prize? Oh, I forgot, war really means peace! So it really is a peace prize.
Jeevee
All sarcasm aside, we can grieve that it really has become the Nobel WAR prize.
Coincidentally, weeks after the organizers of the summit have said a binding treaty will not result from it. Wonderful. But at least he's going.
It's really heartening to see that Obama will attend the conference on climate change in Copenhagen. Regardless of what China does in the short term, it's incombant upon the US to set agressive limits on CO2 emissions. I truly believe that China and India will eventually come along as they have as much to lose, if not more, from a radically changing climate (as in the danger of disapearing glaciers in the Himalayas which provide year round water to millions, and the prospect that low lying coastal areas, in which millions live, will become submerged by rising ocean levels.)
That said, I'd like to see Obama become more outspoken on this issue and use his considerable oratory skills and charisma to push for the strongest possible cut in CO2 emissions. He needs to start leading on this issue as if the future of civilization is in the balance -- because IT IS!
I am paraphrasing, but what a high chinese official said as of yesterday about the USA demanding that the Chinese lower their pollution levels is :
"why should we take all the blame for all these pollution? we would like to remind some countries: for years and even decades they laughed at us for being the *bicycle kingdom* ...now that we are catching up to modernity ..they want us to pay the price for pollution levels which were accumulated over 2 centuries of WESTERN industrialization ...we have no intention of remaining a *biking kingdom*....even though we are very serious about battling pollution .....even if our economy rose to equal that of the USA - please remember that we would STILL be only 40 percent in pollution compared to the United States.....
please remember that our pollution levels are of a national level but that percapita pollution is a tenth of what americans produce...in other words...for every 10 chinese ...one american has polluted the planet by the same amount....do you think it is fair for us to be treated as one-tenth of an american?...perhaps the west and america want us to limit our pollution because they know that at this stage in our development we are still dependent on polluting energy - that they themselves have depended on for the last 200 hundred years leading to our present pollution levels...,,,but that is simply unacceptable to us, for it means that perhaps america has an UNDERHANDED reason for this, and that is to limit OUR rise as an independent nation".
========
in the MEANTIME - despite these remarks - the record seems to show that :
presently - CHINA , while indeed the most polluting NATION as a whole - along with the USA - and of course Europe as a Whole - is also ALREADY embarking on massive pollution-diminishing restructuring as new technologies or methods come online along with its rise.
already - 50 "subregions" of industrial sectors were shut down - to be refurbished towards better pollution free or diminished technology and production (the subregions are like big industrial centers out of perhaps 200 - which is like one third of its entire industrial base - can america do the SAME?)
already MASSIVE electric energy, hydro power, solar and wind power projects are being built , - including in car and train transport ....and has been busy replanting and reforesting very large areas.....what has the USA done in its place?
what is clear is:
1) china IS bent on taking serious action about global warming, pollution, and environmental damage..realizing their ultimate , fundamental importance to the world and specifically to ITSELF
2) it is doing these things at its own planning to balance its needs as a growing power and to be perceived and accepted and of course thrive as a power that is RESPONSIBLE and not a THREAT to others
3) it is doing these things along with its rise as an economic and political power - WITHOUT EVER INTENDING to bow to US dictates.
I can't add to the anger and frustration that has already been expressed here, except to add my own -- as well as my own personal feeling of hopeless at the moment. I read in an article this morning on HuffPo and again heard it on NPR in a "news break" on WSHU that Obama is confident that once he gives the American people the rationale for this war, we will accept it -- I'm paraphrasing but that's the gist. Well, I'll tell you, if I didn't accept it under Bush I'm less accepting of it now, since this has absolutely nothing to do with the original invasion, supposedly Bin Laden. Not much mention of his name lately, is there? Is he alive, is he dead? Does it make a difference anymore? Was it ever really about Bin Laden. Makes one wonder.
Nobel Peace Prize? If this guy had any conscience he would graciously decline.
He has no conscience; he will not decline; a hundred years from now, Osama bin Laden will still occasionally be mentioned as a threat to what is left of the United States and many, many people will believe it.
The sad truth. Here's the latest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/25/obama-west-point-speech-o_n_370582.html
Using the troops -- or future troops -- as props. More deja vu.
How can a silver, tongued, devil and consummate con man that took advantage of so many naive but well meaning Americans have a conscience?
Tell His Excellency, The Great Obama, to stay in Europe. Don't come back! We'll have a little change and watch the totally corrupt government of the United States run by "Honest" Joe Biden.
So, in the last three days, we've learned that our community organizer in chief and Nobel Peace Prize recipient:
1. Is employing a private mercenary corporation to run a murderous covert war in Pakistan.
2. Intends to keep the US a human rights pariah state for refusing to sign the UN convention on the Rights of the Child.
3. Likewise, stated his intent to never sign the landmine ban treaty, which every other nations has signed or intends to sign soon.
4. Gave a bellicose speech at Fort Hood, full of fear-mongering bullshit that was indistinguishable from what Bush would have given, showing zero understanding of teh cause of the violent act there.
5. Has declared his intention to massively escalate the senseless slaughter of an impoverished people defending their land from a foreign invader.
In the name of God, this is right up with Kissinger! Can't the Nobel Committee reconsider and withdraw this prize?
1. Who cares?
2. Agree with you there
3. Agree with you there
4. Oh please. Bush would have mentioned Islam about 40 times. Obama gave a sensible speech. I'll bet you would have defended the actions of the shooter, based on the nonsense I've seen you write here already.
5. Uh...he always said he was going to continue the war in Afghanistan. Spent 2 years stating that boldly on the campaign trail. Why is the extreme left acting all surprised by this now? Though I'd love to see the U.S. leave Afghanistan, I have maintained several times on this forum that it's not as easily politically - or literally - as your average extreme left-winger seems to think.
No, i am not surprised. i didn't vote for the guy.
I think any friend or relative of those Pakistanis summarily executed by drone would care. But typical self-absorbed liberaloid Amerikans like you don't care about that...
Maybe you will care when Blackwater is selling their services in the same capacity domestically for a corporation. You know, just like the Pinkerton goons. No, I didn't think you had ever heard of them.
go troll somewhere else.
1."Who cares?" you loose credibility with cold comments like this.
Mr Obama, Nobel WAR prize is yours you earned it.
There you go - that about Sums it up brilliantly.
OBAMA's NOBEL WAR Prize...
his
NOBEL WAR WHORE Prize
he is going to copenhagen, reluctantly. because he knows he has nothing - 0r the usa has nothing to offer that's constructive..nothing whatsoever. ..and that his "charm" offensive has dissipated - exposing to the world and the counterparts he has to meet -
what a FRAUD he has been and what a FRAUD american policies are - and that countries and peoples are either openly challenging it or even ............ignoring it...or treating US "attendance" with barely hidden disdain...even among the USA's s0-called allies for being the source of more problems than the solution .
Maybe there will be a catastrophic malfunction of the AF-1 over the middle of the Atlantic, maybe a meteor will hit it, something, anything!
Oh please, could anybody really imagine a country run by "Foot-in-mouth Joe"?
Lysistrata convinces the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace
A few days ago we read that Obama would not go to the Copenhagen talks. Then his public relations people told him that, if he makes a quick stop there on his way to the Nobel Award ceremonies, it will be good for his image as a champion of peace. And image is important; it wins elections. Of course, they assured him, he'll just have to make one of his brilliant speeches before he has to rush off, and he doesn't have to go back later and waste his time conferring with other heads of state and delegates.
Remember Bush, dressed like a fighter pilot, announcing the success of the invasion of Iraq and the beginning of a wave of democracy in the Middle East? Now watch Obama tell the delegates in Copenhagen that America has spoken and climate catastrophe has been averted. Shock and awe!
come ON you guys.... it's not as if this will be just a pleasure trip abroad. He might spend some time networking to sell some of those great American made land mines....and ya gotta admit.... those climate change folk are a bit fuzzy about the details.....
So much for the "change you can believe in", now for the porking you've been expecting.... Remember, nobody, including this web site wanted to give Ralph Nader a fair shake and really take to heart what the man had to say BEFORE the election.