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US Negotiator Rejects Climate Reparation
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The top U.S. envoy to climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, has rejected arguments that the United States owes reparations for contributing to global warming.
Climate activists in Copenhagen hold signs reading, "Rich countries pay your climate debt!" Todd Stern, US negotiator in Denmark, rejected the notion of climate reparations. (Image: Washington Post) The negotiator, Todd Stern, had rejected the notion before but this time his words centered on the difference between the poor and the wealthy as nearly 200 nations meet to in an attempt deal with climate change.
Diplomats and some protesters claim the United States owes hundreds of billions in aid to developing nations as reparations for years of greenhouse gas emissions, The New York Times said.
Stern, speaking at a news conference Wednesday, made it clear, that the United States would join other industrialized countries in cutting their own emissions.
Further, he promised U.S. support for the poorest and most vulnerable counties in dealing with expected problems stemming from a warming planet such as rising sea levels and drought.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllWTF did you expect? Since when do corporate "externalized" costs exist on a corporate balance sheet as debt? The idea has always been to create more and more "needs" out there so a corporation can come in and offer a "service" (at a price, of course) to supply that need. It's self perpetuating piggery. It's like Henry8 saying that war is not brutal but can encompass brutality. In other words, it's self serving bullshit. We can expect nothing else from our corporate killers.
"Further, he promised U.S. support for the poorest and most vulnerable counties in dealing with expected problems stemming from a warming planet such as rising sea levels and drought."
Human nature being what it is, one of the first effects from starving populations caused by global warming is 'terrorism', insurgency and war.
In what form can we expect U.S. support to come? Bombs, gunships and invasion, perhaps?
In what form can we expect U.S. support to come? Bombs, gunships and invasion, perhaps?
No, that's a last resort and the IMF and "world " bank prefer loan sharking so U.S. corporations can be paid by the overly taxed poor of said countries to build infrastucture. The US "negotiator" (mafia consigliere) calls this rip-off by that politically correct term "aid". Then ignoramuses like Henry8 go around telling people how much "aid" the U.S. gives to all these "ungrateful" and "brutal" countries.
Our citizens are willfully blind, deaf and dumb and our leaders are willfully corrupt, conspiratorial and murderous. And the Henry8 types say, "Well, everybody else does it so it's all right".
Well then, I guess I can "reject" the IRS claim that I owe taxes. After all, if the fed can loan money at 0% interest to a "legal person", then I can, as a "legal person" reject my debt with the IRS under the claim that I am NOT rejecting it. You see, I'm REALLY just borrowing at 0% interest. And don't you worry. I'll pay you back just as soon as I collect enough interest to pay the principle (after my cut, of course)...
Now I'll tell you why I can't do the above. I don't have a brutal armed force and a killer group of spy agencies to go out and murder anyone who doesn't accept what I say. Se La Vi.
Hey, United States, you broke it! You fix it! At least pay your fair share!
There will be zero support from the US Empire for others it has harmed--just ask Koreans, Okinawans, Vietnamese, or Lao. What's more, Public Enemy #1 will posit that the economy's too weak to further curtail "emissions"--shorthand for energy use, which is further shorthand for economic activity. As with healthcare "reform," there will be a lot of propaganda and fanfare but nothing of substance will be done; rather, much will be done to *worsen* the situation using Jobs as the usual excuse.
What little good the federal government does is massively outweighed by the harm and evil in causes and imposes. It must be disolved, its institutions razed, while a new set of governing documents are drawn that usher forth new institutions. Ridding the planet of the US Empire will mitigate the onset of Climate Chaos faster than anything else. The best thing Stern and his delegation can do is to become fertilizer ASAP.
Time to pay the piper, but the cash register is empty. Oh, well. What's done is done. Tuvalu is toast. Humpty Dumpty can't be put together again.
The capitalist system has been organic to human nature. We're cleverer than we are wise. We humans have conquered and occupied every acre of land that affords a living. Built every weapon we could devise. It didn't have to go this way. A wise species would have thought about the need for harmony.
Perhaps Jesusland will return to the vast inland sea that it once was.
"capitalist system organic to human nature"? Goddess forbid.
Humans have been hunting and gathering on this planet for 500,000 years. During all this time- 99% of the time there have been humans, we lived COMMUNALLY. capitalism did not arrive until a few centuries ago.
on this continent people lived communally until the europeans arrived. capitalism was a foreign import, like smallpox.
"Climate Reparation?"
The rich gangster nations have violated human rights to the point of Crimes Against Humanity.
Watch the USA as it uses the EPA report to limit its response to the emergency by the setting of limits in accordance with White House directives. The EPA is in the White House's coat pocket. The White House in turn is a dog being wagged by its Pentagon tail, and the whole assembly is dragged a leash held by a monetary master.
The rest of us must enact laws that treat excessive release of poisonous gasses as a crime against humanity. Agreements with active perpetrators of such crimes are unnecessary. They are laws applicable to both individuals and societies.
No! Tell me it ain't so! The US refusing to pay reparations for something they've fucked up. How unusual!