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Climate Talks: "Africa vs the 1%"

Reuters reports: "Global carbon dioxide emissions from industry rose about three percent in a weak global economy this year, a study released on Monday showed, adding fresh urgency to efforts to control planet-warming gases at U.N. climate talks in South Africa."

WASHINGTON

Reuters reports: "Global carbon dioxide emissions from industry rose about three percent in a weak global economy this year, a study released on Monday showed, adding fresh urgency to efforts to control planet-warming gases at U.N. climate talks in South Africa."

Large protests took place over the weekend outside the global climate talks in Durban, South Africa, now in their final week.

PATRICK BOND, pbond at mail.ngo.za

Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, Bond is author and editor of the just-released books "Politics of Climate Justice" and "Durban's Climate Gamble." Bond said today: "The United States and other opponents of Kyoto Protocol binding agreements will be joined as Durban saboteurs by Europeans who above all want crisis-ridden carbon markets restarted. While large developing countries dither about how fossil-fuel-addicted their economic models will be, the continent most victimized -- Africa -- at least has a strong science-based demand: 50 percent greenhouse gas reductions by 2020. It is a sickening fact that Washington's intransigence will again prevent movement towards the deal the planet so desperately needs, but all the elites here are to blame. This is reminiscent of the 1% versus 99% scenario that the Occupy movement points to in financial markets."

Bond recently co-wrote the piece "Climate Cash Deals are Killing Us."

A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.