US puts climate debate on hold for five weeks despite plea by Merkel
• Senate delay means no bill likely before Copenhagen
• German leader makes historic Congress address
• UN Chief says deal in Copenhagen not likely either (VOA News)
Chancellor of Germany Angela
by Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington and Damian Carrington in UK
International negotiators lost one of the key elements to a successful deal on global warming today after Democratic leaders in the US Congress ruled out passing a climate change law before 2010. In the latest obstacle on the road to the UN summit in Copenhagen next month, Senate leaders ordered a five-week pause to review the costs of the legislation.
The delay, which would push a Senate vote on a climate change bill into next year, frustrates a last-minute push by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to get America to commit itself at home to cut greenhouse gas emissions before the Copenhagen meeting. World leaders – and US officials – have repeatedly said US legislation is crucial to a deal on global warming.
Merkel used a historic address to a joint session of Congress today to urge America to act on climate change, stating that success at Copenhagen rested on the willingness of all countries to accept binding reductions in carbon emissions.
The first German leader to ever address both houses of Congress, Merkel said a deal was comparable in importance to the tearing down of the Berlin wall 20 years ago. “We need the readiness of all countries to accept internationally binding obligations,” she said to loud applause from Democrats. Republicans largely sat in silence. “There is no doubt about it. In December, the world will look to us: the Europeans and the Americans. I am convinced once we … show ourselves ready to adopt binding agreements we will also be able to persuade China and India.”
Merkel also raised her concerns with Barack Obama in a visit to the White House earlier today. He told reporters: “Chancellor Merkel has been an extraordinary leader on the issue of climate change. And the US, Germany, and countries around the world are all beginning to recognise why it is so important that we work in common to stem the potential catastrophe that could result if we see global warming continuing unabated.”
Read the complete article here
h/t to Dr. Benny Peiser
Quoth Chancellor Merkel: “…the potential catastrophe that could result if we see global warming continuing unabated.”
More “could… ifs”, and “if… coulds.” This is what passes for substance in the AGW universe.
Deborah, would you like fries with that puppy?
And Gore himself has said that he is not ready to give up meat.
~~~
He’s also not ready to give up his house that use’s 20X more power in a year than the average family. Or his private jets, or limo’s, etc.
Angela Merkel is EAST German born.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel
“Like most pupils, Merkel was a member of the official, Socialist-led youth movement Free German Youth (FDJ). Later she became a member of the district board and secretary for “Agitprop” (Agitation and Propaganda) at the Academy of Sciences in that organisation.[5] However, she did not take part in the secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, which was common in East Germany, and was confirmed instead. Merkel herself described her FDJ youth movement years as “cultural work”.”
Once a watermelon, always a watermelon. Green on the outside, Marxist red on the inside. World domination by any means, especially religious environMENTALism & demographic change. It has happened before with severe consequences for Europe. No! Not the 20th century. 64 generations earlier! Thought provoking views at http://www.askelm.com/people/peo011.htm
I do not understand the obsession of Germans by this issue. But since they wasted so much money on it, to save face in front of their taxpayers they probably have to.
Carlo (18:18:49) :
‘The world will look to us: the Europeans and the Americans.’
“I am European, and we don’t need the Copenhagen treaty that threatens democracy, freedom”.
Carlo, your freedom was signed away today when Vaslac Klaus, against his will signed
the Lisbon Treaty. Please read it and weep.
From a historical perpective : the first time ever a German head of government addresses the U.S. Senate, and all she can talk about is this black magic stuff? How sad is that? I mean the two countries fought one of the most vicious wars, one of them has massive troops on the other’s soil, and was ready to fight to defend it from a serious invasion threat for decades, one sent many immigrants to the other, chirstians and jews, both have massive investment in one another and mutually employ hundreds of thousands, their cultures are deeply interpenetrated, etc. etc. And all she finds to talk about is this mad hunger for tax and regulation based on looney activism.
Al Gore was interviewed on the BBC’s Newsnight program on Tuesday, November 3rd.
You can see it all here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ntf4n/Newsnight_03_11_2009/
The interview starts at 23.18 minutes into the program and ends at 34.09 minutes.
In the interview he is still banging on, this time in religious terms, about the evils of carbon dioxide. He also says he’s cut his gas consumption to nearly nothing, and admires vegetarians for their attempt to save the planet. Copenhagen, meanwhile, has been downgraded to only produce a “framework document” on climate change for further consideration by world leaders next year.
Well, at least America has *some* semblance of democracy left.
Come the 1st December, the entire European continent officially acquires a distinct and independent legal personality. A legal identity with an unelected President, no less. It shall be tasked with the King Canutean task of “Tackling Climate Change” with a target of doing whatever is necessary to restrict average temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius.
Europe officially becomes a dictatorship on December 1st.
That will be a sad, sad day for freedom.
And when I was warning anyone who would listen that this was coming over the last decade, I was labelled a tin-hat conspiracy nut!
The cost of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Lisbon, and Copenhagen are treaties that shall live in infamy.
“”the world will look to us: the Europeans and the Americans.””
So the West plays ball and decımates theır ındustrıes, whıle Chına, Indıa and Asıa contınue pumpıng out all kınds of noxıos emıssıons wıth ımpunıuty.
Worse that that. We close down clean ındustrıes ın the West, transfer those factorıes to Chına, where they then pump out ten tımes as much pollutıon as we used to.
Whose haır-braıned ıdea ıs all thıs nonsense?? And why do otherwıse ‘ıntellıgent’ polıtıcıans get swept up ın thıs charade??
.
George E. Smith (17:38:41) :
………………
“I’ll be all in favor of “cap and tax” at about the same time that Coca Cola Bottling Company declares that they will unilaterally remove ALL CO2 from their products.”
And from the fire extinguishers. They are too effective.
Ralph (03:11:32) :
It’s worse than all that. Exactly how defensible is the West that strips itself of all industrial capacity? Talk about your mass hypnosis, or your mouse transfixed in front of a snake. These people have very short memories.
Merkel in my opinion is dangerous.
She’s a socialist in a conservative suit.
But there are a lot of issues where she clashes with Obama.
1. Obama wants the Germans to do more in Afghan
2. Obama wants to keep Opel under GM – but Merkel doesn’t
3. Obama wants to print money, Merkel doesn’t
4. Obama is protectionist, Merkel isn’t
5. Obama wants Germany to do more in Irak – Nein danke!
6. Climate is the only issue they agree on. But Obama has a huge opposition to that in the US. In Germany, Merkel doesn’t.
Forget Merkel on climate change. She’s been poisoned by that Schellnhuber charlatan.
Gene Nemetz (17:45:13) :
“Europe can go take a flying leap!”
No, you take flying leap!
AGW is an all American scam. Roger Revelle, Al Gore, James Hansen, Stephen Schneider, Obama etcetera are all Yanks . All evil comes from the American Democratic Party.
“”the world will look to us: the Europeans and the Americans”
This is Merkel putting the onus on the USA.
If USA doesn’t come through, then she can blame a collapse in Copenhagen on the USA.
She is a clever politician.
Ken Hall,
I’m in with you.
But it’s just a matter of time before all this really begins to hurt, and the people revolt.
Merkel has had an easy time governing in a grand coalition. But now her new government has a serious opposition, and that means she will be held more accountable for the bad economic conditions that are about to take hold.
Here is another European of the same opinion.
Well, they don’t see the light until they feel the heat, and the voters look to be turning up the heat.
Looks like a couple of more Republican Governors from what I heard on the news of early returns…
Any “swing state” Democrat is either going to start listening to the folks back home or he’ll be picking out a new career path…
Then there is that small matter of “A $Trillion here, a $Trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking bankrupt governments.”… Oh, wait, we already have that in California…
There is simply not enough money to pay for what we are already obligated to do. Heaping on 2 $trillion or 3 $trillion more for gratuitous self smugging projects like “Global Health Care” and “Universal Climate Control” is not going to fly. John Q. Public is getting the message loud and clear that they will be picking up the tab for those programs (and for the $2 Trillion or so squandered in bailouts and “stimupork”) and 1 in 10 of them is looking at a pink slip.
Now there are a lot of 2 worker households So that’s one in five households. Minimum (there are the ‘discouraged non-looker’ and folks who’s unemployment payments have run out that are not in the 10% counted). Each of those folks has a neighbor on four sides (one is across the street). Do the geometry, I’ll wait…
That’s right: On Average EVERYBODY has an adjoining neighbor out of work, or is out of work themselves… You, front, right, left, behind.
That makes 5. (The diagonals don’t count, they are in their own cluster of 5 – yes the geometry works.)
Some folks like the rich in congress don’t have that issue, so some slum will have 20% or 30% unemployment to make up. Now it starts to be nearly every other house…
And they are being told to shut off the heat, have a “meatless Monday”, and in the case of California, fork over an extra 10% of payroll withholding on the spouse who does still have a job as an interest free loan to the bankrupt state…
(In case you haven’t heard, the latest twist is that the State of California [ or should I say ‘The Peoples Republic of California ], having reached a ‘budget deal’ that was acrid smoke and greasy mirrors, is back in the hole big time a few weeks after passing the ‘balance budget’… so to tide them over, by administrative fiat, they have increased payroll withholding 10%… “but it’s not a tax increase”… Because in theory you might get it back when you do your taxes since tax rates are not changing…
Except last time we were in a lesser problem than this, the State issued I.O.U’s for income tax returns. Nice little “warrants” you could hope would be paid back some day…
Now step back and look at that picture:
No job. No money. State sucking up any spare change it can find and doing a 10% “pick pocket loan”, and $2 Trillion already on the books from porkulus and bailouts… and a generational over hang in Medicare, MediCal, MediCaid, Social Security, etc. that runs out to about $10 Trillion in coming years… And you are going to pay for it? Yeah, right.
So the bottom line is that these idiots can pass whatever laws they want and tax what ever they wish and limit fuels as much as they want and only one thing will change:
The date when we hit the economic wall moves closer and the crash and burn will happen faster (steeper slope).
I’d give it about 2-4 years at the present rate of current spending (not counting future proposed spending). Pass the rest of this “stuff” and it moves proportionately closer.
I have great faith in the average person and their inherent grounding in reality. So as the “rulers” get loonier and “Joe Sixpack” is being told No Nascar and No BBQ Tailgate at the Game; the answer will be at the ballot box. And if that is ignored, well, it will just accelerate the change and steepen the “impact”.
Frankly, I’d rather have it be fast and ‘impactful’. More of our physical wealth and infrastructure will survive and more of the loons will not. But I can live with slow…
Sometimes you have to crack a few heads to make an omelette …
or wake up their brains.
WIth that said, the Copenhagen Party is looking ever more like a spectacular boondogle at exactly the wrong time; and the swing state voters are taking names and making shopping lists.
Copenhagen is toast. It will just take a bit more continued pressure to assure it is a spectacular failure and does not just go simpering into August in Cairo…
Something is seriously wrong if a President of a Democratic European Country makes this statement about signing the Lisbon Treaty, only 20 years after it was liberated from communist rule. I really wonder what powers and pressures were in place to force him to sign this treaty.
It’s only to learn because similar pressures could be directed at the US Senate Members. I really hope he will write down his experiences in a book so we can read about it:
[Good afternoon. Good, gloomy afternoon. Let me read you a brief statement on the Constitutional Court ruling today.]
1. The decision of the Constitutional Court was expected by me and I respect it, even though I fundamentally disagree both with its content as well its justification.
2. I can’t endorse its form i.e. its legal quality. The ruling by the Constitutional Court is not a neutral legislative analysis but a biased political advocacy of the Treaty of Lisbon by its champions. This point is obvious from the entirely inappropriate, confrontational elaboration as well as the presentation of the verdict.
3. Most importantly, I cannot agree with the content because once the treaty becomes valid, the Czech Republic will cease to be a sovereign country, despite the political opinion of the court. This change is bringing legitimacy to the efforts of a part of our public that is not indifferent to our national and state existence and that doesn’t intend to come to terms with these developments – efforts that will take place today as well as in the future.
4. I can’t accept the Constitutional Court’s decision to proclaim the obligation of the president of the republic to ratify this (or another) international treaty “without unnecessary delays” by references to the law about the Constitutional Court. This bill only deals with the work of the Constitutional Court: the rights and responsibilities of the president are defined exclusively by the constitution.
5. I inform that I signed the Treaty of Lisbon today, November 3rd, at 3 pm.
London based Financial Times story: “UN Chief Damps Climate Treaty Hopes”:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cecd1256-c8a2-11de-8f9d-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss
There are six other clickable climate change (FT) stories in the text box. (You can visit and view the FT site only twice within 30 days for free.)
John Silver (04:08:46) : AGW is an all American scam.
I think not. The UK list is extensive, starting with Crispin Tickell, who is still pulling strings, to the grey men in Defra, Jones et al at CRU and Hadley, Tyndall and all its ramifications. Don’t forget the scheming Schellnhuber at Potsdam, mentioned above and his Greenpeace Institute for Climate Change (Bill Hare, Malte Meinshausen),
Ron de Haan (17:38:14) : “…the current climate hoax is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less”
Oh, thank god… It’s just Officialdom being, well, Officialdom. Quite a bit depserate and more than a bit motivated to grow beyond it’s current borders, though, and that’s in a lot of ways much, much worse than an actuall problem.
I think a hotter earth would be better. I mean, what WOULD they do when hundreds of millions of screaming people wanted to run their air conditioners and billions more clamored for an airconditioner, rather than hear another word of the warmists’ BS about cutting emissions? Right…
Nature: 100
Politics: 0
…they’d be yesterday’s news!
P Gosselin (04:10:17) :
“”the world will look to us: the Europeans and the Americans”
This is Merkel putting the onus on the USA.
If USA doesn’t come through, then she can blame a collapse in Copenhagen on the USA. She is a clever politician.
We’ll gladly accept the credit…errr blame.
Put that blessed wall back up, quick!
Oops! .. too late! The loonie marxist-socialists have escaped, and are running round spreading their misanthropic diseases. AGW is one of them.
But seriously, it is all very simple. Too many poor people. So, give women higher standards of living and then they have fewer babies. Those babies will be richer.
And a higher standard of living for women is deliverable by technical progress ….. which in turn requires ever-higher standards of thought and behaviour.
However, communitarian/egalitarians are aiming at increasing mediocrity. i.e increasing the number of poor people .. poor in everything and not just in monetary terms.
Communism Pollutes.