Blue Mass Group

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Playing both sides of the Bali

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Brian Beutler is liveblogging the markup session for the big-time Lieberman-Warner climate change bill. Remarkably, Bernie Sanders now may be on board, since there's now language that the $300 billion in pollution-permit auction proceeds is dedicated to "sustainable energy".

Now, the GOP Senators are bravely, valiantly trying to kill this thing with amendments — so far they're failing. And if it comes to the floor, it may well be held up by filibuster threat; and if it passes, Bush will veto. So what's the point?

Well, one would hope this is a signal to the other participants at the Bali Climate talks (happening this week and next) that the US is serious about climate change. If other countries understand that the US is poised to get in the game when we have a non-troglodyte President and Congress, that puts a heavy hand on the playing table. So that's good.

And in fact, if may be doubly necessary because of the administration's own skullduggery:

US Seeks Alliance with China and India to Block Climate Protection

By Gregor Peter Schmitz in Washington, D.C.

Officially, the US government says it wants to push in Bali for a climate protection "road map." But SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that this may not be true. US government officials are already attempting to coordinate with China and India to prevent binding emissions limits.

I just can't be shocked anymore. (HT: The Plank.)

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Comments

  1. To be fair, he does have to play nicy nicy with China. After all, not only do they export a goodly portion of their poisonous products to the US, but they hold a goodly portion of our debt. So, we wouldn’t want to p!ss them off by siding against them.

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    p>And, anyway. Who cares about looking after the Earth? Dubya and co are gonna be Raptured before the final eco-crash, and it’ll be the problem of godless Liberals.

  2. The election of Australian PM Kevin Rudd has left the Bush Administration alone in it’s rejection of the Kyoto Treaty.

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    p>The Chinese actually have a lot of incentives to be more aggressive in seeking solutions to their pollution problems. The New York Times has been running a series of articles that details the severe problems that China’s rapid growth and industrialization have brought to that country. An excerpt from the NYTimes series lays this out:

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    p>

    But just as the speed and scale of China’s rise as an economic power have no clear parallel in history, so its pollution problem has shattered all precedents. Environmental degradation is now so severe, with such stark domestic and international repercussions, that pollution poses not only a major long-term burden on the Chinese public but also an acute political challenge to the ruling Communist Party. And it is not clear that China can rein in its own economic juggernaut.

    Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death, the Ministry of Health says. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Nearly 500 million people lack access to safe drinking water.

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    p>The US should instruct its negotiators at Bali to talk with the Chinese about these problems. Diplomacy is the art of getting divergent interests to find common cause and work together for a mutual good.  The Bush Administration should negotiate with China and India on ways both countries can work toward finding solutions to these problems.  The longer we wait, the more catastrophic damage can be done and the more money it will take to deal with the fall-out from that damage.

  3. …someone else has discovered Spiegel International.

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    p>Quite frankly, it really doesn’t matter what the US might do, because China and India(!) will dwarf what the US does anyway.  According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (sorry, German language only) China has a very large coal mining industry.  And the next Great Game will be between China and the West for access to oil reserves in the “stan” republics of the former USSR.  It’s already happening.

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    p>The planet is screwed and the polar bears are just going to have to learn to adapt.  On that note:  http://www.muenchen.de/cms/pro…

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