Sunday, September 09, 2007

The APEC Climate Change Con

It was pointed out that the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, held in Sydney over the past week, brought together leaders of 60% of the world's economy - ie China and the US in particular.

And their announcement on Climate Change talked of "aspirational" goals and "clean coal technology" - the very language favoured by George Bush's pet crony, Australia's soon-to-be-ex-Prime-Minister John Howard.

As weasely as Howard has ever been, the declaration doesn't commit anyone to anything. It hopes people will treat climate change a little bit seriously. They're aiming for a stabilisation that means, as new research has indicated, that Greenland's ice reservoir will melt in 300 years odd.

That's a rise in sea level of seven metres, folks.


We can only hope that the political demises of Howard and Bush will see more realistic action. This can only be achieved by firm national and international action, and those men are not the right leaders.

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