This speech was given on July 17, 2008 at the D.A.R. Constitutional Hall.
Jul 9, 2008
The G8 summit Climate Change Agreement
Photo: The G8 Leaders: France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, America’s George W Bush, Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, Britain’s Gordon Brown, Canada’s Stephen Harper, Germany’s Angela Merkel, Japan’s Yasuo Fukuda and Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi are joined by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.The G8 Summit held a meeting this week to tackle the global issue of climate change. The pathetic result only aimed for a change to be made by 2050, by cutting 50% of carbon emmisions (at current levels.)
There seems to be a standoff between the G8 and developing nations like China and India. China and India have not wanted to step-up and make any commitments to lowering carbon emissions. Bush's reaction: if they don't lower carbon emissions then why should we? Answer: because the earth is at stake and if we want our children to live in a sustainable earth tommorrow changes need to be made today. Plus, Bush has even refused to set any interim targets before 2050. Therefore no goals will be met until most of those leaders either die or live until they are 100 and something years old.
The G8 leaders reaction to China and India (and especially Bush because our country holds the most carbon emissions per capita,) should have been, "We'll assist you to move to a pattern of development which is sustainable, low in terms of emissions intensity. But we as the richest nations are willing to take the lead and we affirm our commitment to do so and we expect you to follow suit."
I am very dissapointed at their hesitance in inititating any real targets to lowering carbon emissions, but I have been shocked by Bush and China's "I won't do it, if you don't do it" child-like attitude. Neither of them wants to take the lead and come the first initiative. Soon enough their this world into one big unsolvable mess that our children or grandchildren will have to clean up, if it's not already too late.
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