Friday, July 11, 2008

G8 Wrap Up From Japan


For months now the preparations for Japan to be host of the G8 have occupied both the Japanese government and our own USA embassy here in Tokyo. My friends in various peace groups, ngos and other organizations were also mobilizing and staged some great events around the summit. Now the fanfare and brouhaha have ended. The leaders have gone. Ours left with a disgusting parting shot at the world.

The reviews are coming in. This summit was supposed to be about many things, but one major agenda item was the climate crisis.

According to most sources, we ended the 3 day meeting with what the late great Ann Richards would have called; ALL HAT NO CATTLE. (Making fun of big 10 gallon hats on idiots who don't know jack about actually being a cowboy. Our own Mrs. Robinson gave the best definition of real cowboys early in our GNB year.)

The leaders agreed on a goal of at least a fifty percent reduction in worldwide carbon emissions by two thousand fifty. But many environmentalists criticized the lack of any detailed plans for working toward that goal. -Steve Ember.
Bagnews has some good photo reviews of the summit.

I am counting down the days till the end of our national nightmare.

G8 Summary-- the.usa.didn't.help.to.get.a.damn.thing.done.

*Update* just back from the G8- "The Bush administration today disavowed its own proposal to seek comment on whether the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, declaring that the proposed approach would be unworkable."