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."

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Hear No Reality, See No Reality, Speak No Reality

There has been a consistent thread to the last 7 ½ years. The common denominator has been the volatile mix of evil, incompetence and deliberate ignorance.

The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior EPA officials said last week.- New York Times, Felcity Barringer

They wouldn't even open the email. So what do you think the chances are of any real climate crisis management under a McSame presidency?

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350.org Go, See, Learn, Spread the Word, Take Action

350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

But solutions exist. All around the world, a movement is building to take on the climate crisis, to get humanity out of the danger zone and below 350. This movement is massive, it is diverse, and it is visionary. We are activists, scholars, and scientists. We are leaders in our businesses, our churches, our governments, and our schools. We are clean energy advocates, forward-thinking politicians, and fearless revolutionaries. And we are united around the world, driven to make our planet livable for all who come after us.

This grassroots group is spreading. If you write for the Internet, if you have a mailing list, if you have a way to help spread the word I hope you will take a few minutes today and do so. And then in the coming weeks I hope you will join the site and plan a 350 action of your own.

Civilization is what grows up in the margins of leisure and security provided by a workable relationship with the natural world. That margin won't exist, at least not for long, as long as we remain on the wrong side of 350. That's the limit we face.—Bill McKibben, Writer and Environmentalist

Today, one action you can take is turn off (all the way off) any electrical item in your home that you are not using. The little red lights on your tv, vcr, dvd player, stereo, coffee machine... etc. show that they are still drawing power. Unplug what you are not using, easy-peasy. Make that today's action-- along with spreading the word about 350. And if 350 didn't get you fired up today, how about this 13 year old? She and her friends raised the money to go speak to the UN Environmental conference in 1992 about their future. She completely shames all adults who are still not doing enough (more than 10 yrs later) to make things better-- and she certainly calls our world leaders to task.

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No Senate Help On Climate Crisis

Still stalling, the US Senate let's down the world again.

On Friday, the Senate set aside a bill to combat climate change after failing to gather the 60 votes necessary to move the legislation forward...

You can't have a more important issue to be dealing with on the floor of the Senate," Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) stated to reporters. Yet, the debate has been "reduced to trickery and gimmicks and parliamentary games.

The United States remains one of the only major economic powers not to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, and the Bush administration, buttressed by Congressional inaction, has refused to cooperate with domestic and international organizations to address climate change by significantly altering US energy policies.
-From a Truthout report

Still more reasons we have to win in the House and Senate this year.

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