People's Climate Summit Finds Culprit in Capitalism

[LowDown]

People's Climate Summit...

Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose country has clocked impressive economic growth because of natural-gas production and agricultural development, called for an “anticolonialist” climate agreement that would end the pillaging of “mother earth.”

“Our focus is, together with the people of the world, to attack the capitalist system,” he said.

The talks reached an impasse when many Latin American environmental groups insisted on a resolution that put the blame squarely on the “current capitalist hegemonic system.” Grass-roots organizers from other areas, including Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, said they were shocked that the meeting was twisted into a debate over socialism versus capitalism.

During one heated session, Venezuela’s chief climate negotiator, Claudia Salerno, stormed out, leaving participants stunned.

A compromise was eventually reached but included a glaring omission: Capitalism wasn’t blamed, but there was no mention of reducing fossil fuels for countries like Venezuela, which heavily subsidizes gasoline consumption for its people.

This is the alternative climate summit being held in Peru. It seems the main goal of Latin Americans was to push a socialist agenda, so climate is not a serious issue for them.

Secretary of State John Kerry was there. It's not clear whether or not he blamed capitalism for global warming, but he made it clear than developing countries would have to participate in any agreement since they are responsible for half of the emissions.

It seems to me that they could hold off on these meetings until the earth actually starts warming. With no warming in about 18 years some of the young participants in these conferences have never lived in a world with global warming. Maybe the warming will never resume.

In any case, this is a sign that global warming is dead as a driver of serious public policy. Socialist countries are not going to suspend their economies any more than capitalist countries will. Socialist countries have historically been great dispoilers of the environment, especially in Eastern Europe. It's only to the extent that socialist countries fail economically that they reduce emissions. Cuba, for example, has no emissions to speak of because it has such a poor economy. I doubt that many socialists want to follow Cuba's example.

Any worries that South America is going to steamroll the US with their tremendous economic success can be laid to rest. They are clearly going to be going nowhere. They've caught socialism.

 

[Deuce]

It seems to me that they could hold off on these meetings until the earth actually starts warming. With no warming in about 18 years some of the young participants in these conferences have never lived in a world with global warming. Maybe the warming will never resume.

And what if that means waiting until it's too late to prevent much of the harm?