The super-country that won't save the world

The United States seems to hate U.N. sanctified agreements. Not only have they rejected the Kyoto Protocol (we're the last industrialized country to not sign it) but they've now refused to sign the new emissions agreement drafted at the Bali climate conference this week. China--who will one day soon pass the US in the greenhouse gases they produce--said the fight against climate change won't work until the US gets on board. How ironic.

Why is the US dragging its heels about signing this agreement? If you looked at what's going on in the US itself to help deter the crisis of climate change, you'd see a different picture. For instance, the Senate passed a bill yesterday to increase fuel-economy in vehicles to 35 MPG as a minimum and increase the usage of ethanol gasoline to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. Local governments are even putting their two-cents in by initiating better recycling programs, campaigning for better public transport/carpool/biking programs, as well as other things. Of course, we all know that increasing fuel-economy of cars and recycling alone isn't going to fix the delicate climate situation.

We need to jump on board with the U.N's new agreement to lower emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. The Kyoto Protocol has signed on to follow the agreement, but the US refuses to sign. According to MSNBC:

"The Kyoto Protocol nations have accepted that goal, and the numbers were written into early versions of the Bali conference’s final document — not as a binding target, but as a suggestion in the preamble. The text also called for “comparability of efforts” — that is, U.S. cuts comparable to those of other industrial nations.

The U.S. delegation immediately opposed any inclusion of such numbers, complaining they would tend to “drive the negotiations in one direction,” as U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson put it."

OH SHUT UP Mr. Watson!! Whiny baby. I know it's a US negotiator's job to whine in honour of President Bush every time we're sent to deal with the U.N... But come on. If we keep sending representatives in that are going in with a mission to kill negotiations then we might as well not go at all. Let the rest of the world decide how they're going to save the climate and we can just go back to being the abomination of the West.

As if by magic, Al Gore (who said the US is responsible for blocking progress during his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Norway yesterday) and leaders at the conference are trying to trudge on without the US's full cooperation. And as if they were affected by this magic, the US has come back to the table to compromise on the agreement; however, they came back with their duke's up. It's their way or the highway... (It's the US motto, don't you know?)

A little over an hour ago, the president of the conference, Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, announced they've changed the goals to cutting emissions by half by 2050 and that America will participate on a voluntary basis.

Voluntary? WHAT THE HELL? Might as well just say we did and didn't. I don't think the US understands how big of a roadblock they are to the fight against climate change. No one wants to see that because it's all oil-loving, tree-fearing, bible-thumbing, buddies of Bush that are representing our country at these conferences and we're all suffering from their limited view on the world. And not just the US is suffering, the whole world is suffering.

It's hard to believe that after all the shit this country has done to the world, the international community still respects our opinion on something as detrimental as fighting global warming. And we're not giving them the satisfaction either! How rude. We can't go on, thinking we represent the world if we won't grow-up and actually play a role in the international community.

I want to save the world, thank you very much. It's embarrassing to be from a country that won't participate in agreements from an organisation we helped put together. It's embarrassing we won't clean up after the mess we helped create. Oh wait, we're doing that right now in the Middle East too. Jeez. We're such polluters of a multiple breed.