There are two extraordinary facts about the convention on biological diversity, whose members are meeting in Montreal now to discuss the global ecological crisis. The first is that, of the world’s 198 states, 196 are party to it. The second is the identity of those that aren’t. Take a guess. North Korea? Russia? Wrong. Both ratified the convention years ago. One is the Holy See (the Vatican). The other is the United States of America.
This is one of several major international treaties the US has refused to ratify. Among the others are crucial instruments such as the Rome statute on international crimes, the treaties banning cluster bombs and landmines, the convention on discrimination against women, the Basel convention on hazardous waste, the convention on the law of the sea, the nuclear test ban treaty, the employment policy convention and the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities.
In some cases, it is one of only a small number to refuse: the others are generally either impoverished states with little administrative capacity or vicious dictatorships. It is the only independent nation on Earth not to ratify the convention on the rights of the child. Perhaps this is because it is the only nation to sentence children to life imprisonment without parole, among many other brutal policies. While others play by the rules, the most powerful nation refuses. If this country were a person, we’d call it a psychopath. As it is not a person, we should call it what it is: a rogue state.
Through its undemocratic dominance of global governance, the US makes the rules, to a greater extent than any other state. It also does more than any other to prevent both their implementation and their enforcement. Its refusal to ratify treaties such as the convention on biological diversity provides other nations with a permanent excuse to participate in name only. Like all imperial powers, its hegemony is expressed in the assertion of its right not to care.
The question that assails those who strive for a kinder world is always the same but endlessly surprising: how do we persuade others to care? The lack of interest in resolving our existential crises, expressed by the US Senate in particular, is not a passive exceptionalism. It is an active, proud and furious refusal to care about the lives of others. This refusal has become the motive force of the old-new politics now sweeping the world. It appears to be driving a deadly, self-reinforcing political cycle.
makati1 on Sat, 10th Dec 2022 4:14 pm
“The US is a rogue state leading the world towards ecological collapse” BINGO!
I agree that the climate is changing, but it is not a man-made change, it is just nature doing what it has done for billions of years. Man cannot stop it or even slow it down. What will be, will be. Adjust.
Duncan Idaho on Sat, 10th Dec 2022 5:03 pm
Rep. Mike Rogers, now set to influence military budgets, took more defense sector money than any other lawmaker in 2022.
Repugs do know how to get on their knees and beg.
https://truthout.org/articles/top-recipient-of-war-industry-money-to-head-gop-house-armed-services-committee/
But it is what they know–
makati1 on Sat, 10th Dec 2022 6:13 pm
The US is competing with the Ukraine for the title of “The Most Corrupt Country in the World” and it is winning. Go Amerika! LMAO
Theedrich on Sun, 11th Dec 2022 1:36 am
The U.S. is ruled by a crime syndicate consisting of a Janus-like uniparty with two faces. This syndicate determines what the “rules” are in the “rules-based order” it imposes on the world. It describes itself as a “democracy,” while it is in fact a bribe-ocracy. It is in a blind drive to acquire ever more money and power. If the world is to survive, it must go bye-bye.
Dredd on Sun, 11th Dec 2022 7:58 am
It’s viral (On The Origin of The Containment Entity – 4</a<).
peakyeast on Sun, 11th Dec 2022 11:53 am
It is obvious that the USA is a military dictatorship in sheeps clothing.
The combination of covering the entire globe with military bases, spending trillions of $ on military, destroying nation after nation and holding the rest of the world accountable to the ICC in HAAG while not being subject to it itself speaks volumes.
makati1 on Sun, 11th Dec 2022 2:54 pm
Right On,Peaky! The best Christmas gift possible is the collapse of the Amerikan Empire (without nukes flying).
world of mario on Fri, 16th Dec 2022 1:21 am
This information makes me have the bright eyes about around.
Theedrich on Sat, 17th Dec 2022 6:57 pm
Judeo-Chistianity was founded by a talking snake. The first Europeans in North America were Christian fanatics, ready to murder any and all Papists and others who deviated from their interpretations of the snake’s statements. Thence derived the basic hypocritical belligerence of the modern U.S. Today, every U.S. war crime is gaslighted as a divine benefit to humanity from the sacrosanct vicar of the serpent, the grandly beneficent United States of America. Murdering hundreds of thousands of children and civilians by “sanction” is explained as being “worth it,” as the now defunct Jewess Madeleine Albright, a U.S. Secretaryess of State once said regarding the half million Iraqi children she was starving to death.
Thank you, O most wise serpent and creator of the wondrous democracy of Superduperland.
𝖁𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖆𝖘 𝖑𝖎𝖇𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖇𝖎𝖙 𝖛𝖔𝖘.
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 18th Dec 2022 12:40 pm
The US empire is not alone. They are just the biggest cancer. Plenty of other cancers destroying the biosphere – your habitat/home.
FamousDrScanlon on Sun, 18th Dec 2022 12:45 pm
What social media site has the biggest carbon footprint?
Answer: TikTok.
“TikTok emits 2.63 grams of carbon equivalent each minute for every active user. Just five minutes of use a day adds up to about 4,800g a year, per user. With a reported 1 billion users, that’s a whole lot of emissions. Reddit and Pinterest come in second and third place, respectively.”
https://www.govtech.com/question-of-the-day/what-social-media-site-has-the-biggest-carbon-footprint
It’s kids mostly use tiktok right.
Fucking spoiled brats are worse than their evil-doing Boomer grandparents.