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Page added on December 13, 2015
Nearly 200 Nations Adopt 1st Global Climate Change Pact
Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t.
The “Paris agreement” aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.
Loud applause erupted in the conference hall after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gaveled the agreement. Some delegates wept and others embraced.
The agreement, South African Environment Minister Edna Molewa said, “can map a turning point to a better and safer world.”
“This is huge,” tweeted U.S. President Barack Obama. “Almost every country in the world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change — thanks to American leadership.”
In the pact, the countries commit to limiting the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.
In practical terms, achieving that goal means the world would have to stop emitting greenhouse gases altogether in the next half-century, scientists said. That’s because the less we pollute, the less pollution nature absorbs.
Achieving such a reduction in emissions would involve a complete transformation of how people get energy, and many activists worry that despite the pledges, countries are not ready to make such profound and costly changes.
The deal now needs to be ratified by individual governments — at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions — and would take effect in 2020. It is the first pact to ask all countries to join the fight against global warming, representing a sea change in U.N. talks that previously required only wealthy nations to reduce their emissions.
The deal commits countries to keeping the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 compared with pre-industrial times “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and says they will “endeavor to limit” them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The world has already warmed by about 1 degree Celsius since pre-industrial times.
Ben Strauss, a sea level researcher at Climate Central, said limiting warming to 1.5 degrees instead of 2 degrees could potentially cut in half the projected 280 million people whose houses will eventually be submerged by rising seas.
More than 180 countries have already presented plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions— a breakthrough in itself after years of stalemate. But those pledges are not enough to achieve the goals in the accord, meaning countries will need to cut much more to meet the goal.
“We’ve agreed to what we ought to be doing, but no one yet has agreed to go do it,” said Dennis Clare, a negotiator for the Federated States of Micronesia. “It’s a whole lot of pomp, given the circumstances.”
The agreement sets a goal of getting global greenhouse gas emissions to start falling “as soon as possible”; they have been generally rising since the industrial revolution.
It says wealthy nations should continue to provide financial support for poor nations to cope with climate change and encourages other countries to pitch in on a voluntary basis. That reflects Western attempts to expand the donor base to include advanced developing countries such as China.
In what would be a victory for small island nations, the agreement includes a section highlighting the losses they expect to incur from climate-related disasters that it’s too late to adapt to. However, a footnote specifies that it “does not involve or provide any basis for any liability or compensation” — a key U.S. demand because it would let the Obama administration sign on to the deal without going through the Republican-led Senate.
The adoption of the agreement was held up for nearly two hours as the United States tried — successfully, in the end — to change the wording on emissions targets. The draft agreement had said developed countries “shall” commit to reducing emissions; in adopting the pact organizers changed the language to say those countries “should” make that commitment.
Experts said the deal probably won’t need congressional approval.
Activists who say the agreement won’t go far enough held protests across Paris on Saturday, calling attention to populations threatened by melting glaciers, rising seas and expanding deserts.
Kumi Naidoo of Greenpeace praised the accord was a good start but isn’t enough.
“Today the human race has joined in a common cause, but it’s what happens after this conference that really matters,” he said. “This deal alone won’t dig us out the hole we’re in, but it makes the sides less steep.”
Still, the accord is a breakthrough in climate negotiations. The U.N. has been working for more than two decades to persuade governments to work together to reduce the man-made emissions that scientists say are warming the planet.
The previous emissions treaty, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, included only rich countries and the U.S. never signed on. The last climate summit, in Copenhagen in 2009, ended in failure when countries couldn’t agree on a binding emissions pact.
The talks were initially scheduled to end Friday but ran over as Western powers, tiny Pacific island nations and everyone in between haggled over wording.
The main dispute centered over how to anchor the climate targets in a binding international pact, with China and other major developing countries insisting on different rules for rich and poor nations. The agreement struck a middle ground, removing a strict firewall between rich and poor nations and saying that expectations on countries to take climate action should grow as their capabilities evolve. It does not require them to do so.
Some scientists who had criticized earlier drafts of the pact as unrealistic praised the final language for including language that essentially means the world will have to all but stop polluting with greenhouse gases by 2070 to reach the 2-degree goal, or by 2050 to reach the 1.5-degree goal.
That’s because when emissions fall, nature compensates by absorbing less carbon dioxide — and can even release old pollution once there’s less of it in the air, said Princeton University’s Michael Oppenheimer. Forests, oceans and soil currently absorb about half the world’s man-made carbon dioxide emissions.
“It means that in the end, you have to phase out carbon dioxide,” said John Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
In addition to the cuts in emissions, the goal could be reached in part by increasing how much carbon dioxide is sucked out of the air by planting forests or with futuristic technology, said Princeton University’s Michael Oppenheimer. But, he added, such technology would be expensive and might not come about.
36 Comments on "Nearly 200 Nations Adopt 1st Global Climate Change Pact"
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 3:11 pm
Thus ends the worlds biggest circle jerk.
Get ready for the pain.
GregT on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 3:25 pm
Our species is toast.
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 3:25 pm
What gets me is their self congratulatory reaction. Yeah congratulate yourself you cretins you are further paving the way for a vastly different planet then the one humans are adopted too. I would add most mammalian higher up species.
Davy on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 3:31 pm
“The Godfather Of Climate Change Calls Obama’s Deal “A Fraud, It’s Bullshit”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-12-13/godfather-climate-change-calls-obamas-deal-fraud-its-bullshit
“It’s a fraud really, a fake,” he says, rubbing his head. “It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. As long as fossil fuels appear to be the cheapest fuels out there, they will be continued to be burned.”
“But, according to Hansen, the international jamboree is pointless unless greenhouse gas emissions aren’t taxed across the board. He argues that only this will force down emissions quickly enough to avoid the worst ravages of climate change.”
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 3:58 pm
Climate Bullshit Flying Thick And Fast
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2015/12/climate-bullshit-flying-thick-and-fast.html
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:00 pm
Con Job 21
http://survivalacres.com/blog/con-job-21/
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:04 pm
COP21: SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE
THE “PURPOSE” OF “CONSUMER ACTIVISM” & COP21 – “WE MEAN BUSINESS”
http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2015/12/11/the-purpose-of-consumer-activism-cop21-we-mean-business/
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:15 pm
Here is quote from the the leader of the Free World The climate deal reached in Paris is “the best chance we have to save the one planet we have”, US President Barack Obama has said. If this is our best chance in the immortal words of Greg we as a species are “toast”
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:30 pm
Even without AGW we would still be going bye bye from destroying the web of life. AGW just speeds it up. Apes are just too plentiful and too fucking stupid.
US town rejects solar panels amid fears they ‘suck up all the energy from the sun’
A retired science teacher said she was concerned the panels would prevent plants in the area from growing
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-town-rejects-solar-panels-amid-fears-they-suck-up-all-the-energy-from-the-sun-a6771526.html
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:40 pm
Very good point AP, a diverse menu of very bad trends also threaten humanity and other creatures including soil erosion, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, water shortages, growing disease vectors, antibiotic resistance, nuclear war etc etc. The mess we have made of this Earth is astounding.
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:40 pm
Oh I forgot ubiquitous contamination and pollution.
bug on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:47 pm
I am not an Obama apologist but, we all know it’s bullshit and do you really think he is going to come out and say what is posted here about how it is bs? He has to tow the line. Think about it, the right is are going to blast him for doing or saying anything about climate change and the others are saying what he did do is bs. We know the planet is fried, toast, boiled, scorched, done , and we also know not one leader is going to say it.
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:51 pm
Yeah in fact very few really want to admit what you stated bug. We here a rare bunch because we face the truth however shocking it may be.
J-Gav on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 4:58 pm
Ap and On – you both usually have interesting things to say and today is no exception.
But, as for you, Onlooker, I read your little piece about France being the first country to veer “far-right”. You should have waited for the results from second round of the regional elections. The far-right didn’t win a single one.
The right did win slightly more than half, and among those, several populated areas, including l’Ile de France (which includes Paris) by a slim margin – 44% to 42% – the far-right getting about 14%. The ‘left’ (does such a thing still exist anywhere?)won about the same number of regions overall, but less populated ones.
My point? I live there, euh … here – in Paris, and I would admonish you not to dive into extreme conclusions too rapidly.
onlooker on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 5:04 pm
Thanks J for the compliment and also the admonishment. I was hasty in my conclusion and appreciate your correction. I would ask you though considering the migration problem and the terrorist threat, do you not sense a definite right veering pattern or inclination among the French population?
Harquebus on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 6:14 pm
Population reduction, the only viable solution, was not even mentioned.
Continuing the perpetual growth ponzi scheme toward total environmental destruction takes precedence once again.
sidzepp on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 7:09 pm
I heard a snowstorm was coming this weekend, guess I’ll purchase a shovel next summer.
claman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 7:25 pm
Exactly harquebus, not a word about over population.
But nature has a trump(h) upp the sleeves, and that is anti biotic resistans, that quickly could kill off a lot people, both rich and poor.
As I understand it, this threat to humanity is just waiting to happen, and it might not be just one or two diseases that suddenly mutates into a resistant form, but a lot of ordinary illnesses.
Preppers better start worrying about their immune system – no sarcasm.
makati1 on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 8:11 pm
“Dust … just blowin’ in the wind… “
efarmer on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 8:15 pm
Sometimes I have a decent day, and experience some joy in life, and find myself being happy for the simplest of things. If I feel like I am getting too sappy and serene, I come here and read and it smacks the silly sap right off my lips and puts my ass back into the pliers of life and squeezes. I think they might be vice grips instead of pliers because it feels like they are locked on my hocks really good.
makati1 on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 9:32 pm
“Climate Summit COP21: The Curtain Falls on a Masquerade. Peasants of the World Struggle for Food Sovereignty”
“The Neoconservatives’ Hegemonic Goal Of Making Sovereign Countries Extinct Is Bringing Instead The Extinction Of Planet Earth”
“The COP21 Climate Summit: The Ambitions and Flaws of the Paris Agreement. Outcome of Deception and Bullying”
“The GMO DARK Act: Restricting the Labelling of Genetically Engineered Food in America”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
“The Godfather Of Climate Change Calls Obama’s Deal “A Fraud, It’s Bullsh*t””
http://ricefarmer.blogspot.fr/
And the beat goes on…
Apneaman on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 10:27 pm
Tibetan threat to vital water
“COP21: China’s leading scientists warn that large areas of the Tibetan plateau – the life-giving source of Asia’s major rivers – are suffering from desertification.
PARIS, 12 December, 2015 – Hours before the UN climate talks end, a warning from China’s top scientific body – the twin influences of human activities and climate change are turning much of the Tibetan plateau into a desert.
The damage is not only transforming grasslands and wetlands into sand and rock where nothing can grow. The plateau is also the source of Asia’s major rivers, on whose water about 1.4 billion people depend.”
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/tibetan-threat-to-vital-water/
No worries. Once the encroaching deserts are made aware of the new super agreement, they will instantly go into a retreat and all will be well. TBTB have agreed on it. Same for the endless list of AGW consequences. The glaciers, and ice caps will stop melting the moment they are informed of the agreement and it should not take long for the heavens to open up above California and rain for a month the instant the drought is shown the agreement. Yes planetary inertia is nothing next to some words on paper by the head apes. The record breaking forest fires will put themselves out, the seas will stop rising and even recede and methane clathrates will restabilize for eternity.
dooma on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 1:08 am
“That reflects Western attempts to expand the donor base to include advanced developing countries such as China.”
Advanced developing countries such as China-what a novel description and typical media spin.
IF the word struggles on, China is a perfect example of what western nations will become. There are plenty of wealthy and “middle class” people in China now. Then there are the poor.
When equilibrium is reached, every developed nation will have it’s filthy rich, a new kind of poorer middle class and far more beggars and homeless people.
makati1 on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 2:10 am
dooma, the breakdown may be:
Filthy rich
Tech/Med/Ed
Peasant/serf
Or it may be:
Warlord
Security level
Peasant/serf
or it may be:
Zero anyone.
We shall see.
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 2:14 am
They have to do something by 2070. Everybody in the treaty room will be dead of old age, decades before then.
Now all the diplomats hurry and scurry to their limousines, private jets, and Swiss ski chalet vacations.
LOL what a scam.
Kenz300 on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 8:56 am
China made great progress in moving its people out of poverty…….one reason was slowing population growth…..
If you can not provide for yourself you can not provide for a child.
Climate Change, declining fish stocks, droughts, floods, pollution, poverty, water and food shortages all stem from the worlds worst environmental problem……. OVER POPULATION.
Yet the world adds 80 million more mouths to feed, clothe, house and provide energy and water for every year… this is unsustainable…
Birth Control Permanent Methods: Learn About Effectiveness
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/birth_control_permanent_methods/article_em.htm
penury on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 9:28 am
Let me see” no stated goals. No means of enforcement, Nothing agreed to do anything. And it will be done in a time frame to assure the demise of all participants prior to that date. And the really nice thing is it is not a treaty, it is simply an agreement.
Apneaman on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 10:52 am
MIAMI TRULY HAS NO IDEA HOW TO DEAL WITH SEA-LEVEL RISE
“Perhaps you’ve been watching the rising seas routinely inundating Miami streets, soaking cars and stranding residents unlucky enough to not own kayaks, and thinking to yourself, “Well, I’m sure our leaders have some great ideas how to save our city.”
Afraid not! This morning, the New Yorker dropped a new longread on Miami’s threatened future and it makes one thing abundantly clear: No one at any level of city or state government or in the scientific community has any idea how to cope with this.”
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-truly-has-no-idea-how-to-deal-with-sea-level-rise-8112142
The Siege of Miami
As temperatures climb, so, too, will sea levels.
“The city of Miami Beach floods on such a predictable basis that if, out of curiosity or sheer perversity, a person wants to she can plan a visit to coincide with an inundation. Knowing the tides would be high around the time of the “super blood moon,” in late September, I arranged to meet up with Hal Wanless, the chairman of the University of Miami’s geological-sciences department. Wanless, who is seventy-three, has spent nearly half a century studying how South Florida came into being. From this, he’s concluded that much of the region may have less than half a century more to go.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
Apneaman on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 11:40 am
“Runaway Climate Change”: Inconvenient Truths Facing the COP21 Climate Conference
Conversations with Richard Heinberg, Dane Wigington and Guy McPherson. Global Research News Hour Episode 125
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
http://www.globalresearch.ca/inconvenient-truths-facing-the-cop21-climate-conference/5495442
JuanP on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 1:43 pm
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/unprecedented-heavy-rain-and-flooding-devastate-local-farms-8094551
http://littlerivercooperative.com/blogs/news/80745350-the-big-flood-december-3rd-6th-2015
Apneaman on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 2:28 pm
What happens if the permafrost disappears?
If the Arctic permafrost thaws, the results could be catastrophic. Belinda Smith reports.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth-sciences/what-happens-if-permafrost-disappears
It already is thawing. There is at least another 1 – 1.5 degree in the pipe (lag time) and that does not include the dozens of positive self reinforcing feedbacks already underway. As it continues to warm they will increase. If we stopped all emissions today, we still get catastrophic climate change.
Here is melting permafrost in action.
That Lake That Was Going to Fall Off a Cliff in Canada Actually Did
“Decades of gradually rising temperatures culminated in two hours of “catastrophic” flooding in Canada’s Northwest Territories, as a small lake burst through its melting embankment and sent tens of thousands of cubic meters of water crashing into a neighboring valley.
In a video released on Wednesday by the territorial government, the lake can be seen breaching a retaining wall weakened by thawing permafrost and dumping half its contents in a waterfall nearly five stories tall.”
https://news.vice.com/article/that-lake-that-was-going-to-fall-off-a-cliff-in-canada-actually-did
regardingpo on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 4:05 pm
I just want to say thanks to you guys who keep posting links in the comments, especially Apneaman, he’s like the encyclopedia of doom.
Apneaman on Mon, 14th Dec 2015 6:05 pm
And now for the newest entry in the encyclopedia of doom.
1.06 C Above 1880: Climate Year 2015 Shatters All Previous Records For Hottest Ever
“We knew it was going to be a record breaker. We knew that atmospheric greenhouse gasses in the range of 400 parts per million CO2 and 485 parts per million CO2e, when combined with one of the top three strongest El Ninos in the Pacific, would result in new all-time global record high temperatures. But what we didn’t know was how substantial the jump would ultimately be.
Today, the numbers were made public by NASA. And I hate to say it, but it’s a real doozy. Overall, according to NASA, Climate Year 2015 — the 12 month period from December of 2014 through November of 2015 — was 0.84 C hotter than NASA’s 20th Century Baseline. That’s 0.11 C hotter than previous hottest year 2014 and a full 0.21 C hotter than climate change deniers’ favorite cherry — 1998. In other words past record hot years are being left in the dust as the world is heating up to ever more dangerously warm global temperatures.”
more
http://robertscribbler.com/2015/12/14/1-06-c-above-1880-climate-year-2015-shatters-all-previous-records-for-hottest-ever-recorded/
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Dec 2015 3:29 pm
#6 Methane and Arctic Warming’s Global Impacts
http://www.projectcensored.org/6-methane-and-arctic-warmings-global-impacts/
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Dec 2015 5:47 pm
Fish Stocks Are Declining Worldwide, And Climate Change Is On The Hook
“For anyone paying attention, it’s no secret there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in the oceans right now. We’ve got a monster El Nino looming in the Pacific. Ocean acidification is prompting hand wringing among oyster lovers. Migrating fish populations have caused tensions between countries over fishing rights. And fishermen say they’re seeing unusual patterns in fish stocks they haven’t seen before.
Researchers now have more grim news to add to the mix. An analysis published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that the ability of fish populations to reproduce and replenish themselves is declining across the globe.”
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/14/459404745/fish-stocks-are-declining-worldwide-and-climate-change-is-on-the-hook
NOAA warns: Algal-induced seafood poisoning is migrating to the SE Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s important to know that if you eat one of these large, carnivorous fish from tropical or subtropical areas, including South Florida, there is a risk. And if you get sick after eating them, you should see a doctor and let them know you’ve eaten saltwater fish,” epidemiologist Elizabeth Radke from Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida
Rising global ocean temperatures, due to climate change, will cause an increase in ciguatera seafood poisoning in the Gulf of Mexico and the SE Atlantic NOAA reported in a study published by the journal Ecological Modeling.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/15/1459407/-NOAA-warns-Algal-induced-seafood-poisoning-is-migrating-to-the-SE-Atlantic-and-Gulf-of-Mexico
Apneaman on Tue, 15th Dec 2015 6:22 pm
Where is that denier tard Bill C who said he done don’t believes in global warming because the predictions of more and more powerful hurricanes have not come true?
“Remarkably that makes Typhoon Melor the 27th tropical cyclone in the northern hemisphere to reach category 4 or 5 this year – a full nine more than the previous record set in 2004.”
http://blog.metoffice.gov.uk/2015/12/14/typhoon-melor-bringing-stormy-weather-to-the-philippines/