Gonna Come Out Swingin'
"I am not an official of the United States and am not bound by the diplomatic niceties. So I am going to speak an inconvenient truth. My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali. We all know that."
Fuck you, Al Gore. I held my tongue a few nights ago, but I can't do it any more, you massive fucking hypocrite.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/342281_bali05.html
More than 10,000 jet into Bali for global warming conference
U.N. official rejects notion attendees adding to problem
By ROBIN MCDOWELL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALI, Indonesia -- Never before have so many people converged to try to save the planet from global warming, with more than 10,000 jetting into this Indonesian resort island, from government ministers to Nobel laureates to drought-stricken farmers.
But critics say they are contributing to the very problem they aim to solve.
"Nobody denies this is an important event, but huge numbers of people are going, and their emissions are probably going to be greater than a small African country," said Chris Goodall, author of the book "How to Live a Low-Carbon Life."
Interest in climate change is at an all-time high after former Vice President Al Gore and a team of U.N. scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the dangers of rising temperatures, melting polar ice, worsening droughts and floods, and lengthening heat waves.
Two big climate conferences have been held in less than a month, both in idyllic, far-flung holiday destinations -- first Valencia, Spain, and now Bali. They were preceded by dozens of smaller gatherings. In Bangkok, Paris, Vienna, Washington, New York and Sydney, in Rio de Janeiro, Anchorage, Helsinki and the Indian Ocean island of Kurumba.
The pace is only expected to pick up, prompting some to ask if the issue is creating a "cure" industry as various groups claim a stake in efforts to curb global warming.
No, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Climate Change Conference. "Wherever you held it, people would still have to travel to get there," he said. "The question is, perhaps: Do you need to do it at all? My answer to that is yes."
"If you don't put the U.S., the big developing countries, the European Union around the table to craft a solution together, nothing will happen and then the prophecy of scientists in terms of rising emissions and its consequences will become a reality," de Boer said.
The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners.
If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.
But he believes the real figure will be twice that, more like 100,000 tons, close to what the African country of Chad churns out in a year.
Organizers said they are doing everything possible to offset the effects.
Host Indonesia, which has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world, averaging 300 football fields an hour, said it had planted 79 million trees across the archipelago nation in the past few weeks.
"Our aim is not just to make this a carbon neutral event, but a positive one," Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said.
In largely symbolic gestures, 200 bright-yellow mountain bikes are being offered to participants so they can pedal around the heavily guarded conference site, and recycled paper is being used for the documents being handed out. Bins separating plastic and paper dot hallways -- a rare sight in a country where formal recycling is virtually non-existent.
Yet SUVs, taxis and other cars sit in long lines at the gates to the site, spewing out exhaust as they wait to get through security checkpoints.
Optimists hope the meeting will inaugurate a two-year process of intensified negotiations on a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and required signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels.
But no one expects concrete results here, with closed-door talks expected to be a battle over language and nuance, including whether emission reductions should be voluntary or mandatory and whether developing nations should have the same restrictions as industrial countries.
"We don't need talk, talk, talk," said Ursula Rakova, 43, of Papua New Guinea's Carteret islands, describing how the rising sea has destroyed once-fertile farmland on her island of Huene and split the land mass in two.
"For us to move, we need money to purchase land, build schools, build medical clinics," said Rakova. "Our situation is before us. We need something tangible."
In all, 190 countries are represented.
The United States is sending more than 100 delegates, and all 27 countries of the European Union are flying in national teams.
Non-governmental organizations also are attending, from groups advocating the rights of indigenous people to those seeking to protect rapidly dwindling forests.
And there are those with something to sell, including technology to produce drinking water and businesses ready to capitalize on future carbon trading markets.
http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=4112
How to Jettison a Jet
A Lack of Apron Area Will Compel Delegations Attending the UN Climate Change Conference to Park their Planes Outside of Bali.
Bali News: How to Jettison a Jet
(11/3/2007) Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia.
The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VIP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar.
Now, I come on here and rant quite a bit, mostly just to let off steam. Because of that, I'm afraid that my actual beliefs and positions aren't always known, or may be misinterpreted. So let me be frank: I am a conservationist, and have been since I was in elementary school. The rehabilitation of man-endangered species is an important and worthwhile effort in my book, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle is so hard-wired into my brain that I will often retrieve recyclables from garbage cans and my kitchen cabinets are full of "reusable" containers that I have no honest use for, and I do, in fact, think city-dwellers driving Hummers are idiots. I believe strongly that maintaining the environment in a functioning condition is an essential part of mankind's God-given purpose on Earth.
But I am sick to death of these cheats and hypocrites playing Chicken Little in order to push their own political agenda.
Please understand that I am not saying that global warming is not a problem that needs to be addressed. It's not the impending catastrophe that it's presented as, but it is still a big concern to anyone interested in the conservation of the natural world. Let me explain what I'm getting from these two articles, though.
I couldn't find an exact number, but I believe there were between 50 and 75 private jets used to reach this conference. Once in Bali, the passengers disembarked and the jets were dead-headed (flown empty) to a nearby island for storage. At the end of the conference, they will be dead-headed back to Bali to pick up their big-wig passengers for the flight home. Oh, did I mention that "hopping," short flights of less than an hour, is considered by aviators to be one of the most inefficient uses of aviation fuel?
Did it occur to no-one to fly all of the jets to a central hub and run a single chartered shuttle flight to Bali? I don't suppose "flying commercial in the first place and avoiding the problem" was an option? Or... if only Al had invented some way to use the Internet for having meetings... Oh, yeah, it's called TELECONFERENCING.
My issue here is that the people who are demanding that you & I be taxed and fined by a one-world government for driving a gasoline-engine automobile, buying non-local produce, or leaving the lights on... are busy themselves flying around the world to exotic locales in private jets, having seafood flown to private galas in Arizona, and making upgrades to their multiple mansions. They can't even be bothered to think through something as simple as, "There are 100,000 people going to the same place I'm going, so maybe we could all fly in together and lessen our impact on the environment." And yet, they're going to find a "solution" for a global environmental problem?
I feel this proves that these people aren't concerned about the environment at all. They are one-world politicians looking for an excuse to give the United Nations more power over member countries. You can be damned sure that they will be quick to take advantage of that power, through global carbon taxes, carbon output fines, and sea-mining regulations... but when it comes to REAL threats to world stability, their record speaks for itself. (See "Iraq, Threats by" and "Hussein, Saddam.")
Speaking of Saddam Hussein, I think there's a very potent analogy to be drawn between the United Nations' clamor about global warming and President Bush's pre-war case against Iraq. I knew at the time - and distinctly remember having this conversation with Psilan at the time - that our government's vague suspicion of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons* production was not a good enough to reason to go to war. We know now that there were multiple reasons for the invasion, including the defense of the international community from a Third World dictator who seemed intent on humiliating it - in other words, a political agenda. And how was that agenda achieved? By raising alarmist cries of a vague potential threat to feverish levels and using the fear generated by them to convince a frightened populace to go along with the plan.**
If that doesn't sound familiar, then you haven't been paying attention.
* The left doesn't want you to know this, but the term "weapons of mass destruction" covers all three components of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. Seeing as Saddam had thousands of Kurds put to death in the late '90's by gassing them with chemical weapons (as evidenced by mass graves found in northern Iraq that date from that time period), it is in fact TRUE that he possessed weapons of mass destruction during the time that the United Nations was conducting the Oil-for-Food program. Whether he had them at the time of the invasion is still anyone's guess, but it remains reasonable to suggest that retreating Republican Guard units destroyed stockpiles or carried them across the border into Syria.
** I would like to take a moment to note that my stand on the invasion of Iraq remains the same as it always has: it wouldn't have been the way I would have gone about it, but it needed to be done. Nor do I believe "Bush lied," any more than I now believe "Gore lied." Facts were taken out of context and used to achieve a political agenda, but that does not constitute a "lie." "Dishonesty" or "lack of integrity," yes, but a "lie," no.
The next time I post, I want to discuss the monkey business that's going on in the Justice Department. The Campion and Ramos case has been a pet concern of mine for a while (my grandfather was in the Border Patrol for 13 years), but the Jamie Lee Jones case that has recently surfaced has me tying knots in my brain. I want to know what's going on that we're not seeing, and I want to know yesterday.
Fuck you, Al Gore. I held my tongue a few nights ago, but I can't do it any more, you massive fucking hypocrite.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/342281_bali05.html
More than 10,000 jet into Bali for global warming conference
U.N. official rejects notion attendees adding to problem
By ROBIN MCDOWELL
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BALI, Indonesia -- Never before have so many people converged to try to save the planet from global warming, with more than 10,000 jetting into this Indonesian resort island, from government ministers to Nobel laureates to drought-stricken farmers.
But critics say they are contributing to the very problem they aim to solve.
"Nobody denies this is an important event, but huge numbers of people are going, and their emissions are probably going to be greater than a small African country," said Chris Goodall, author of the book "How to Live a Low-Carbon Life."
Interest in climate change is at an all-time high after former Vice President Al Gore and a team of U.N. scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize for highlighting the dangers of rising temperatures, melting polar ice, worsening droughts and floods, and lengthening heat waves.
Two big climate conferences have been held in less than a month, both in idyllic, far-flung holiday destinations -- first Valencia, Spain, and now Bali. They were preceded by dozens of smaller gatherings. In Bangkok, Paris, Vienna, Washington, New York and Sydney, in Rio de Janeiro, Anchorage, Helsinki and the Indian Ocean island of Kurumba.
The pace is only expected to pick up, prompting some to ask if the issue is creating a "cure" industry as various groups claim a stake in efforts to curb global warming.
No, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Climate Change Conference. "Wherever you held it, people would still have to travel to get there," he said. "The question is, perhaps: Do you need to do it at all? My answer to that is yes."
"If you don't put the U.S., the big developing countries, the European Union around the table to craft a solution together, nothing will happen and then the prophecy of scientists in terms of rising emissions and its consequences will become a reality," de Boer said.
The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners.
If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day.
But he believes the real figure will be twice that, more like 100,000 tons, close to what the African country of Chad churns out in a year.
Organizers said they are doing everything possible to offset the effects.
Host Indonesia, which has one of the fastest rates of deforestation in the world, averaging 300 football fields an hour, said it had planted 79 million trees across the archipelago nation in the past few weeks.
"Our aim is not just to make this a carbon neutral event, but a positive one," Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said.
In largely symbolic gestures, 200 bright-yellow mountain bikes are being offered to participants so they can pedal around the heavily guarded conference site, and recycled paper is being used for the documents being handed out. Bins separating plastic and paper dot hallways -- a rare sight in a country where formal recycling is virtually non-existent.
Yet SUVs, taxis and other cars sit in long lines at the gates to the site, spewing out exhaust as they wait to get through security checkpoints.
Optimists hope the meeting will inaugurate a two-year process of intensified negotiations on a deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 and required signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels.
But no one expects concrete results here, with closed-door talks expected to be a battle over language and nuance, including whether emission reductions should be voluntary or mandatory and whether developing nations should have the same restrictions as industrial countries.
"We don't need talk, talk, talk," said Ursula Rakova, 43, of Papua New Guinea's Carteret islands, describing how the rising sea has destroyed once-fertile farmland on her island of Huene and split the land mass in two.
"For us to move, we need money to purchase land, build schools, build medical clinics," said Rakova. "Our situation is before us. We need something tangible."
In all, 190 countries are represented.
The United States is sending more than 100 delegates, and all 27 countries of the European Union are flying in national teams.
Non-governmental organizations also are attending, from groups advocating the rights of indigenous people to those seeking to protect rapidly dwindling forests.
And there are those with something to sell, including technology to produce drinking water and businesses ready to capitalize on future carbon trading markets.
http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=4112
How to Jettison a Jet
A Lack of Apron Area Will Compel Delegations Attending the UN Climate Change Conference to Park their Planes Outside of Bali.
Bali News: How to Jettison a Jet
(11/3/2007) Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia.
The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VIP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar.
Now, I come on here and rant quite a bit, mostly just to let off steam. Because of that, I'm afraid that my actual beliefs and positions aren't always known, or may be misinterpreted. So let me be frank: I am a conservationist, and have been since I was in elementary school. The rehabilitation of man-endangered species is an important and worthwhile effort in my book, Reduce-Reuse-Recycle is so hard-wired into my brain that I will often retrieve recyclables from garbage cans and my kitchen cabinets are full of "reusable" containers that I have no honest use for, and I do, in fact, think city-dwellers driving Hummers are idiots. I believe strongly that maintaining the environment in a functioning condition is an essential part of mankind's God-given purpose on Earth.
But I am sick to death of these cheats and hypocrites playing Chicken Little in order to push their own political agenda.
Please understand that I am not saying that global warming is not a problem that needs to be addressed. It's not the impending catastrophe that it's presented as, but it is still a big concern to anyone interested in the conservation of the natural world. Let me explain what I'm getting from these two articles, though.
I couldn't find an exact number, but I believe there were between 50 and 75 private jets used to reach this conference. Once in Bali, the passengers disembarked and the jets were dead-headed (flown empty) to a nearby island for storage. At the end of the conference, they will be dead-headed back to Bali to pick up their big-wig passengers for the flight home. Oh, did I mention that "hopping," short flights of less than an hour, is considered by aviators to be one of the most inefficient uses of aviation fuel?
Did it occur to no-one to fly all of the jets to a central hub and run a single chartered shuttle flight to Bali? I don't suppose "flying commercial in the first place and avoiding the problem" was an option? Or... if only Al had invented some way to use the Internet for having meetings... Oh, yeah, it's called TELECONFERENCING.
My issue here is that the people who are demanding that you & I be taxed and fined by a one-world government for driving a gasoline-engine automobile, buying non-local produce, or leaving the lights on... are busy themselves flying around the world to exotic locales in private jets, having seafood flown to private galas in Arizona, and making upgrades to their multiple mansions. They can't even be bothered to think through something as simple as, "There are 100,000 people going to the same place I'm going, so maybe we could all fly in together and lessen our impact on the environment." And yet, they're going to find a "solution" for a global environmental problem?
I feel this proves that these people aren't concerned about the environment at all. They are one-world politicians looking for an excuse to give the United Nations more power over member countries. You can be damned sure that they will be quick to take advantage of that power, through global carbon taxes, carbon output fines, and sea-mining regulations... but when it comes to REAL threats to world stability, their record speaks for itself. (See "Iraq, Threats by" and "Hussein, Saddam.")
Speaking of Saddam Hussein, I think there's a very potent analogy to be drawn between the United Nations' clamor about global warming and President Bush's pre-war case against Iraq. I knew at the time - and distinctly remember having this conversation with Psilan at the time - that our government's vague suspicion of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons* production was not a good enough to reason to go to war. We know now that there were multiple reasons for the invasion, including the defense of the international community from a Third World dictator who seemed intent on humiliating it - in other words, a political agenda. And how was that agenda achieved? By raising alarmist cries of a vague potential threat to feverish levels and using the fear generated by them to convince a frightened populace to go along with the plan.**
If that doesn't sound familiar, then you haven't been paying attention.
* The left doesn't want you to know this, but the term "weapons of mass destruction" covers all three components of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare. Seeing as Saddam had thousands of Kurds put to death in the late '90's by gassing them with chemical weapons (as evidenced by mass graves found in northern Iraq that date from that time period), it is in fact TRUE that he possessed weapons of mass destruction during the time that the United Nations was conducting the Oil-for-Food program. Whether he had them at the time of the invasion is still anyone's guess, but it remains reasonable to suggest that retreating Republican Guard units destroyed stockpiles or carried them across the border into Syria.
** I would like to take a moment to note that my stand on the invasion of Iraq remains the same as it always has: it wouldn't have been the way I would have gone about it, but it needed to be done. Nor do I believe "Bush lied," any more than I now believe "Gore lied." Facts were taken out of context and used to achieve a political agenda, but that does not constitute a "lie." "Dishonesty" or "lack of integrity," yes, but a "lie," no.
The next time I post, I want to discuss the monkey business that's going on in the Justice Department. The Campion and Ramos case has been a pet concern of mine for a while (my grandfather was in the Border Patrol for 13 years), but the Jamie Lee Jones case that has recently surfaced has me tying knots in my brain. I want to know what's going on that we're not seeing, and I want to know yesterday.