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| House Speaker Paul Ryan sending a message of dissent to Paris. Source: Yahoo!News |
Tuesday 8 December 2015
Com'on Congress
Reactions from the COP21 climate conference are already popping up in the news. All eyes are on China and the US, the two top contributors of CO2. The BBC recently praised China on their increase in renewable energy. As for the US.... The house has decided to pass legislation that would block the EPA's cap on coal emissions. It should be noted that 63% of the US population supports cutting emissions at coal powerplants.
The Republicans held the vote on the SAME day as Obama's speech at COP21. They wanted to demonstrate their opposition, to any pro-climate remarks he made. The House Speaker Paul Ryan claims the benefits from any legally blinding agreement will not offset the high costs. It's beyond me why anyone would deliberately undermine their country's chance to demonstrate global leadership. Why should any other country, especially the developing ones, commit to cutting their emissions if we are unwill to cut ours?
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I read an article the other day which showed that the smog in Beijing had reached over 20 times the safe limit! and it even went onto say that fully healthy persons who breathed this smog in was at serious risk of respiratory illness. I was in Beijing only about 3 months ago and I never saw any of the pollution you see on the news these days, and I found out this was due to a temporary ban on certain vehicles in the city centre. Do you think there is a long term potential plan that China could introduce to really help out in reducing their emissions?
ReplyDeleteIn terms smog, I believe that China will have to curb it's emissions because of the internal pressure from its citizens. Did you see the artist that vacuumed the air for 100 days and made a brick with the pollution? As for specific plans, I expect that green public transportation will be at the top of the list in major cities. Carbon capture at power plants and factories will probably also contribute. Especially if the US shares the technology it's going to need to produce to manage its own energy caps. And, if they can remove the smog, there's always the potential for solar power.
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