Desmond Tutu @ Huff Post: 3 Billion Reasons For Bush To Take Action On Climate Change At G8

[Hissyspit]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/desmond-tutu/three-billion-reasons-for_b_51108.html

Three Billion Reasons For Bush to Take Action on Climate Change at G8
Posted June 7, 2007 | 11:57 AM (EST)

I can think of three billion reasons why President Bush should agree to take action on climate change at this week's G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, one for every person in the world living on less than two dollars a day. These people are not responsible for global warming, but they will pay the highest price if wealthy countries refuse to do their fair share.

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As a result, the positions of the G8 leaders will affect not only the citizens of G8 countries, but also the billions of poor and innocent people around the world that are struggling to meet their most basic needs and are not responsible for creating the problem in the first place. This dilemma is a big part of what people mean when they talk about the "moral imperative" to take action to fight climate change.

President Bush says that he refuses to accept binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions unless major developing countries like China and India agree to binding targets of their own, but there are good reasons why the world's wealthiest countries should have to move first and fastest.

If you add it all up, the US and Europe alone account for more than half of the accumulated global emissions over the past two hundred years, while China has been responsible for less than eight percent of cumulative greenhouse gas emissions. Even taking into consideration China's recent economic growth, each person in the United States still emits on average over five times more greenhouse gases per year than a person in China.

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[marmar]

1. The world could use more Desmond Tutus....

K&R :kick:

[IndyOp]

2. Please sign petition to the G8...

This week, the leaders of the biggest polluting countries in the world are meeting in Germany at the G8+5 summit. Between them, their countries produce over 70% of global warming emissions. But while climate change is the top issue on their agenda, the Bush administration is trying to prevent any serious commitment to action.

Your voice is needed now to tell world leaders to stand strong on climate change. Sign our petition to send a message that the world is calling for action to avert a climate catastrophe.

Petition To World Leaders: Climate change is the greatest threat facing our world today - and we are almost out of time to stop it. You must tackle this problem now, decisively and together. Start working toward a new globalagreement this year. Set binding global targets for emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. Take bold action immediately - and we will join our efforts with yours.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_summit_g8 /

Our campaign against global warming is on fire! World leaders meet at the G8+5 summit this week--and they're listening to us.

Friday morning, we banged boxes of 265,000 names down on the top German negotiator's table in
Berlin. Taken aback, he promised to bring our voice into the negotiations, and said he'd track how fast our petition grows. On Saturday, with another 10,000 signatures overnight, we marched at the head of the climate march in Rostock, with tens of thousands peacefully demanding urgent action. Now we're in touch with top officials from France, the UK and Brazil, all following our campaign as they decide on a strong stand.

Let's turn the heat up even higher. Can you help us get to 333,333 voices for change--the biggest global climate petition ever--before the summit decision? One last push, together, to avert a planetary catastrophe. Take a moment and tell five friends to go to this page--

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_summit_g8

The energy here in Germany is electric. Every few hours, new reports come in as governments manoeuvre. Amidst the politics, our campaign draws a clear line: a swift global agreement with binding emissions targets.

When we met with Chancellor Angela Merkel's top representative who chairs the talks, he promised us Germany wouldn't compromise-- then on Sunday Merkel came through for us, the Brits followed suit, and now Brazil and China have joined the call for a global UN-led process. Bush has started to move but his proposals would be a step back, the US people and Congress are already way ahead of him.

The summit leaders can tell a global movement is brewing. Our petition, this simple list of names from every corner of the globe, is a sign politicians can see and touch. These talks always come down to the wire-- so it's crucial for world leaders to know how much the global public wants them to stop the climate crisis.

The summit opens Wednesday, ends Friday. This is crunch time. So just for a moment, put aside whatever you're doing and help us get to a third of a million signatures-- urge your friends and family to sign the petition here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_summit_g8

We know leaders are watching. Let's make their jaws drop.

With hope, Paul, Ben, Graziela, Iain, Hannah, Galit, Ricken and the whole Avaaz team

PS: For more information about the G8 summit and the climate change
negotiations, see here: http://www.ft.com/indepth/climatechange

And for more about Avaaz's work on climate change at the G8 see: http://www.avaaz.org/blog/en/climate_change/