US Criticized for Rejecting Climate Reparations

[G_j]

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/11/headlines

Headlines 12/11/09

US Criticized for Rejecting Climate Reparations

Here in Copenhagen, the Obama administration is coming under criticism for refusing to acknowledge a climate debt to poorer countries suffering the brunt of global warming. This week US climate negotiator Todd Stern “categorically” rejected calls for climate reparations to developing countries. On Thursday, Bolivia climate negotiator Angélica Navarro responded in an address before the alternative summit Klimaforum.

Angélica Navarro: “Whatever amount of money you give me, it will never—and I repeat—it will never compensate a single glacier that will be lost in Bolivia, a single species that will be lost in one of our rainforests. This is not about money, because we are not beggars. We are just asking for reparation by developed countries so they pay us their debt.”
Study: Ocean Acidification to Rise Absent Emissions Cuts

In other news from Copenhagen, ocean scientists have released a report showing the world’s seas are growing increasingly acidic from storing the main greenhouse gases causing global warming. Carol Turley of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory said oceans are seriously threatened unless emissions are reduced.

Carol Turley: “The oceans have already taken up 25 percent of the CO2 since the Industrial Revolution because of its vastness. And when you add CO2 to sea water, it becomes an acid, a mild acid. So the oceans in the last 200 years have become 30 percent more acidic, and that’s lowering the pH. The projections are that by 2060 it will become 120 percent more acidic, unless we do something about it, unless we reduce our CO2 emissions.”

...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BA2HE20091211

Copenhagen police detain 68 climate activists

COPENHAGEN
Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:53am EST

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Police in the Danish capital said they had detained 68 people at street demonstrations during the U.N. climate conference on Friday.

Activist groups had urged their followers to disrupt business and meetings at 15 corporations and industry lobby groups, accusing them of being "climate criminals."

But a police spokesman said the activists, numbering several hundred, did not enter the premises of the companies and business organizations they had marked on a map of the city to lay out the day's actions to participants.

Police, some wearing riot helmets, followed activists as they wound through the narrow streets of central Copenhagen to the sound of drums, whistles and horns and chants of "Our climate - Not your business."

The procession then split up, with activists fanning out to several locations, including the venue of a business conference.

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[niyad]

1. I was so disgusted when todd said, "yes, we contribute to the problem, but we aren't going to feel

guilty about it." (paraphrasing just a bit)

american exceptionalism at work, yet again.

[G_j]

2. "american exceptionalism"

been hearing that a lot lately.

an important psychological tool for avoiding truths.

[SoCalDem]

3. America never wants to pay reparations..

:(

[Mudoria]

4. You're always free to cut a check to whatever cause you feel neeeds reparations

[G_j]

5. just a point

reparations refer to something given in compensation for loss, suffering, or damage. Reparation implies recompense given to one who has suffered at the hands of another