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22 Dec 2009 08:37

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World: Fighting words: Britain’s climate secretary blames China for failures

  • Ed Miliband sounds frustrated here. But in other comments he made about the giant ball of failure that was the Copenhagen summit, the British Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change sounded pissed off specifically at China, which he argued used its power to veto a stronger climate agreement despite the fact that the strongest restrictions would not have directly affected them (but would have affected the countries suggesting them). Miliband and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are the leading voices in saying that the process of diplomacy on climate change is broken and needs to be fixed. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2009 11:18

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Politics: Poll: Do you think Obama is too quick to compromise?


Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Dec 2009 08:30

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Politics: Obama will take his victories, no matter how symbolic they are

  • Mr. Obama has put a high value on process and keeping things moving, recognizing that history generally does not remember the to and fro, only the big sweep of presidential accomplishments.
  • New York Times reporter Peter Baker • In an analysis piece on the recent pushes he’s made to get stuff done, even if it’s meant that the ends – particularly on climate change, although health care is the same way – don’t look anything like the means. The downside of this, of course, is that he’s had to compromise to achieve basic goals instead of more complex ones. Are these victories worth the paper they’re written on? We’ll find out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Dec 2009 10:28

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Politics: Copenhagen: Did Obama save the day or dilute the deal?

  • He came. He did a quick deal. He left. That was how US President Barack Obama intervened in the global warming conference in Copenhagen and whether he saved it from total deadlock or condemned it to issuing a powerless piece of paper depends on your point of view.
  • BBC Correspondent Paul Reynolds • Discussing the nature of Obama’s quick deal-making in Copenhagen. A few interesting things about the conference: Obama dealt with China and a few other large but unexpected countries – India, Brazil, South Africa – but left Russia and the EU out of it (shockingly). Also, the forum may have just been the wrong choice for something this monumental. Family reunions this big tend to fall apart due to lots of infighting. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Dec 2009 19:13

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Politics: Let’s use a metaphor to explain the climate change deal

  • Like riding a bike Let’s say you gave yourself two weeks to learn how to ride a bike, hoping you’d be able to ride around the neighborhood with your friends. But your mom was scared you might ride too far away, so you rode around the block a few times using training wheels. You’d been working on it, hoping you could eventually take off your training wheels.
  • Hopes dashed A couple weeks later, you ask your dad (who’s been absent lately, on account of work) if you can ride your bike around the neighborhood. Your dad said no. However, he’ll let you take off the training wheels and said things will change “someday.” Problem is, by the time “someday” comes, your friends won’t be around anymore.
  • Metaphor to realityThe “bike” is climate change. The “training wheels” are the deal in Copenhagen. “Mom” is the U.S. and other western powers, and “Dad” is Barack Obama. Your “friends” are other, less powerful nations who were held at the G8’s mercy. And, well, the “neighborhood” is how far we can go with emissions. We failed today, guys. Badly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Dec 2009 15:24

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Music, World: Thom Yorke: “Our leaders are fully aware they are in disgrace”

  • obama said nothing though i have not seen all the speech yet. i feel very sad for all americans i know who hold so much hope for this man. still.. i guess the day isnt over. its 3pm on friday ( though it should have finished by now). and our leaders are fully aware they are in disgrace.
  • Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke • In a report on the climate change conference in Copenhagen. Our boy got a press pass and got to see it all from the inside, rather than the view that protesters got from the outside. When you’ve lost the lead singer of Radiohead, you’ve lost the indie kids. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Dec 2009 08:53

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U.S., World: Perhaps Obama should’ve been in Copenhagen longer than a day

  • We are running short on time. And at this point, the question is whether we will move forward together, or split apart. Whether we prefer posturing to action.
  • Barack Obama • Trying to set a mood at the Copenhagen climate change summit, which has fallen over on itself in a mess of infighting, criticism and so on and so forth. The Guardian seems to play it off as a terrible speech that promised little, though we’ve seen few places that agree with them so far. In other news, China isn’t offering much of anything either. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Dec 2009 09:16

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U.S.: If they can make a climate change deal, the U.S. will help – big time

  • $100 billion in U.S. help to fight global warming source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Dec 2009 10:07

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World: Copenhagen protesters: “We are peaceful. What about you?”

  • We haven’t been covering Copenhagen a ton for a number of reasons, mainly that not a lot is going to happen with the conference until Obama shows up at the end of the week. But the protests are still pretty interesting. This clip shows the chasm between the police and the many protesters better than most we’ve seen.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Dec 2009 18:25

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World: Terrible: Check out how protesters in Copenhagen were arrested

Hands bound, forced to sit on the street late at night – this may be one of the most disturbing photos we’ve seen. Nearly 1,000 protesters were arrested. source
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