By Peter Burrows - elburropete@gmail.com -- silvercityburro.com 5/15/21
On April 22 and 23, President Biden convened a virtual conference of 40 countries, the stated purpose of which was "to galvanize efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis." I read the summaries of the topics addressed over the two days, and was unable to find any specific examples that I would call a "crisis," which I define as a destructive, here-and-now problem.
"Crisis," however, is one of the two most important words in the progressive lexicon, the other being "racist;" and, as we all know, a crisis is not something that should be allowed to go to waste. Since there is no real climate crisis, the obvious answer is to create a fake one, hence the "Leaders Summit on Climate."
Participants included the "17 countries responsible for approximately 80 percent of global emissions and global GDP," and "the heads of other countries that are demonstrating strong climate leadership (or) are especially vulnerable to climate impacts."
"Global emissions" means carbon dioxide, CO2, and "especially vulnerable" means developing nations that can be counted on to loudly promote the "climate crisis" in order to get money from the developed nations. Those developing nations have no intention of ever doing ANYTHING to reduce their own CO2 emissions, and are almost certainly going to be responsible for a huge INCREASE in global CO2 emissions in the coming years as they continue to pull their nations out of poverty.
Also invited to participate were "a small number of business and civil society leaders," and here is where we get a clue that the conference was more circus than substance. No scientists were invited, but our own Governor Lujan-Grisham was. She was part of an all-female panel that included the mayors of Paris and Mexico City, this in recognition "of how women around the world are raising the mantle of climate leadership."
Of course, especially young women, as witness the spectacle of an obviously disturbed teenage girl lecturing the UN General Assembly about the climate "crisis" two years ago. That pathetic little girl, Greta Thunbeg, didn't make an appearance at the "Leaders' Summit," but a 19-year-old from Thunberg's "Fridays For Future" activist group delivered a speech worthy of Greta --- or Bernie Sanders or Fidel Castro, for that matter.
Mexican-born Xiye Bastida 's six-minute speech touched all the usual stupid buttons, e.g., "The climate crisis is the result of those perpetuating and upholding the harmful systems of colonialism oppression, capitalism and market-oriented green-washed solutions." Sigh.
Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, proving that Old Joe is not the only one in D.C. suffering from dementia, said to Ms. Bastida, "Thank you very much for adding your powerful voice to the summit. People are listening, and I thank you."
You can watch her entire speech in the following You Tube. She is just as young, and just as indoctrinated as poor Greta, but much prettier:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi83YbWmHQ4
If that insane tirade doesn't convince you that this should have been called the Bozo Summit, check out this pledge from one of the "small number of business leaders" who were invited to the summit. GE Renewable Energy, no doubt Inspired by the all-female panel and the "powerful voice" of a 19-year-old climate victim, announced that the GE Foundation is committing up to $100 million to increase the diversity of the next generation of engineers.
If you can't see how that will help solve the climate crisis, you are obviously suffering some combination of racism, sexism and transphobia.
One of the biggest sleights-of-hand of the event was India reiterating its target to build 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. This is a HUGE amount and will only reduce India's potential CO2 emissions if it is all hydropower, which could be the case. In the meantime, India's CO2 emissions will continue to grow rapidly.
That's because India is the only nation that is both a leading emitter of CO2, third behind China and the U.S, and is also a developing nation. It has opened over 130 new coal mines since 2014 and has built 180 GW of new coal-fired generating plants since 2000. They are planning on building more, lots more, because India has determined that coal is the lowest cost fuel to electrify their country and develop their economy, which they MUST do to counter the threat of a newly industrialized China on their northern border.
To get an idea of what that means, to match China's per capita CO2 emissions, a rough proxy for a nation's level of development, India's increase in CO2 emission would be equal to twice that of what the entire U.S. now produces. Nothing we do will offset that increase.
I could not find any criticism of India's huge increase in the use of coal. Nor could I find any criticism of China's growing use of coal. In fact, China's President Xi Jinping's address to the Summit showed why China is the world's number one climate con, a topic I'll explore in the next article.
Sources:
https://www.thegwpf.com/india-opens-52-new-coal-mines-to-achieve-universal-electrification/