Saturday - December 15, 2007

The Meaninglessness of Bali 

Apparently, there was some agreement reached at Bali this week on greenhouse gases.

Two weeks of international climate talks marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated Saturday in a last-minute U.S. compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009. Now comes the hard part.

Delegates from nearly 190 nations must fix goals for industrialized nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions while helping developing countries cut their own emissions and adapt to rising temperatures.

Negotiators also will consider ways to encourage developing countries to protect their rapidly dwindling forests - which absorb carbon dioxide. Read more....

The rest of the world just doesn't understand how the government of the United States works. It isn't dictatorship like China where a government can do as it pleases. It isn't a parliamentary democracy where the ruling party governs as it sees fit until elections or a vote of no-confidence. And it isn't like the EU, which is run by unelected bureaucrats who govern by regulation.

In the U.S., the president may negotiate, but it is the Senate which advises and gives its consent to any treaty. 

My take on Bali is that President Bush just threw his hands up and agreed to the global warming remedy in Bali, knowing full well that any treaty that results from there will likely never make it through the Senate intact.

And the rest of the world complains about "stupid" Americans, not knowing how to deal with other cultures.... Wholesale change will not fly in the Senate and the Bali participants should have known that the U.S. system prefers incremental change. 

Author: The Machiavellian
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