UK Urges US Climate Cooperation (Pause NOW For Hysterical Laughter)

AHHAHHAHHAHHAHH!!!!

Sheesh, sorry, where was I . . . Oh, yeah!

"Foreign Secretary Jack Straw reiterated that Britain reckoned that global climate change, largely blamed on emissions from burning oil, gas and coal, was "the most important long-term issue which we face as a global community". I know that Europe and the U.S. have not taken identical approaches to this challenge," he said in a speech at Howard University in Washington on Thursday night.

"But, as a friend of the United States, I hope you will allow me to argue that urgent international action is needed. It is critically important that we address the issue of climate change now, and together," he said.

EDIT

Straw noted that the 10 hottest years on record were all since 1990. A barrier in the Thames River near London had to be raised six or seven times a year, double the rate in the 1980s, to avert flooding that could cause $60 billion (34 billion pounds) in damage. In the United States, he said that increases in droughts, fires and storms were already showing the effects of climate change.

Bush has stressed energy efficiency (sic) rather than Kyoto's emissions curbs."

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/25116/story.htm

Now we're not even in the general vicinity.



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President Bush, whose environmental stances came under attack within weeks of taking office, hailed the treaty as a major breakthrough in a pre-Earth Day speech in April 2001. A month later, the United States and 90 other countries signed the treaty, which Clinton Administration officials had negotiated.



Global Treaty Takes Effect Without U.S.


By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

May 17, 2004, 4:44 PM EDT


WASHINGTON -- A global treaty phasing out a dozen highly toxic chemicals took effect Monday without the United States, though the Bush administration promised to abide by it.

The Senate has yet to ratify the treaty, and Congress hasn't passed legislation to carry it out because of a disagreement over whether to add more toxic chemicals to the ban later. Nevertheless, the United States will comply with it "wherever we have the current legal authority," said Claudia McMurray, deputy assistant secretary of state for environment.


The United Nations-sponsored Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPs, aims to ban or severely restrict 12 chemicals commonly known as the "dirty dozen." Among them are dioxins and DDT, a pesticide.

"We're glad that the agreement has come into force, and there's still strong support from the president on down for the United States becoming a party to it," McMurray said.



more....

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-toxic-chemicals,0,3545190.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines