G-8 leaders only pledge to halve emissions by 2050

It's not even just greed... it's worse... it's about power and control... Just like Rape though and murder.

I don't know how we can fix this or even start to repair this travesty. Green energy is coming along so slowly. Why can't the big guys understand the big picture. I was taught to leave this earth a better place than you found it in everything you do. And these guys just want to rape it and destroy it. And make a profit from it.

Paul_Flynn: The caps are my way of emphasizing my frustration with government... I wasn't yelling at you. And thanks.

This initiative to create green and clean energy is moving along too slow. The government reaction is too slow, the local movement in Saint Louis is too slow.

By 2050, the Earth could be severly and irreversibly changed if trends are allowed to continue. We need to break our dependency on oil-based products and services TODAY. Not 2050, not 2025, not 2010 or tommorow. Everything we need to implement cleaner and greener energy is available right now. Why aren't we using it right now?

And I actually love your posts by the way

No need for the CAPS Jan - I wasn't disagreeing with you although I can't really decipher the expression in your last sentence to understand what it is you're saying now.

I didn't say people aren't already getting involved in NGOs - I worked for one myself for years. I was making the point that it's one of the failings of contemporary democracy that most politicians keep one eye on the polls in every decision they make - they justify it to themselves by thinking it better to exercise compromised power than not be in power at all. Unless the masses can be persuaded about pressing environmental issues (and I think they are, albeit slowly), politicians will always use the types of excuses that have kept Bush cronies in power in your country for eight years - the misleading soundbites about the causes of working class pain - 'people hurting over oil prices' blah blah blah.

Once again,too few,too little,too late....too bad.

And what happens when you are involved to the point that it is all you talk about, and you sign petitions in the thousands, call your representatives until they know you by voice, and do all in your power to wake these politicians up only to once again be ignored? It isn't as if they do not know what is happening. It isn't as if people are not doing as you stated. I have been doing so for YEARS and STILL these leaders IGNORE the people and the scientific facts staring them in their faces. So the answer to that as I stated above is THEY DON'T CARE. It is simple as that which is why this is such a disgrace.

And as far as "polls" go they are useless to me and only used as propaganda to manipulate the actions of politicians as if they can be validated for not doing the moral thing because they can fall back on some BS poll that stated people weren't interested in this. It's time to go around them and over them in that case.

This is an example of why Bush and his cohorts should have been impeached, but the corrupt politicians in this country who are either too complacent or afraid or corrupted to do the right thing have only allowed this country and planet to slip further down because of it. I once believed that people prodding politicians would get them to move... I now believe that politicians will do whatever the hell they want regardless of what we think, because if it were otherwise we would be doing something about this in Congress NOW instead of this crisis once again being reduced to a partisan political issue that is getting nowhere.

You cannot solve a moral crisis from a political pulpit. If we the people do not rise up to do it ourselves they will continue to do as they wish, as even now in Congress to say federal laws will usurp state laws on climate change as they seek to undo all the progress states have made on it. So in that case we are simply f****ed if we continue to believe they care about us or this and wait for THEM to do something.

Where is the outrage here?

The politicians are acting cautiously on the basis of polls that suggest people are more concerned about jobs and the economy than the environment - no one is prepared to stick their neck out. We can all do something by becoming active in NGOs that disseminate information about the effects of climate change. The more people get agitated, the more the politicians understand their jobs depend on quick action, the more they will be forced to listen.

This is too little too late.

That's a "joke" of course! The motto should be:

"We need to do now, Tomorrow will be too late!"

I want to remain optimistic too... and I am regarding people, not government. Government to me is a waste regarding this and so much more.

I watched a video on Veoh a couple of nights ago, it was called We Feed The World, it was recommended here on Current.com. The documentary is shot in France, Spain, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil and back to Austria to talk to farmers, fisherman, and poor family members.

In one segment it showed a young family who lived in a dirt floor shack, and the mother was saying how fortunate she was that someone let her family borrow a goat, and that the goat milk is the children's food. None of you are surprised, I sure. My Point? Life in the modern countries for the most part is far cry from that style, dirt pies for food, dirt floors, no running water, no electricity, etc.

Yet the wealthy G8 cannot figure out how to cut emissions?

Yet my family, your family, many families will be fed, sheltered, air conditioned, and drive to our destination this evening.

Somewhere in this confused world we must decide who is going to lead us, and demand REAL change.

I will say, the smaller our footprints, the less we need that stuff. (that ends up emissions)

I listened to Ralph Nader speak to a group at Princeton. He says that we have solutions on the shelf that can solve issues such as this, and that in spite of all he sees wrong he remains optimistic. I want to be optimistic...

sorry for the ramble :(

WTF? BY 2050???????? THAT IS WAY TO LONG FOR THE ALREADY PROBLEMS WE HAVE NOW WE ARE A LONG WAY FROM 2050 WE SHOULD ALREADY CUTE EMMISIONS BY HALF IN THE YEAR 2020 OR SOMETHING SERIOUSLY???

Unacceptable! We have to do more if we want to continue living on this planet.

This is terrible

yeah this is a better article description push JanforGore up and mine down : P

Absolutely, Ken1138. All we have is US. In the past that has been what has always brought great change to this world and especially to this country... The strength of the people united for a common noble cause. American farmers stood up to an empire to birth America. I surely hope we do not shirk our duty now to save our species.We need that spirit now.

I agree that there must be a more involved agenda here than meets the eye. The degree to which the major industrialized and emerging nations have politicized this crisis, equivocated on the science, and offered ineffectual half-measures goes beyond the greed, ambition, ignorance and fear which typically prevents political and economic leaders from acting in the common interest. I get the sense that there is a deliberate effort to mischaracterize the urgency and degree of action necessary, and I can only think that a certain measure of catastrophic global warming has been factored in as advantageous to specific broader long-term plans. Also, I wouldn't look to groups like the G8, the IMF, the WTO or the World Bank to be strident crusaders for progressive environmental policy, comprised as they are of wealthy, powerful individuals who will be completely unaffected by the coming catastrophe, and whose corporate interests may in fact profit from the aftermath and recovery.

I wonder how much big oil paid out for that weak assed response...

bravo an awakened man