Obama calls climate change the ‘global threat of our time’ in Berlin address.

President Obama on Wednesday called climate change the “global threat of our time" in a speech in Berlin.

“Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet," he said in a speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. "The effort to slow climate change requires bold action.”

“With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some. For the grim alternative affects all nations — more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert,” Obama said.

“This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work,” he said, according to a White House transcript

Source

So let me get this straight climate change is 'global threat of our time' not global terrorists.

I guess cutting nukes down is part of the green initiative is this guy that delusional or just on a global power trip?

Screwing up this country not good enough let's move on to the entire planet.



Pay attention to the video because that is what is coming on a GLOBAL SCALE.

Yes we can.

reply to post by neo96


Any why does the Tyrant 0bama say these things???? Because he is a Progressive Jackass.

You, and I are not surprised. Anyone that is, is not paying attention.

He should be speaking about the economy also.....If that isn't fixed, he will have a lot more problems with people having no homes nor money that will start riots....

The world is already under too many problems and we aren't doing anything to help a ONE, and he has the nuts to talk about effing climate change??

reply to post by neo96


I heard this the other night... Thanks for posting this for ATS Neo, it's a pleasure like always.

I'm honestly not suprised at anything this man does anymore. A tyrant is meant to act like a tyrant. Tiger's don't change there stripes... At least a wise man once told me that.

Bahaha this is so funny I had to write my laughter.

The current people in power are the greatest current threat in our world weather intentional or based on sheer incompetence.

Global warming is a symptom not a true threat systemic to other root causes that are of much greater threat.

Yes, global climate change is a bigger threat than terrorists, and I'll tell you why...

Terrorism can be cured through taking out the enemy while at the same time fixing the problems in the area that gives terrorists a breeding ground to grow their numbers. Otherwise, doing nothing will achieve the same goal only given a longer timeline, when the people of the region take it upon themselves to hinder and root out terrorists themselves.

Whereas, climate change can only be fixed, over time, when we as a collective humanity change how we use this planet and what gasses we put into the atmosphere, and what chemicals we put in the ground and water. If we don't, we may damage this planet beyond repair, already, global climate change has increased the global temperature. and it is due in a large part to the effect we have on the environment.

Pollution has had, and still has, an effect on the planet. (Air, water, & soil.)
There is no denying that fact.

If we work to reduce pollution in any facet or under any guise, we preserve more of our ability to live on the planet.

Calling it Global warming or Global Climate Change makes no matter. If it forces nations to act responsibly and enforce clean air standards to the level where it has a viable impact; it should be supported.

If you don't understand the need for clean air regulations, look at what happened in China last year. Remember the various comparisons to Blade Runner it provoked? It made China wake up to the fact that they had to change.

Or the heat wave that killed so many people in Russia? Where the Russian government has had to admit there was a problem?

This isn't just an American's only issue, if we do not take better care to protect our clean air, water and food supplies globally, everyone will pay, or their kids will, or their grand kids.

But if you want to live in denial, go ahead.

Pollution damages the Earth's ability to support us.
M.

reply to post by HauntWok

beyond repair, already, global climate change has increased the global temperature. and it is due in a large part to the effect we have on the environment.

Wow soo false, you can almost trick people to think its true.

Did you know a single volcanic eruption spit more green house gases into the atmosphere then the entire human civilization has since he 1800's or the industrial revolution.

Hope has the earth coped with such natural processes for millions of years, god forbid the last couple hundred...

Terrorism can start and perpetuate wars that can end all life on this planet....get your priorities straight buckaroo

Here is Singapore waking up to the fact that air pollutants needs to decrease :
Linky


Get this!

"This is now the worst haze that Singapore has ever faced," Singapore Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan wrote on his Facebook page. "No country or corporation has the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans' health and wellbeing."

Pollution affects the planet.
M.

reply to post by Moshpet


I had no idea that some people love to play necon and police the entire planet.

However don't think government especially this one or any other government has the right to control the air we breathe or the water we drink.

What controlling people not enough?

Originally posted by Moshpet
Here is Singapore waking up to the fact that air pollutants needs to decrease :
Linky


Get this!

"This is now the worst haze that Singapore has ever faced," Singapore Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan wrote on his Facebook page. "No country or corporation has the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans' health and wellbeing."

Pollution affects the planet.
M.

Wow did you even read the article you posted in an attempt to be clever.

Indonesia Forest Fires Worsen

That is a fail sir. I would say forest fire is a natural process. Some politician tried to lump commercial pollution in with it. A common tactic to confuse the easily lead

Originally posted by BaneOfQuo
reply to post by HauntWok

 

beyond repair, already, global climate change has increased the global temperature. and it is due in a large part to the effect we have on the environment.

Wow soo false, you can almost trick people to think its true.

Did you know a single volcanic eruption spit more green house gases into the atmosphere then the entire human civilization has since he 1800's or the industrial revolution.

Hope has the earth coped with such natural processes for millions of years, god forbid the last couple hundred...

Terrorism can start and perpetuate wars that can end all life on this planet....get your priorities straight buckaroo

Oh goody, I can use this bit:

The Earth can handle it's own volcanic emissions, however the problem is that it can't handle both the volcano emissions and the pollution all the countries in the world that stack on top of it. Otherwise we could just merrily pretend pollution has not had an impact.

Take people, pollution, deforestation, water waste and bad farming techniques out of the equation and the Earth will be just fine. However, the planet has to deal with all of those other pesky human created problems on top of what it creates on it's own.

Frankly, we just passed a CO2 milestone, 400 ppm, if we don't reduce it some how, it is only going to keep rising. (Oh yeah, I'm going there.) Just because you exhale CO2, that the plants can clean up, it doesn't mean the CO2 (and it's variants) created via pollution can be cleaned out of the air too. The plants can only clean so much at any given time, any excess still has to be processed somehow. If there is no 'down' cycle to the pollution created, the plants can not 'catch up'.

So how are we supposed to give the planet a chance to 'catch up', if we do not take steps to reduce the load?

Pollution has an affect on the planet.
M.

reply to post by BaneOfQuo

Did you know a single volcanic eruption spit more green house gases into the atmosphere then the entire human civilization has since he 1800's or the industrial revolution.

Oh really?

Gas studies at volcanoes worldwide have helped volcanologists tally up a global volcanic CO2 budget in the same way that nations around the globe have cooperated to determine how much CO2 is released by human activity through the burning of fossil fuels. Our studies show that globally, volcanoes on land and under the sea release a total of about 200 million tonnes of CO2 annually.

This seems like a huge amount of CO2, but a visit to the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) website (cdiac.ornl.gov...) helps anyone armed with a handheld calculator and a high school chemistry text put the volcanic CO2 tally into perspective. Because while 200 million tonnes of CO2 is large, the global fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2003 tipped the scales at 26.8 billion tonnes. Thus, not only does volcanic CO2 not dwarf that of human activity, it actually comprises less than 1 percent of that value.

hvo.wr.usgs.gov...

So, maybe next time, back up your bs with some data that supports it.

Hope has the earth coped with such natural processes for millions of years, god forbid the last couple hundred...

Yes CO2 is a greenhouse gas, but it's not the only one that humans produce in vast quantities.

en.wikipedia.org...

Terrorism can start and perpetuate wars that can end all life on this planet....get your priorities straight buckaroo

As far as terrorism goes, there has always been those looking to "watch the world burn". They come and go, and while they do start wars, they really don't have the ability to end all life on this planet, even if they happen to get ahold of a single nuclear bomb. Yes, they can kill a lot of people, and yes they are a danger, I'm not arguing that, but I think that keeping a planet capable of sustaining life is higher on the list of priorities than people with anger issues who just want to kill other people they have ideological or religious reasons.

Terrorism in some form or another will always exist. It's how we as a society deal with that issue that will increase or decrease that danger.

But keeping a biosphere capable of supporting life is much more important, cause if you don't do that, there won't be anyone around to fight terrorists. (of course, that too will solve the terrorism problem won't it?)

reply to post by BaneOfQuo


Yeah I read the story, did you read the syntax of it?

They admit that pollution has an effect. Even with out the fire, it still has an affect, and they admitted it.

M.

All I have to say is look for my thread on "An Interview With Planet Earth".

I'll actually have a one-on-one with The Planet later this weekend. We'll be discussing politics, environment, and the fact that The Planet had absolutely no idea that we were even on it.

We'll also be discussing rumours that The Planet is actually Kim Kardashians baby's daddy, but I don't want to give too much away right now.

And to stay on topic, Obama? Ignore the crashing economy, high unemployment, rotten foreign policy. Lets focus on the planet!

reply to post by HauntWok


Lol when I get a moment I will link some pertinent studies.

You know Co2 is not the only pollutant that impacts the planet right? and that some have a more rapid effect on certain aspects then others. and that volcanic eruptions spit on other gases that conveniently left out of your study

I wonder if Obama has the guts to bring this up to the two nations that currently pollute the most in the world? I'm betting he doesn't, personally.

Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India. The capacity of the new plants add up to 1,400GW to global greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of adding another China – the world's biggest emitter. India is planning 455 new plants compared to 363 in China, which is seeing a slowdown in its coal investments after a vast building programme in the past decade.

Source

The US industry has almost been broken by the regulations and plants are simply going offline in some cases, rather than take the crippling costs of required upgrades when they need to fix necessary systems. All too often, under current regulation design, a fix can't be made without the whole truck load of "while you're at it" upgrade demands at the same time. It's made ours so clean, you can't even see the exhaust from coal plants. The only emission I ever saw from big plants like the one outside my own town and another outside Winslow, Arizona which I passed twice a week for years, was the steam/condensation when it's extremely cold. That vs.


(Image Source)

Climate change has more to do with that big ball of fire in the sky than anything we're doing, as well as some interesting tectonic and volcanic changes that seem to be afoot in the deep oceans. However, Pollution IS a major problem ... We just aren't the leaders of it, by far. He could do well by asking a few others to tone down their run on new coal plants.

Of course, he'll then be told outright that the US has no right to dictate the ability of other nations to advance through their own Industrial revolution. They even have something of a point, too.

Speaking of China and pollution:

Linky

The [new judicial] interpretation … states that a person can be convicted if he or she causes pollution that seriously injures a person. Previously, an incident would have had to result in a death before a person was convicted. And only one death arising from an incident will be enough to see a sentence increased, rather than three deaths. [Court spokesman Sun Jungong] said the lowering of the threshold for convicting polluters demonstrated authorities’ determination to “fight and deter environmental crimes”. … [T]he interpretation details 14 activities that will be considered “crimes of impairing the protection of the environment and resources”. Dumping radioactive substances into sources of drinking water and nature reserves, and incidents that poison more than 30 people or force more than 5,000 people to be evacuated, will be considered environmental pollution crimes for the first time.

So, you see even China is having a wake up call.

M.

reply to post by BaneOfQuo

You know Co2 is not the only pollutant that impacts the planet right? and that some have a more rapid effect on certain aspects then others. and that volcanic eruptions spit on other gases that conveniently left out of your study.

I wasn't the one that went down the sole Co2 hole. You were, read your own posts for that. But yes, you are correct, they do expel a lot more than just Co2, but still, we as a species produce a lot more and we don't stop, we produce it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year. Every year, decade after decade.

We have an impact on the planet. It's been proven.

world.time.com...

There's no denying it anymore fellas. Really, Obama was born in Hawaii, and Global Climate Change is real.