Posted on 04/05/2009 5:39:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PRAGUE (AFP) – President Barack Obama said Sunday the United States was ready to take the lead in tackling climate change, as EU leaders pushed him to follow their ambitious targets to combat global warming.
"To protect our planet, now is the time to change the way that we use energy," Obama told a crowd gathered at Prague Castle for his only public speech during his maiden tour of Europe.
"Together we must confront climate change by ending the world's dependency on fossil fuels by tapping the power from the sources of energy like the wind and the sun and calling upon all nations to do their part.
"And I pledge to you that in this global effort the US is now ready to lead."
Obama's promise of a leading US role on climate change broke with his predecessor George W. Bush's stance, which had long frustrated Washington's European Union partners.
He was speaking ahead of his first EU-US summit, with European leaders eager for signs Washington is finally willing to commit to major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
European leaders were often exasperated by his predecessor's failure to commit the United States to climate change targets, especially because Europe has set itself ambitious goals.
Their frustration has been compounded by the fact that the United States is the world's biggest polluter, leaving the impression in Europe that EU countries are doing all the heavy-lifting in the fight against climate change.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
US President Barack Obama delivers a speech at Hradcany Square near Prague Castle in Prague. Obama said Sunday the United States was ready to take the lead in tackling climate change, as EU leaders pushed him to follow their ambitious targets to combat global warming. (AFP)
Interesting photograph!
He looks like a gargoyle!
So let me see, he promises to “lead” by following Europe down a path to disaster. All he’s saying is that he will try to get the US to fall in line.
Leadership we better not believe in.
We will all sleep better tonight.
That would be one of the final nails in the coffin of the US market.
There’s nothing wrong with fossil fuels. Unfortunately, Obama really believes this stuff.
hope and change and change and hope
LOL LOL LOL
Exactly right.....final nails in the coffin...
U.S. President Barack Obama attends a welcome ceremony with Czech President Vaclav Klaus (not pictured) on April 5, 2009 at Prague Castle in the Czech capital. REUTERS/Michal Cizek/Pool (CZECH REPUBLIC POLITICS)
Signed:
G-d.
5.56mm
It's back to horse drawn conveyances and sail.
If he’d just shut up for a couple of days that would reduce the hot air quite a bit.
‘twon’t happen.
The MINUTE this doofus is back on American soil proposing this and that, the ‘Free Market Sphincter’ will contract once again, making we contrarian investors rich, rich, RICH!
I DO so wish the price wasn’t the ruination of America, though. :(
Their collective jaws must be dropping as they see the destruction that they so longed to do being done by the so called Leader of the free world!
I am absolutely sure that they see a vast vacuum of leadership and an opportunity arising out of this.
There is no longer a leader of the free world.
Before I call Obama a “F”...ing idiot, I would like for him to know and understand that CHINA uses almost 300% more energy per unit of GDP than the US.
The US is ranked 12th (not that great but CHINA is ranked 81st!)
2007/2008 Human Development Report
22Energy and the environment
GDP per unit of energy use (2000 PPP US$ per kg of oil equivalent) Export results to Excel
http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/212.html
HDI Rank Country 2004
1 Iceland 2.5
2 Norway 5.9
3 Australia 4.8
4 Canada 3.4
5 Ireland 9.5
6 Sweden 4.5
7 Switzerland 8.3
8 Japan 6.4
9 Netherlands 5.8
10 France 5.9
11 Finland 3.8
12 United States 4.6
13 Spain 6.9
14 Denmark 7.9
15 Austria 7.3
16 United Kingdom 7.3
17 Belgium 5.2
18 Luxembourg 6.1
19 New Zealand 5.1
20 Italy 8.2
21 Hong Kong, China (SAR) 11.5
22 Germany 6.2
23 Israel 7.3
24 Greece 7.4
25 Singapore 4.4
26 Korea (Republic of) 4.2
27 Slovenia 5.4
28 Cyprus 5.9
29 Portugal 7.1
30 Brunei Darussalam ..
31 Barbados ..
32 Czech Republic 4.0
33 Kuwait 1.9
34 Malta 7.5
35 Qatar ..
36 Hungary 5.9
37 Poland 5.1
38 Argentina 7.4
39 United Arab Emirates 2.2
40 Chile 6.1
41 Bahrain 1.8
42 Slovakia 3.9
43 Lithuania 4.5
44 Estonia 3.5
45 Latvia 5.6
46 Uruguay 10.4
47 Croatia 5.6
48 Costa Rica 10.0
49 Bahamas ..
50 Seychelles ..
51 Cuba ..
52 Mexico 5.5
53 Bulgaria 3.0
54 Saint Kitts and Nevis ..
55 Tonga ..
56 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ..
57 Antigua and Barbuda ..
58 Oman 3.0
59 Trinidad and Tobago 1.3
60 Romania 4.5
61 Saudi Arabia 2.0
62 Panama 8.4
63 Malaysia 4.1
64 Belarus 2.4
65 Mauritius ..
66 Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.3
67 Russian Federation 2.0
68 Albania 5.9
69 Macedonia (TFYR) 4.6
70 Brazil 6.8
71 Dominica ..
72 Saint Lucia ..
73 Kazakhstan 1.9
74 Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) 2.6
75 Colombia 10.9
76 Ukraine 2.0
77 Samoa ..
78 Thailand 4.9
79 Dominican Republic 7.6
80 Belize ..
81 China 4.4
82 Grenada ..
83 Armenia 5.6
84 Turkey 6.2
85 Suriname ..
86 Jordan 3.6
87 Peru 10.9
88 Lebanon 3.5
89 Ecuador 4.8
90 Philippines 7.9
91 Tunisia 8.2
92 Fiji ..
93 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines ..
94 Iran (Islamic Republic of) 3.1
95 Paraguay 6.4
96 Georgia 4.1
97 Guyana ..
98 Azerbaijan 2.5
99 Sri Lanka 8.3
100 Maldives ..
101 Jamaica 2.5
102 Cape Verde ..
103 El Salvador 7.0
104 Algeria 6.0
105 Viet Nam 4.2
106 Occupied Palestinian Territories ..
107 Indonesia 4.1
108 Syrian Arab Republic 3.4
109 Turkmenistan 1.3 1
110 Nicaragua 5.2
111 Moldova 2.0
112 Egypt 4.9
113 Uzbekistan 0.8
114 Mongolia ..
115 Honduras 4.8
116 Kyrgyzstan 3.3
117 Bolivia 4.5
118 Guatemala 6.4
119 Gabon 4.9
120 Vanuatu ..
121 South Africa 3.7
122 Tajikistan 2.1
123 Sao Tome and Principe ..
124 Botswana 8.6
125 Namibia 10.2
126 Morocco 10.3
127 Equatorial Guinea ..
128 India 5.5
129 Solomon Islands ..
130 Lao People’s Democratic Republic ..
131 Cambodia ..
132 Myanmar ..
133 Bhutan ..
134 Comoros ..
135 Ghana 5.4
136 Pakistan 4.2
137 Mauritania ..
138 Lesotho ..
139 Congo 3.3
140 Bangladesh 10.5
141 Swaziland ..
142 Nepal 4.0
143 Madagascar ..
144 Cameroon 4.5
145 Papua New Guinea ..
146 Haiti 6.2
147 Sudan 3.7
148 Kenya 2.1
149 Djibouti ..
150 Timor-Leste ..
151 Zimbabwe 2.6
152 Togo 3.1
153 Yemen 2.8
154 Uganda ..
155 Gambia ..
156 Senegal 6.5
157 Eritrea ..
158 Nigeria 1.4
159 Tanzania (United Republic of) 1.3
160 Guinea ..
161 Rwanda ..
162 Angola 3.3
163 Benin 3.3
164 Malawi ..
165 Zambia 1.5
166 Côte d’Ivoire 3.7
167 Burundi ..
168 Congo (Democratic Republic of the) 2.2
169 Ethiopia 2.8
170 Chad ..
171 Central African Republic ..
172 Mozambique 2.6
173 Mali ..
174 Niger ..
175 Guinea-Bissau ..
176 Burkina Faso ..
177 Sierra Leone ..
I hope not, Eric. It’s sheer madness.
All of these people pushing this know that humans can’t control the climate and that it’s nothing more than a control and taxing mechanism. But the numbers of those who want that kind of power is very large.
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