A Little Something About St. Greta

The European Union announced a few months ago that it looks like the EU will not meet its aim of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The European Environmental Agency reports that it now appears that the EU will be reducing its emissions by only 30% (compared to 1990 levels) versus the targeted objective of 40%. 

According to an Associated Press story published at that time, the bad news just keeps coming – the stated goal of eliminating ALL emissions by 2050 is also in jeopardy. 

The report was released as 200 countries gathered in Madrid for a United Nations climate conference. The conference was previously scheduled to be held in Santiago, Chile. However, the Chilean president cancelled the conference in late October last year due to massive civil unrest in the capital city sparked by public transit fare hikes (well, at least they don’t have oversized rats dragging pizza slices up the subway station stairs like in New York).

Of course, climate activists were not happy. A large protest was held in Madrid. Organizers predicted/anticipated/hoped/ oh, please God, let it happen, that over 100,000 would participate. Even the now famous teenage activist and international scold Greta Thunberg participated. One news report said the protest organizers claimed that 500,000 people attended the Madrid protest (there were similar protests in other cities). That same report said the police announced the protest population as 15,000.

Go figure.

There were small protests that occurred in Madrid prior to the conference. 40 activists from Extinction Rebellion, the climate activist group noted for its calm, serene and measured actions, stormed a fashion store in an upscale shopping district and, get this, glued their hands to the store windows. 

Wow. I don’t know what to say other than thankfully, no mannequins were harmed during the demonstration.

But leave it to me to find a ray of sunshine in the face of such doom and gloom. The AP story on the EU announcement cites another report recently published by the Global Carbon Project, a group of international scientists who track global emissions. That study stated that while global emissions continue to rise, they are rising much more slowly. And, get this, the European Union and the United States saw emissions go down 1.7 % from 2018 to 2019. Compare that to China and India, which experienced increased emissions of 2.6% and 1.8%, respectively, according to the same report.

Imagine that. Carbon emissions produced by the United States decreasing, even after that bad man with the orange hair who somehow is still in the White House announced America’s intent to withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.  

And is it any surprise that China and India, which in many ways are now in the midst of their own industrial revolutions, like the ones the United States and western Europe went through from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s, continue to spew greenhouse gases. 

And isn’t it wonderful that California banned plastic straws. But I digress. 

So, let me ask you folks – why hasn’t Extinction Rebellion staged demonstrations in Beijing? When is precious Greta going to sail to Hong Kong and then the mainland to protest China’s carbon emissions?

But we already know the answers, don’t we?

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Thanks for stopping by. Plenty more to come