July 20, 2011
Graph of the Day: Countries’ Actions and Commitments on Climate Change
The Smith School at Oxford has rated each country’s actions and commitments on climate change. Dark green is ‘Very good’, dark orange is ‘Very poor’, and gray is ‘Not participating in the UNFCCC process’. Update: Thanks to a reader we have the source document from the Smith School: International climate change negotiations: Key lessons and next steps [pdf].
It will take more F5 tornadoes, more collapsing fisheries, more blistering 'heat waves', more gigantic fires, more devastating droughts, more huge sandstorms, and more massive floods for the idiots that run this country to finally admit that catastrophic climate change is here to stay.
And THEN we get to deal with the corrupt corporate stranglehold on our government, even after we FINALLY get a few in Congress and the Senate to wake the hell up.
But not before thousand more will die in the United States as a DIRECT result of climate change.
It is rather unbelievable at how reticent American policy makers are to admit what is now utterly obvious to even the most obtuse observer.
Americans trail the ENTIRE WORLD in admitting to reality is also unbelievable, and in no small part due to the insane levels of brainwashing and media control taking place here.
We're in very, very serious trouble now, and not just because we are the worst nation in the world to wake the hell up, but because we are now experiencing devastating effects as a DIRECT result of our entrenched denials.
We will soon see entire cities engulfed in flames, unable to combat the fires that surround them in the countryside.
We'll see food prices jump up 10,000% as entire crops fail for lack of water (or too much water).
We'll see millions more businesses go under as American suffer more and more due to climate change effects.
We'll see more towns and villages wiped off the map due to floods. We'll see catastrophic ice storms blanket entire regions, bringing the entire region to an icy, frozen standstill. And we'll see more deniers scream loudly that none of this is our fault.
We've reached the point where it is a criminal act against humanity and all future generations to keep refuting the science and the facts, or to stall any meaningful action on climate change.
The lag time of what we experience and when its human-cause took place is as much as DECADES. This means that we ain't seen nothing yet, it is going to get SIGNIFICANTLY WORSE then it already is.
Science is now keenly aware the minute changes have long-term and huge effects on what we can experience with climate. This is a critical and essential message that needs to be pounded home into every numbskull idiot our there.
I predict that these days will soon be the "good old days" when we only experienced 116 degrees heat index. Scientific predictions indicate we will see 130 and 140 heat index days within 10 years.
Know that this means most life forms, plant, animal, human, marine will then be dead.
And we're still 'debating' this topic as if we have any time left at all.
Because of this fact, and our last-place position on making any effort to change, and our first-place finish in the world on contributing to climate change, the United States is already doomed in ways which will boggle the mind of even the most pessimistic doomer.
Do you have a link to the original publication? It would be interesting to see what their criteria are, since such a univocal metric is sure is to ruffle a few feathers.
Such criteria might be able to explain the biggest puzzle from my perspective: Indonesia being rated "very good" given the extent of il/legal logging going on.
Byron, I poked around the Smith School site but didn't find the source for this graph. I was amused to see China in the "Good" category, given its voracious appetite for coal.
Yes, same – I couldn't find it.
I enjoy a good US-kicking as much as the next person, but it has to be credible.
For those who couldn't find the graph on the Smith School site :
http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Climate-Negotiations-report_Final.pdf
Thanks to Tim Lambert who helped me.
Great find, thanks for posting!
Thanks! Here is the description of the key criteria:
"Figure 1 – A map of countries of the world rated in terms of national actions and commitments on climate change. Annex I countries are rated based on submissions pertinent to the Cancun Agreements. ‘Very good’: meet IPCC recommendations, Annex I: 25 – 40% reduction by 2020, Non-Annex I: submitted NAMA, 15-30% below BAU by 2020, or vocal in pressing for action."