Anti-US Sentiment Linked to Lack of Leadership

There are warning signs of an imminent meltdown of US leadership at the UN’s Bali conference. A large sign just outside the conference center features Uncle Sam with his famous pointing finger. It challenges passerbys with: “I want YOU (not us) to reduce emissions!” At the conference, the term “first world countries” has now become CODE for the U.S. as in “We need a working group to deal with “first world countries” that have not ratified Kyoto.

And perhaps more ominous…, there is talk of putting a price tag for adaptation in EUROS, not dollars. Why? Because world leadership is now seen as coming from Europe. Then too, Europe has the largest carbon trading exchange in the world, and European countries deal in Euros.

Trading carbon emissions is one of the strategies being discussed in Bali. This allows “first world countries” to enjoy guilt-free carbon emissions because they can buy the carbon credits of third world people (including America’s Native Americans) to offset their consuming habit.

Someone, half seriously, suggested that I check out the Fidelity Trading website to see how this type of guilt-free trading might work. Let’s say you’re a man who wants to cheat on your wife, then you resist the temptation, and instead, sell your denial to someone who does cheat. He can then cheat on his wife “guilt-free” because he has just bought the credit of the non-cheater. Here’s another example. Let’s say you’re a bike rider who bicycles for health and well-being. You do it every day. So you set up a website so that an obese person can avoid exercise by buying credits from you. You stay healthy, he can continue to gain weight, and eat as he pleases.

There is a lot of brain wattage here at the UN’s Climate Change Conference. A person can ask an intelligent question and get a response that gets to the heart of the issue in a heartbeat.

Take the issue of deforestation, for example. I attended a press conference by the World Wildlife Federation where I learned that unless action is taken soon, a vicious feedback loop of climate change and deforestation could wipe out or severely damage nearly 60 per cent of the Amazon forest by 2030.

Cattle are the culprit here. And it’s not just the meat-eating habit of the developed world that is the problem. We could make a commitment to cut our meat consumption in half, however the new threat is: “emerging” meat-eating nations.

Emerging nations like China and India want to eat the way people do in America. That’s the problem. The world expects us to lead by example.

Here’s what I learned: The Amazon forests are being cut to provide forage area for cattle and to grow soybeans for animal feed. A farmer first sells off the logs on his land, then sets fire to it to make it suitable for growing soybeans. Fires spread into the forest and destroy property of other landowners, who then turn to soybeans as a way to assure they will have a “fire proof” way to make a living.

Even worse, smoke rising from the Amazon fires affects rainfall patterns. Rainfall can be delayed for a month or longer, and not just in Brazil. Drought conditions in the U.S. grain belt – in Kansas and Iowa - are also affected by Amazon deforestation. A tree is an oxygen factory. It cleans the air and releases water vapor into the atmosphere. When this cycle is disrupted, or eliminated through deforestation, this loss of moisture is felt locally, and in the heartland of the U.S.

In Bali, IPCC scientists like Daniel Nepstad, Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, and author of the WWF report, are cast in the role of hero. Their cry of alarm, and their call for urgent action, has been heard around the world. These IPCC scientists shared the Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore, and they don’t take this honor lightly. They understand their role is to deliver results.

According to Nepstad, “The public is looking for results. They want deliverables. They’re looking for a Bali Mandate. The science is there. The policy is there. What is missing is the political will. (There’s that “first world” thing again.)

When negotiations begin next week, scientists and environmental experts agree: the public will demand deliverables that can become ratified by 2009. “Next week” is only five days from now, and, there’s a tornado of activity taking place at all levels behind the scenes.