Reality Check From Bali

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This Washington Post article conveys in short and sweet style how serious the U.S.’s refusal in Bali to accept emissions caps is.

Europe: frustrated, vowing to boycott Bush’s distracter tactic, the “major economies” meetings he’s hosting on global warming. Brazil—home to the world’s largest intact forest—threatening not to comply with rules that only apply to developing countries.

Most disturbing of all, Americans support carbon emissions caps because they’re the only way of fending off catastrophic climate change.

As Connie Hedegaard, Denmark’s minister for climate and energy, put it, the targets don’t come from “figures taken at random,” she said. Rather, the 25 percent by 2020 “reports very specifically back to what the IPCC tells us.”

Compare the sanity of that remark—we’re doing what the best scientists tell us we have to—to the childish churlishness of this one, made by James L. Connaughton, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, explaining why the U.S. refuses to do the right thing and accept the caps: “We will lead. The U.S. will lead. But leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow.”

Despite Americans’ political will, our government is standing in the way of the best documented solution for the greatest problem the world has ever faced.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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