Climate change rift with U.S. raises temperature at G7 meeting

Solar power, geothermal, wind farms, tidal power - more investment needed.

Before Fukushima the Japanese were well ahead in the Kyoto protocol, another green pact to reduce Co2. When Japan shut down their nuclear reactors the smug look was wiped away as they sank back down the rankings due to their reliance on coal and oil burning power plants. So what is it to be green boys? The only way to meet your silly green targets is nuclear. Neither India or China will fall in line and lets not forget the West uses these countries to produce cheap goods to sell at massively inflated profit. If costs rise to meet green targets, fat profits for Western shareholders and pension funds fall.

Since change is the climate's natural state, and the climate has been constantly changing over billions of years, exactly how does one "fight climate change"

Kind of like how death is the natural state of humans, so shooting someone doesn't actually kill them since they were going to die already. How can you fight murder when people are already going to die?

Since change is the climate's natural state, and the climate has been constantly changing over billions of years

The Earth doesn't warm and cool just for a laugh you know. There is always a reason. What's yours? And it warms / cools over thousands of years, not in one lively century. To deny that greenhouse emissions from human activity are a cause of global warming is to deny over a century of basic physics & chemistry knowledge.

Now there may be some other contributory cause that we haven't found yet, but in the meantime we should perhaps consider this vast unsupervised experiment we're doing on the planet. And hey, if an entire scientific branch turns out to be wrong, at least we get cleaner air, water, and a nicer place to live!

Gotta love the sign "all4thegreen". It certainly is about "green", the billions of dollars which were expected from the US support of the Paris agreement, and the $4 trillion annually which it is said will be the cost to fight climate change. But with the US having pulled out of the Paris agreement, at least half of that "green" has disappeared.

The world's corporatists are now in disarray. It appears that they now cannot count on the taxpayers of the world (or at least those in the US) to pad their profits and bottom lines via state subsidies. They have always said that renewable energy and green technology would create billions of dollars in business and countless new jobs. But if this is really true, then they should be falling over each other to invest their own capital in these things rather than depending subsidies to make them workable.

Green technology and renewable energy has made a number of billionaires recently, despite the fact than none of the companies producing these things have earned a penny in profit. All of their billions comes from the pockets of the taxpayers, few of whom even buy their products or services. Worse yet, for all the money spent, there has been no effect.

Since change is the climate's natural state, and the climate has been constantly changing over billions of years, exactly how does one "fight climate change"? It is not about spending money to fight climate change or global warming, but a new method for the powers-that-be to make themselves even richer and more powerful than they were before. Of course they are "All4thegreen," and no matter how much green they get, they will always want more.

Clearly there is great dissent in the scientific community.

To those who continue to push the end times narrative, it's clearly an emotional breakdown.

Questioning the emotional and very sketchy science (think NOAA) has become verboten. One immediately gets called denier, nazi, fascist.....Luddite.

those poor souls who are terrified to ask questions and go against peer pressure make great lemmings today

Douglas Westfall: "China will never meet the Paris Accord requirements. "

Really - evidence?

Article last week says China may be on on course to meet it's Paris Accord targets A DECADE EARLY

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/07/china-and-california-sign-deal-to-work-on-climate-change-without-trump

Pruitt's alreadt left, apparently. Sheer, undisguised contempt.

That photo, tho :D

Pruitt said in March he did not believe carbon dioxide was a primary contributor to global warming,

He is right on this one. The artificially emitted carbon dioxide is nothing compared to carbon dioxide emitted by just one volcanic eruption and over that carbon dioxide is a life sustaining gas, anyone has any idea what will happen if carbon dioxide level were to fall.

Now the primary contributor to global warming is methane and nitrous oxide, these are subtly not mentioned, as a focus on these will directly impact the beef, fracking and GM crop fertilizer lobby.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Americans have usually been the last to grasp a scientific fact

never let the truth get in the way of another xenophobic anti-American hate rant.

i hope that green grass right in front of Yamamoto gives him an idea. Integrating greenery with people's lives is something many Japanese authorities find abhorrent.

A new park has been created in my Tokyo neighborhood and every square inch of the ground is concrete. Previously, it was vacant land with wild grass, but was full fenced off, with signs saying "stay out." That and the other concrete parks in my area that have encroached on greenery add to the heat island effect, adding in turn to climate change, which we all must endure.

I agree with this pretty strongly. Social rules play a big role in the "No greenery where people live" problem in Japan. In North America if you have trees in your yard (or on a public street) nobody really cares where they fall since everybody rakes their own yard in the autumn. In Japan on the other hand if you have property then your neighbors will expect you to not have any trees that will shed leaves into their yards (and likewise they expect this of trees on public streets). Given the small size of yards and close proximity of houses this means that almost nobody has trees in their yards, or if they do they prune them so visciously that they never amount to more than a stunted trunk with a couple of small branches. And the cities and suburbs end up as sweltering asphalt islands with no shade in the summer.

When I moved into my house with a yard like a good Canadian my first priority was to plant trees for shade. But I was dissuaded by my Japanese spouse from planting them anywhere near the property line with the neighbors to avoid complaints even though this would have been the best place to put them. So our trees are clustered in the part of the yard furthest from the nieghbors and are smaller types than I would have preferred (and our neighborhood is thus deprived of the shade and general nice-ness of the trees I had planned). Since everyone in this country is operating under similar social constraints, its no wonder there isn't any green shade.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. Americans have usually been the last to grasp a scientific fact. For years their geologists refused to accept plate tectonics. They banned the widespread use of lead years after the rest of the world realized how harmful it was. If it's inconvenient, the blinkers go on and stay on for a generation or so.

Well at least the Donald has the backbone to call out Climate Change as the rort it is, remember when they used to call it Global Warming when that don't turn out as fact the name was changed to Climate Change - China has no hope it making any of the so called targets set in Paris, India is building some massive coal fired power stations - just a wealth transfer scheme taking from the average person in Western Countries including modern Asia Countries such as Japan.

Yamamoto believes the U.S. could still be persuaded to fall back into line with the international consensus.

"So far there's only been an announcement that the U.S. is withdrawing, it has not yet materialised. So we're going to keep trying to persuade them," he said.

Hmm. Could boycott US product, I suppose. Difficult but not impossible.

The deniers can carry on laughing in the meantime. Einstein's relativity theory was also derided at the time. His peers saw it as a personal attack on them and openly scoffed at his work because it didn't confirm their own beliefs.

@jcjapan "I don't know how people in Osaka or Tokyo manage"

i think they just replace greenery with neon lights.

" Alphaape Today 08:22 am JST

My point is, there is a natural ebb/flow of ice in both polar regions and it has been occurring well before the industrial revolution. Unless the Vikings were being sarcastic when they chose to name Greenland that since at that time the land was pretty green and not as icy."

icy.http://e360.yale.edu/features/cargo_shipping_in_the_arctic_declining_sea_ice

There are a few theories as to the origin of the name "Greenland", from Eric the Red misleading others to sail there, to a translation error. The word “grunt” actually means ground and it could be that Greenland was meant to be named Gruntland (or ground land). The idea that Greenland was all green back then and all ice now is but one of several unproven speculations.

Will China meet the Paris Accord requirements?

No, not even close. 

China takes twice as much oil to make the same product, has double the US emissions level, and has a GDP to Emissions ratio of 95. The US is but 28. Japan is 27, India is 109, Russia is 133 -- The world average is 40. China will never meet the Paris Accord requirements. Talk is cheap -- and China is the worst polluter in the world.

The reason the GDP to Emissions ratio is important is that in a technological economy, three things happen:

1) Technological manufacturing and sourcing materials, create more emissions than do people:

  Energy is 26%, Industry 20%, Forestry 17%, Agriculture 14%, Transportation 13%, Structures are 8% and Waste is 2%.

2) The Technological Revolution in any given country (except China) creates a massive middle class. They then can afford the materials made by technology -- including those items that produce more pollution: automobiles, homes, travel; and of course produce more waste. Still, technology creates the greatest emissions in the first place, but creates a greater economy.

3) An economy then grows by three elements: Technology, a Middle Class, and Population Growth. With a growing population, comes a growing economy. Such that pollution emissions increase with a growing economy or GDP, measuring the GDP to Emissions ratio -- shows the efficiency of the country.

China being the worst polluter in the world, has a GDP to Emissions ratio of more than double the world average, and without a middle class -- shows that their emissions come from technology -- which is sent to other countries. Seven of ten Chevy's are built in China...

China will never meet the Paris Accord requirements.

Best Always, Douglas Westfall, National Historian

Putting less pollution in the air is a good thing, but forcing wealthy countries to pay for poor countries to develop, when they should be doing that by themselves is something different.

yup. Funny how these so called social justice warriors are asking the 1st world to kick away the ladder, leaving the developing world behind in even starker poverty.

Meanwhile, the MSM isn't reporting a very interesting fact. In the past 12 months alone a total of 58 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published calling man-made global warming a hoax.

Totally agree with Jeff. If the event were held in Japan they'd have used artificial turf. I think cities use concrete or paving stones b/c they don't want to allot any budget for upkeep. As if a team of guys with weedwackers or lawnmowers would break the bank. City parks, national universities, public spaces here usually look terribly neglected. I live in Kobe so I'm lucky, you can walk into the mountains from anywhere in the city, and that shroud of greenery is a blessing given the unrelenting brutality of urban Japan. Kyoto is another exception. I don't know how people in Osaka or Tokyo manage. Any measurement of quality of life that discounts the vital importance of green space is worthless.

Kobe just recently redid Meriken Park for the port's 150th anniversary. This is a pretty large area if you've never seen it. It's also where the city has it's earthquake memorial, which is pathetic and went unchanged. From the moment I saw plans for the new park, I knew it was hopeless. A absolute ton of new paving stones and concrete, some pretty flower beds, but no more trees or grass than was previously in place. As before, good luck finding shade. What's new, however--a large new Starbucks seen from every direction, occupying a large part of a public park.

Why doesn't our genius in chief call his buddy Vladimir and ask him? Russia is opening new sea passages around the arctic circle and building a fleet of the world's biggest icebeakers.

There is a picture of a US Nuclear sub surfacing at the Artic Circle taken back in the late 1950's/early 1960's showing it coming up and pretty much surrounded by water and not much ice.  A decade later, another sub was in the same location and it had to break through ice.  My point is, there is a natural ebb/flow of ice in both polar regions and it has been occurring well before the industrial revolution.  Unless the Vikings were being sarcastic when they chose to name Greenland that since at that time the land was pretty green and not as icy.

Putting less pollution in the air is a good thing, but forcing wealthy countries to pay for poor countries to develop, when they should be doing that by themselves is something different.

i hope that green grass right in front of Yamamoto gives him an idea. Integrating greenery with people's lives is something many Japanese authorities find abhorrent.

A new park has been created in my Tokyo neighborhood and every square inch of the ground is concrete. Previously, it was vacant land with wild grass, but was full fenced off, with signs saying "stay out." That and the other concrete parks in my area that have encroached on greenery add to the heat island effect, adding in turn to climate change, which we all must endure.

"Trump, who has called climate change a hoax,"

Why doesn't our genius in chief call his buddy Vladimir and ask him? Russia is opening new sea passages around the arctic circle and building a fleet of the world's biggest icebeakers.

Blowing one of the myriad volcanoes around the world to block out sunlight is well within our ability- the cure for global warming, perceived or imaginary is right here, now!

If the rest of the world actually gave a, what's that word, they'd impose sanctions on the US. But then there are plenty of folks who think that chubby tool in NK is a greater threat to the planet than burning coal and driving a sherman tank to their mcmansions...

MAKE THE PLANET GREAT AGAIN!

Recycle Trump, Putin and the world's oil-igarchs!