Crazy Monkey to G8: ''Goodbye from the world's largest polluter.''

Bush to partners: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'

It was his final summit with the Group of 8, the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia as well as the United States. President Bush, the most senior member of the group, was attending his eighth summit, and for years he withstood pressure to take a firmer stand against global warming.

It was the topic on the minds of summit partners and demonstrators.

His final words to the likes of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

That was the report from the British press, citing "senior sources" who said Bush made the private joke as he was about to leave Japan on Wednesday.

It stunned his partners, according to the Telegraph, which said:

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/2008/07/it-was-his-fina.html

On the very real possibility of Transformational Change

by Marjorie Kelly

Foreboding is in the cultural wind these days. Leonardo DiCaprio tells us the ecological crisis has brought humanity to The 11th Hour, esteemed biologist E.O. Wilson issues An Appeal to Save Life on Earth in the subtitle to his book The Creation, while Cormac McCarthy garners a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Road, depicting the chilling specter of life after a nuclear war, where a father and his emaciated son fight off cannibals as they make their way across a charred landscape. Meanwhile, Christians by the millions read about coming end times in the Left Behind series. And on “Coast to Coast AM”—the most popular nighttime radio program, carried by 500 stations and the XM Satellite Radio network—an increasing amount of programming is devoted to the signs and wonders (UFO sightings, disappearing honeybees) thought to foreshadow the end of civilization in 2012, prophesied by the ancient Mayan calendar.

Many have lost hope. I had a long talk about this recently with my twenty-nine-year-old nephew, Dimitri, a Ph.D. student in political science. Like others, he holds the deep conviction that damage to the biosphere is irreversible, that there is no chance of turning aside from catastrophe. In his future work, he told me, “I’m going to document the demise of our civilization.” There was no humor in his voice when he said this, as we huddled together over coffee at a gathering for a family wedding, his wife Cody beside him, seven months pregnant.

“When were you born?” I asked him. “1979,” he said.

It struck me that Dimitri had grown up in the era of 1984—the title of George Orwell’s dystopian novel—for he had come to adulthood in a political milieu defined by doublespeak: where politicians talk about clear skies and compassionate conservatism, while increasing pollution of the skies and removing any trace of compassion from government policies. From the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 until now, Dimitri’s world has been shaped by a virtually unbroken conservative hegemony. He has never known any other culture.

It has been an era of deep denial about global warming, the end of the petroleum age, and growing wealth inequalities—an era, not incidentally, when former oil men have occupied the White House. As their time draws to a close, the shield of cultural denial they’ve held in place is beginning to crack, as the reality of our ecological dilemma penetrates.

Something is dying. We sense this: it is in the looming feeling of foreboding. But many do not yet accept the possibility that something is also being born.

Make no mistake about it: trouble lies ahead—likely big trouble, in the form of rising seas, unprecedented species extinction, a painful withdrawal from increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuels, a greater frequency of droughts and hurricanes, and perhaps a prolonged economic downturn as icing on the calamitous cake. We’re not getting off scot-free here. We’re like a nation of alcoholics, gambling addicts, and compulsive over-eaters, confronting the need to give up excessive consumerism, casino-like financial returns, and gluttonous fossil fuel use. We may have to bottom out before we sober up. Change tends to happen only when things go terribly wrong.

Things do seem to be careening in that direction. Experts predict that oil production will hit a ceiling by 2012 (did someone tell the Mayans?), and not long after begin a decline. Yet an energy-hungry world population is projected to grow by an astronomical 50%—from six billion to nine billion—by mid-century. That may sound remote in time, but it’s within the lifespan of most of those reading this article. In the same time frame, economic activity is projected to quadruple. Now, let that sink in. Imagine the current world economy—already in ecological overshoot—multiplied by four. Now picture the impact on the biosphere. Things are going to get worse before they get better.

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http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0807/frontpage/real

World leaders Bush and Brown fumble over their 'homeboy handshake'

By David Wilkes
Last updated at 7:12 PM on 16th June 2008

He was, until his elevation to Prime Minister anyway, regarded as a steady pair of hands in politics.

But faced with an American-style 'homeboy handshake' from George Bush today, Gordon Brown appeared to be losing his grip.

The US President employed the friendly, thumb-grasping manoeuvre rather than the simple straight-up-and-down pump favoured by most politicians on formal occasions.

'Yo Brown!' As they misread each other's welcoming handshakes, Gordon Brown and George W Bush end up holding hands

From the open-mouthed expression on his face, Mr Brown was somewhat taken by surprise by Mr Bush's use of the 'down on the street' greeting more commonly associated with American rappers and sports stars.

And, clearly, he did not know how to reciprocate the President's flashy flesh-pressing, resulting in what looks like a dreadfully 'wet fish' handshake from the PM.

Failing to grasp how to perform the 'homeboy', three of his fingers even slipped up inside the sleeve of Mr Bush's jacket.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1026901/World-leaders-Bush-Brown-fumble-homeboy-handshake.html

Harper adds it up: developing countries must shoulder more carbon cuts

Last Updated: Wednesday, July 9, 2008
CBC News

As the Group of Eight summit wrapped up in northern Japan on Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said it's a "mathematical certainty" that developing countries will do the brunt of the work in lowering global greenhouse gas emissions.

His comments to reporters in the resort town of Toyako came as several developing countries reportedly balked at climate change targets proposed by the G8 countries the previous day.

The major industrial countries represented by the G8 set a goal Tuesday to halve emissions that contribute to global warming by 2050, though no international baseline year was set and the plan lacked midterm goals.

Harper said that by 2050, developed nations will likely account for no more than 20 per cent of global carbon emissions.

"So, when we say we need participation by developing countries, this is not a philosophical position. This is a mathematical certainty," he told Canadian reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

"You can't get a 50 per cent cut from 20 per cent of emissions."

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http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/09/g8-summit.html?ref=rss

Bush isn't a Moron,
He's a Cunning Sociopath

By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher

December 5, 2002 — If any of us are to have a future worth having, the world's leaders, the members of Congress, the US corporate media and people of all political persuasions who value freedom and democracy had better start seeing George W. Bush for what he is: a sociopath and a passive serial killer.

Psychiatrists tell us that all serial killers lack the emotions that make us human; that they have to learn to emulate those emotions in order to get by in society. Hence, a charming, well educated fellow like Ted Bundy who is known to have murdered 15 women and may have killed 36 before he was caught.

While Bush is no Bundy, when it comes Bundy's education and acquired charm, and to our knowledge has never personally murdered anyone, it has been evident to us that there is something missing in George W. in terms of his lack of compassion and empathy. As governor of Texas, he set a record in signing death warrants — 154 in five years. He even made fun of the way convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker begged for her life.

If we believe the psychiatrists, a sign of a future serial killer is a child who delights in torturing and killing animals. George W., as a child, did exactly that. In a May 21, 2000, New York Times' puff piece about the values Bush gained growing up in Midland, Texas, Nicholas D. Kristof quoted Bush's childhood friend Terry Throckmorton: "'We were terrible to animals,' recalled Mr. Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush home turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. 'Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,' Mr. Throckmorton said. 'Or we'd put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.'"

On Sept. 12, 2000, Baltimore Sun reporter Miriam Miedzian wrote, "So when he was a kid, George W. enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this be cause for alarm? How relevant is a man's childhood behavior to what he is like as an adult? And in this case, to what he would be like as president of the United States."

We're finding out, aren't we? While we, in two articles before the 2000 election — Sept. 21 and Oct. 23 — noted Bush's penchant for blowing up frogs, the corporate media blew it off, just as it had no interest in what he was trying to hide by obtaining a new Texas driver license and his 1976 drunk driving conviction, or the fact he was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. Instead, they bought into his nonsensical claim of being a "compassionate conservative" and "a uniter not a divider" who was going to "restore honor and dignity to the White House."

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http://www.serendipity.li/wot/conover01.htm