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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (909032)	12/16/2015 10:27:42 PM
From: Sdgla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574006

Paris 3: The accord {awe inspiring nothingness rat}14 December, 2015 (07:35) \| Data Comparisons Written by: lucia As you all know, an historic climate accord was reached in Paris. “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” This is my favorite bit: The adoption of the agreement was held up for nearly two hours as the United States pressed successfully to change the wording on emissions targets from saying developed countries “shall” commit to reducing emissions to they “should.” Experts said that means the deal probably won’t need U.S. congressional approval. Should evidently won out over shall. Presumably the theory for why congressional approval is not required is that the agreement is for the current sitting US President to do nothing other than endorse an opinion he already holds. He doesn’t have legal power to bind anyone else to any opinion– not citizens, Congress or future sitting Presidents. Even Congressional approval couldn’t force anyone to hold an opinion. So in other words: this is really an agreement for the US to and other countries to do nothing. This is not to say they will do nothing. Only that the agreement doesn’t require them to do anything. Another important “should” vs. shall seems to appear here It says wealthy nations should continue to provide financial support for poor nations to cope with climate change and encourages other countries to pitch in on a voluntary basis. That reflects Western attempts to expand the donor base to include advanced developing countries such as China. Presumably US congressional approval is not required for the current sitting President to agree to hold this opinion about helping other countries either. Presumably after two hours everyone agreed to “should” and then collectively agreed to put a brave face on it and declare this historic agreement (to do nothing) a “success”. Well… at least we all agree everyone “should” do something– but no one agree to actually do anything. I’m sure Obama, beamish boy that he is, will carry on as he has been. He would have without any “agreement”. Meanwhile, we are in the next Presidential cycle (which doesn’t really make me hopeful for the future. But that’s another topic.) Written by lucia.