Yes, it does seem to be that those who are in a position to have a greater effect on controlling emissions and live 'greener' don't. Meanwhile, those of us who try to take small steps towards living greener make sacrifices to do so. That being said, it's more a misnomer to call it 'global warming' rather than 'accelerated climate change', because the whole 'warming' thing keeps getting taken by deniers as proof of it's non-existence, when they say "Look! The whole has always gone through warming and cooling cycles." What they want to ignore is the fact that mankind has increased the rate of change, so much so that our extremes of weather are breaking records regularly in all parts of the world.
I like that term, 'accelerated climate change' is something I can get behind. Now, what we need to do is get the world together and actually do something about it. I know the US contributes a huge amount to this, but I also know the emerging countries are contributing too, and they are far 'dirtier' than the west and could be cleaned up far easier because of how dirty they are. But then they would need to invest in clean technology, which means buying from the west in general and the US in particular, which they are loathe to do. I truly believe they, many of the emerging countries, are using this as a mechanism to balance the playing field and make the US and west invest ever ending amounts in clean technology for smaller and smaller gains while they invest in industry and get to the point where they can dictate to us economically.
New threat to the ozone layer. 'Ozone depletion is a well-known phenomenon and, thanks to the success of the Montreal Protocol, is widely perceived as a problem solved,' say some. But an international team of researchers, has now found an unexpected, growing danger to the ozone layer from substances not regulated by the treaty. Source 8a.
Global CO2 emissions stalled for the third year in a row\. The annual assessment of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the JRC and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) confirms that CO2 emissions have stalled for the third year in a row. Source 4x.
While there is a lot of public hype about global warming deep down inside me I can't help but think we're doing more talking simply because we can't solve the problem.
International Level: Specialist / Political Participation: 40 4%