G8

The news that international leaders in Italy were not able to commit to strong, binding climate change agreements probably doesn't surprise anybody.

"It is no small task for 17 leaders to bridge their differences on an issue like climate change," President Obama said.

But tackling an issue of this urgency, complexity and enormity may have an upside.

Right now, leaders of so-called 'developed' and 'developing' countries are at a standoff with good reason: Developed countries have polluted more in the past, but developing countries are rapidly outpacing them. Countries like the United States have much higher emissions per capita, while poorer nations argue that they are simply trying to provide basic services for their people.

"Developed countries like my own have a historic responsibility to take the lead," Obama said.

But without the help of developing nations like China and India, our best efforts will not stop global warming. As the president put it, "The threat of climate change can't be contained by borders on a map."

Clearly, this impasse will not be resolved using the current paradigm of 'developed' and 'developing' nations. Leaders of the so-called 'First World' and 'Third World' are confronting the reality that we live on one world; that the atmosphere has no borders.

It’s 8:45 a.m., and 11 Greenpeace activists, loaded with climbing gear and a long, heavy banner have made their way up to the top of Mount Rushmore. So far, security hasn’t detected them. Still, they’re whispering and keeping to the shadows.

Down at the tourist center, the wind is just starting to pick up, but 500 feet up the mountain, the gusts are already fierce.

None of the climbers has ever been here before. They know the national park has its own climbing team with established rope anchors on the monument. They intend to find those anchors and use them.

“I’ve never been so nervous in my life,” one whispers into the camera.

It didn't take long for the counterfeit climate bill known as Waxman-Markey to push back against President Obama's agenda.

As the president was arriving in Italy for his first Group of Eight summit, The New York Times was reporting that efforts to close ranks on global warming between the G-8 and the emerging economies had already tanked:

The world's major industrial nations and emerging powers failed to agree Wednesday on significant cuts in heat-trapping gases by 2050, unraveling an effort to build a global consensus to fight climate change, according to people following the talks.

Of course, emission targets in 2050 have limited practical meaning — present leaders will be dead or doddering by then — so these differences may be patched up. The important point is that other nations are unlikely to make real concessions on emissions if the United States is not addressing the climate matter seriously.

With a workable climate bill in his pocket, President Obama might have been able to begin building that global consensus in Italy.

Instead, it looks as if the delegates from other nations may have done what 219 U.S. House members who voted up Waxman-Markey last month did not: critically read the 1,400-page American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill and deduce that it's no more fit to rescue our climate than a V-2 rocket was to land a man on the moon.

Dozens of Greenpeace activists took a stand for climate action this morning, starting in Italy, where they occupied four coal-fired power plants.

In the United States, several more climbers made a bold statement from the face of Mount Rushmore with a sign as long as Lincoln's face reading:

"Americans honor leaders, not politicians. Stop global warming."

The message from both sides of the Atlantic to the public and to the presidents, prime ministers and other heads of state meeting today for the Group of Eight summit in L’Aquila, Italy, was clear: The world needs decisive leadership to stop climate change.

Climate activists have reason to pour on the pressure. The world’s most-polluting nations had talked about a goal of halving emissions by 2050, but those numbers are nowhere in the lateset draft G8 statement because of opposition from China and India, Reuters reports.

AFP has put this ironic headline out on its newswires: G8 Buries Climate Pledges - in Time Capsule. Turns out that the Windsor Hotel Toya where the G8 leaders just met is sinking $1.4 million in the greenwash gimmick to lure tourists to the remote northern resort.

They're building a park to house a monument of a melting chunk of ice and the time capsule, which is slated to be opened in 100 years.