It’s a shell game, folks…(this was originally posted to my Facebook Page on October 24, 2014).

Before you read the title of this article (“EU leaders hammer out landmark climate deal”) and think, “Whew, finally some good news!” Nope. Again, let’s read between the lines which isn’t difficult to do in this case because there are no lines. While the EU probably tried its very best to make a horrible situation seem less dire, there are a few blaring failures to point out:

First of all, if the United States and China aren’t even pretending to be on board, well, it isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference, and I’d like to point out that the EU managed to kick developing countries further into the gutter on this agreement. Second, what is really going on here is a shell game of the good old fashion sort. Whenever you see the phrases “cap and trade,” “carbon credits,” “carbon trading,” “emission credits ~ trading ~ offsets,” or anything that implies playful and dodgy accounting techniques, you should smell a rat. A really big, hairy, stinky rat on his little rat yacht wearing a polo shirt. Okay, I digress. But the point is that there is enough wiggle room in there with unused carbon credits to steer a super tanker through. Like the Exxon Valdez. Pun intended.

And frankly, those poor negotiators know they’re impotent to make the radical cuts needed unless the United States and the Chinese are on board, which they aren’t. Keep in mind that China’s emissions are also increased by America’s orders for goods, which make China look even worse and make the US appear less responsible than we really are. And the US military’s emissions are never accounted for on anyone’s balance sheet (and they are colossal).

Here’s a link to the article which appeared in Nature: http://www.nature.com/news/eu-leaders-hammer-out-landmark-climate-deal-1.16218

Here’s a good observation about what’s really going on:
http://carbonmarketwatch.org/media-statement-eu-leaders-broker-climate-deal-at-expense-of-climate-integrity-and-tax-payers/