U.S. one of five countries to shake hands on agreement
Editor, The Times:
I am encouraged that our country, China, India, Brazil and South Africa reached an agreement at Copenhagen [“Conference ends with statements of intent,” News, Dec. 20]
Despite being nonbinding, I expect it to lead to positive steps to combat global warming and its consequences.
In 1986, former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev informally agreed that nuclear weapons needed to be eliminated. They failed to reach a concrete binding agreement due to an irreconcilable disagreement about the strategic-defense initiative. Despite that failure, Gorbachev halted plans to install their Ora missile. This stopped further escalation and led to a binding agreement to eliminate 1,846 Soviet Pioneer missiles and 846 U.S. Pershing missiles — eliminating an entire class of weapons.
When survival is at stake, a nonbinding agreement can lead to voluntary action. The resulting trust can lead to binding agreements, which can ultimately lead to meaningful action.
While the Reagan/Gorbachev dream of eliminating nuclear arms has yet to be fulfilled, progress continues and is being revitalized by President Obama and the world leaders with whom he is building trust.
Hopefully, the effort to stop global warming will move faster.
— Robert Jeffers-Schroder, Seattle
U.S. still biggest global-warming offender
I applaud The Times for its stance on the Copenhagen negotiations [“Climate self-interest,” Opinion, editorial, Dec. 15].
Every country — rich or poor — is responsible for protecting this planet we share. And as the recent maiden flight of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner attests, American industry does indeed have the will and the means to lead the world with cutting-edge renewable-energy technologies.
One arena where our world leadership is in doubt, however, is our will to curb global-warming emissions. Forget the excuses about up-and-coming polluters like China and India; in reality, the average American produces four times more greenhouse gases yearly than the average Chinese citizen, and 16 times more than the average Indian. We remain the biggest offender, and the world looks to us for leadership in cleaning up our act.
Given this, the failure of the U.S. Senate to work together for a clean-energy bill is heartbreaking. Especially in Washington, a state whose own citizens have adopted a renewable-energy standard, it’s clear that the people’s will is behind our legislators to cut global-warming pollution.
— Kristin Anderson, Seattle
Obama failed America and world at Copenhagen
Despite his campaign promises, President Obama’s speech at Copenhagen shows that when it comes to combating climate change, he is merely perpetuating the dismal status quo of the Bush administration.
The United States had an opportunity to gain a position of international leadership on climate change, but instead the president chose to blame developing nations like China for compounding the environmental degradation to which we are the largest contributor.
Instead of taking responsibility and setting ambitious goals, our president made empty promises and signed a halfhearted agreement that his own aide admitted is not sufficient to combat the threat of climate change.
When Obama was elected more than a year ago, I felt optimistic that our country was headed in a better direction. However, his disappointing speech at Copenhagen demonstrates that he does not appreciate the gravity of climate change and the need to make a significant reduction in global emissions his top priority.
— Miles Pengilly, Seattle
Brought to tears
I find it hard to believe that all those countries participated in the climate summit but could not agree on a meaningful resolution.
It brought me to tears hearing citizens who had come at their own expense from all corners of the world begging the members of the council to please create a meaningful plan.
I know that Fiji has been losing land and villages for several years already, as has Tonga. Tonga has been asking New Zealand and Australia for a place to live when their islands have completely disappeared, and the answers were “no.”
Australian farmers have faced total drought for several years now. The countries of the Caribbean have been meeting for several years, now to jointly plan for rescuing and moving their populations from those beautiful tropic islands when they are inundated and finding space for them to live on higher mainland.
We don’t hear about these things in our sanitized world.
We cannot allow the mindless pollution of our world to continue; these people’s lives and homes will be our unpayable debt and the world we and our children and grandchildren inherit will be our punishment.
— Marian Schwarzenbach, Seattle
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[Megan Berry works for mobile analytics and advertising company 
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