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POPSClimate 'Debt' Transfers Billions To Developing Countries
But as much as anything else, the Copenhagen treaty calls for the payment by rich countries of what can probably best be described as climate reparations. It would be "impossible to craft and draft" a detailed plan to effectively combat climate change in time for December. "That is not possible. But it is also not necessary," Mr. De Boer said. "I think what Copenhagen has to achieve is a basic political understanding." "By 2020," the treaty insists "the scale of financial flows to support adaptation in developing countries must be at least US$67-billion in the range of US$70-to US$140-billion" every year. If Ottawa signs on to Copenhagen, the size of our resource-based export economy means Canada may pay more dearly for the UN's latest climate-change arrangement than almost any other country on the planet. And in the end, because it may only shift carbon-intensive production from cleaner countries to less-efficient ones, the entire exercise may do very little . . .
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POPSChina Attacks US Dollar, Wants "New Currency Order" China wants a "new world order" for currency and has tremendous financial leverage over America now. As the dollar gets dumped as the basis for global trade the US dollar's value is now bound to fall which will increase consumer prices very quickly. "Fiat money" printed by the Fed has now met its achilles heel when other countries regard it as worthless and unsafe as a basis for trade.
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POPSPoverty Facts and Stats For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are: * 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3) * 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5) * 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7) 1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22 The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”
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POPSRich countries owe poor a huge environmental debt Tangible quantitative study that could be used to support the argument for economic and legislative change aimed at paying for the true costs of using the free resources that developed countries take from our planet Earth.
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POPSSlow progress on UN climate curbs The problem is people value money more than life, or even it seems survival. Now that so many people are in debt and inflation bites, perhaps attitudes towards money might change e.g. having a lot and / or spending a lot will be considered vulgar and greedy (which it is), rather than the ultimate measure of success. Then something might be done about the overconsumption which is killing the planet.
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POPSIs India really developing? This raises an important question: is India developing or just getting richer? Foreign Affairs called it "a roaring capitalist success story" but I wonder if that's accurate. As I understand it, capitalism is about free and open competition in a fair marketplace. How can there be true competition when half the population (or more) lives in abject poverty. I would call this "mercantilism" not capitalism. If you ask me, the gap between rich and poor is anti-competitive, it insulates and entrenches the extremely wealthy, and thus erodes the dynamic elements of competition that are necessary for capitalism to function properly. Just because someone operates for profit doesn't make them a capitalist. Just because a country is making money right now doesn't make them a success. (We should also be asking these same questions about China. The long-term Growth potential we dream of in these countries may be limited by their failure to develop a middle class.)
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