Head-in-the-sandism to the max!

This article in the Guardian points out how Tony Blair might make it onto the little green fascist's list:

"The size of the task facing the negotiators became apparent yesterday when the Guardian was leaked the disputed text on climate change which is to go before the G8 leaders next week in Gleneagles. So far apart are the US and the rest of the G8 that the senior civil servants from all eight countries are meeting today and tomorrow to try to avoid a showdown."

But Tony is a cunning survivor and may pull this one off. For one, addressing the anthrogenic basis of climate change can and should be considered when focussing on Africa's future during the G8 meeting. For another, the US already has in place a viable plan that can temporarily slow greenhouse gas emissions: the EPA's Methane to Markets initiative. The basic idea behind it being that farm manure, landfills, wastewater treatment plants, coal beds and oil rigs all emit methane that is both a greenhouse gas and can easily be trapped and used for energy production.

Leaving aside for a moment that long-term it's clear we need to reduce CO2 emisssions because of its longer atmospheric half-life, Methane to Markets already has broad appeal, it fits in perfectly with Bush's "technology can solve this" talk for which he has not yet walked the walk, it can give the "dead-enders" of climate change denial a symbolic victory as this article points out, and finally it could help open up quite a large market for Western technology with China--a country even more reluctant than the US to acknowledge climate change--present at the G8 meeting.

Being an optimist, I hope the 8 will step up to the plate these next few days and seriously consider all options.