Financing...and Credit

At the UN climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, strong rhetoric has been deployed.

President Eva Morales of Bolivia put things into some perspective when said "...For example, Obama, he asked his Congress for $40 billion more than what has already been spent. The budget of the United States is $687 billion for defense. And for climate change, to save life, to save humanity, they only put up $10 billion. This is shameful. The budget for the Iraq war, according to the figures we have, is $2.6 trillion for the Iraq war, to go kill in Iraq. Trillions of dollars. But directed towards paying the climate debt, $10 billion. This is completely unfair. These are our deep observations of what’s going on. That’s why—for the war, while trillions are going to the wars, on the other hand, to save humanity and the planet, they only want to direct $10 billion. .."

Sunita Narain says that "...Well, I think if President Bush was in kindergarten, President Obama is in first grade, but nothing more than that.... it just means that President Bush didn’t understand—rejected the very notion of climate change for a long time. He also rejected the Kyoto Protocol. And he said that the US will do nothing about it. President Obama accepts that climate change is real, which is welcome, but he also rejects the Kyoto Protocol, and he also puts on the table a very weak target for his country to do. He has not shown leadership at the scale that is needed in the world. The world has a crisis, and we need leaders who can face up to that crisis. And as yet, President Obama has not shown that...."

It is unfair to simply blame the U.S. It has to be noted China and many other countries lend the U.S. government money by buying the latter's debt. So effectively it is China, Japan, Korea, India, and other countries that are partly financing the wars, and that are partly financing the climate change. When one finger is raised at others the remaining four point at us...