Bush set the middle east on fire, Trump has been pouring gasoline upon it.

[shockey80]

Trump and the Republicans should not be claiming victory when it comes to the middle east. It's a fucking mess and one day we will pay for all their lies and incompetent decisions.

[shockey80]

2. You should add this to your post.

Obama was handed an incredible mess from Bush. He did the best job he could do. Obama may have made mistakes, maybe there was good answers. I know this, Obama did not lie and invade Iraq. Obama did things like making a deal with Iran so they would not build the bomb. Then Trumped betrayed our good word.

It is very hard to compare Obama to Bush and Trump.

[ismnotwasm]

5. I'm honestly not trying to be offensive

But perhaps,you should be less worried about “getting banned?? I see you’ve mentioned this more than once.

[shockey80]

9. I just noticed you have posted only 33 times and you are worried about being banned???

You compare Obama to Trump and Bush? I call bullshit.

[ismnotwasm]

11. Your post on October 4 also mentions being banned

Nothing about this current post warrants a ban, but referring to being banned more than once seems a bit much. This is simply friendly advice.

[Mosby]

6. Do the citizens of those countries have any responsibility?

Or are they just victims of American Imperialism?

[Hortensis]

3. Yes. It's like we're breeding hatred and generations

of young people displaced and feeling they have nothing to lose. Most of the ME has been so backwards that the climate crises making more and more of their lands unlivable isn't their doing. It's ours.

[Mosby]

7. China produces 3 times more co2 than the US

They are the biggest polluters on the planet, followed by India, who burn up half their country every year.

China produces something like 15 million tons of co2 every year, and the rate is going up by 1.5 million tons per year. The output in the US is declining by .5 million metric tons per year.

[Hortensis]

12. Only fairly recently, and even then their emissions per person

are below ours and have been far, far below ours for almost all the history of this problem. Many millions of rural Chinese lived and died over the last century without ever having been in a car, had electricity in their homes, flown in a plane, etcetera, and many still live that way.

NO China excuse for us.

[Kaleva]

13. The US alone can't reverse climate change.

It really doesn't accomplish much for the US to reduce its' emissions if nations like China and India cancel that out with increased emissions on their part.

furthermore, just reducing emissions alone won't stop climate change. We have to reduce the amount that already in the atmosphere.

[Hortensis]

16. I said those in the ME have a LOT they can blame us for

regarding global warming. Their rivers are drying up. Whole regions of farmlands are no longer viable.

Reasonable people there DO already blame the western nations, and the U.S. in particular, and of course hate-ful people do already hate us for it.

I'm not going to argue what's been tragically documented for decades now, not with my conservative neighbors or with deniers here. We've done a lot of good for the planet, I'm not one of those silly self-haters, but we and other western nations that first industrialized have lead the world into this biggest-ever disaster for humanity.

[Kaleva]

18. They could stop selling the oil which greatly contributes to climate change

The price of oil would greatly increase thus making renewable and more environmentally friendly sources of energy more competitive and maybe even cheaper.

Like a gun shop owner getting pissed off because a customer shoots him; paralyzing him for life.

[OldRed2450]

17. No but when the US leads others follow

Or at least that use to be true.

[Kaleva]

19. I really doubt the US or other nations will be able to get down to zero emissions

We need to eliminate emissions all together. Not just reduce them. And on top of that, we need to reduce the amounts already in the atmosphere because it will take thousands of years for the gases to dissipate on their own.

[karynnj]

14. Look at this per capita - otherwise, you are just looking at which countries have more people

Every country needs to commit to reducing their CO2 production. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

Both China and India are developing nations that produced far less CO2 per person than developed nations. As far back as the Bali climate conference, it was realized that the developing countries and the non developing countries have to be treated differently. The best the world could do is to help the developing countries with technology that helps them get clean energy. Otherwise, economics dictate that they will develop what for them is the cheapest source and in some places that is coal. The Paris Accord set up a fund to do this, but it is very underfunded at this point.

[Mosby]

21. Per capita emissions is just political BS

But hey, let's look at per capita GDP

China: 8,826.99 USD (2017)
India: 1,939.61 USD (2017)
USA: 59,531.66 USD (2017)

So we produce vastly more goods and services for the world with our emissions vs china and india.

That's a fact.

[karynnj]

22. It is not political BS --- it is ridiculous to just compare numbers when some states are many times

It is also not reasonable to compare GDP -- when almost all developed countries have many many more $ of GDP coming from services.

[Kaleva]

4. The 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement did more damage and will continue for the foreseeable future