Pelosi appeals for China's help on climate change

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi listens to questions from a student after delivering her speech at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, Thursday, May 28, 2009. Pelosi urged Beijing to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, Pool)

(AP) -- U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Beijing on Thursday to cooperate on climate change, calling a safe environment a basic human right.

Speaking at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, Pelosi continued the theme of her five-day China trip - that combating global warming represented a new challenge that both governments must tackle jointly.

"We are all in this together," Pelosi told an audience of about 200 students and faculty who applauded enthusiastically throughout the 45-minute session. "The impact of climate change is a tremendous risk to the security and well-being of our countries."

Pelosi's trip has been notable for skirting human rights and the fierce public criticisms she has frequently leveled at the authoritarian government.

The trip comes as President Barack Obama's administration has emphasized climate change as a new area where the two governments can broaden already wide-ranging engagement. The two countries are the biggest emitters of the carbon gases that are causing warming temperatures. Both governments are staking out positions ahead of a meeting late this year in Copenhagen that will try to forge agreement on targets and steps to reduce carbon emissions.

In a meeting Wednesday, the head of China's national legislature, Wu Bangguo, told Pelosi that climate change was a common challenge and that Beijing stood ready to work with Washington.

Turning around her usual criticisms about human rights, Pelosi linked global warming to environmental justice, saying the right to a clean environment is also a human right.

"I do see this opportunity for climate change to be ... a game-changer," she said at Tsinghua. "It's a place where human rights - looking out for the needs of the poor in terms of climate change and healthy environment - are a human right."

To achieve this, Pelosi said governments would have to make decisions and choices based on science.

"They also have to do it with openness, transparency and accountability to the people," she said. "Everyone has to have their situation improved by it."

In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes.

"We have so much room for improvement," she said. "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

Pelosi, who arrived Sunday, brought with her five members of a House committee on energy policy and global warming. A bill that would impose the first U.S. limits on greenhouse gas emissions was approved by a House committee last week, a step being considered by the full House later this year.

Pelosi's visit is part of a flurry of contacts between Washington and Beijing that highlight their wide-ranging cooperation on issues including North Korea's nuclear program and combatting the global economic slump.

Next week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner travels to Beijing.

©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

   

• Gammakozy - May 28, 2009
  • Rank: 4 / 5 (4)
  Pelosi shows herself to be a self-aggrandizing hypocrite ever time she opens her mouth and in every carbon splurging junket that she takes. Thank God for her that the Chinese are infinitely more gracious than she ever could be and politely held their noses while she postured importantly and all-knowingly for them. Does she really believe that going to the other side of the world and lecturing to the Chinese will distract conscious Americans from seeing the mess that she and her liberal allies have created in the bankrupt state of California with their idiotic green policies and social experiments?
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• GrayMouser - May 28, 2009
  • Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
  Think of how much needless CO2 they generated on this junket... And Pelosi told the USAF that it wasn't acceptable that they didn't have enough VIP aircraft to fly Congress home for the last holiday.
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• GTK - Jun 01, 2009
  • Rank: not rated yet
  The truly sad part about this is that Big Oil will remain in firm control,thanks to the EPA-OBD II Vehicle Emissions Inspection Law, which mandates that all Gasoline powered vehicles, from 1996 to the present,must operate at 14.7 parts of Air to 1 part of Fuel.It is entirely possible to safely convert Gasoline into a clear, dry Vapor that is 100 parts of Air to 1 part of Fuel.Even the largest SUV could easily get 50 MPG,& emit a fraction of the Emissions of a 14.7/1 Fuel System, with more Power, and longer Engine Life.For even more insight, do a search on Tom Ogle, then go to http://energy21.f...rep.html and check out the last part of it.But, all OBD II Vehicles have Oxygen[O2]Sensors that detect the level of polluting Exhaust Emissions.When a Vehicle is connected to an OBD II Emissions Analyzer for Inspection, whatever those O2 Sensors read is detected.Too much Pollution,& it will fail,as well it should.But, with vaporized 100/1 Fuel, O2 Sensors will detect nothing, and an O2 Sensor Failure Code will be generated.Thus, it is entirely possible to fail an Emissions Inspection for not emitting enough Pollution!This insane Law, that only benefits Big Oil, was passed during the Clinton Administration, with Al Gore's enthusiastic support! Go figure! And Obama can't change it either, as long as Big Oil is in firm control!And not one Politician or Environmentalist will question the ongoing suppression of Vapor Fuel Technology ! I have asked many, and have yet to get a Reply.Maybe you can try ?
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