It was in China's interest...

[kentuck]

When the Chinese people had to put on a carbon-filtered mask just to walk down the street, the situation was pretty bad.

In what could become the most constructive climate-change agreement in history, President Obama and the Chinese have come to a carbon emissions agreement.

This gives younger generations hope that our leaders do indeed care about our environment and our future. This could become the greatest accomplishment of the Obama presidency.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Yep. And, it didn't involve bombs, drones, boots on the ground, or sanctions.

I'm not an Obama fan, but hat's off to him for this.

[kentuck]

2. Yep.

He deserves a lot of credit for the agreement. Even moreso if they can get it to work.

[MineralMan]

3. The flaw in that agreement is that we'll be reducing emissions, while

China is still increasing them, with a peak of emissions in 2030. Our reductions probably won't even balance out their increases.

I'm not seeing a real benefit here, although I'm greatly in favor of us cutting emissions. China is not cutting emissions. They're just slowing the rate of their increase.

[kentuck]

4. I think the key part for the Chinese...

...was that they would increase their green energy production with the hope that much of the technology would come from US. They would have an incentive to get rid of their gas masks.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes. China has a huge problem, and is relying too much on coal,

which is in good supply there. It's just the prospect of their emissions increasing until it peaks in 2030 that makes me shake my head. Even if the US cuts their emissions enough to offset that increase, there is no net gain. A serious net gain is needed right now.

I doubt there's a solution, but I wasn't as impressed with this agreement as I might have been. Bravo to Obama for setting the goal of cutting US emissions, though. That's a positive step.

[kentuck]

6. If they change to 20% green energy on that timetable...

they may see that it is actually better to breate without a mask? At present, they are using about 4 times as much coal as us, about 4 billion tons per year!

[MineralMan]

7. No doubt it will benefit some Chinese people.

Conditions there are decidedly not conducive to healthy living. My issue is that the impact on climate change is not going to be there. Perhaps there's no solution for that.

[Ykcutnek]

8. If only Kentucky had influence in Washington to embrace this deal...

and work to diversify our economy so we could take our place in a more carbon-neutral America.

But we know that won't happen.

[kentuck]

9. Eastern Kentucky is in the President's "enterprise zones"..

Maybe some of China's green technology could be produced there?

[The2ndWheel]

10. I'd say that's counting chicken's a bit early

If you can't count on hope though, what can you count on?