Pomona's Hack Professor On Climate Change

Yet more responsible rhetoric and non-partisanship from a Pomona College professor of politics:

President Barack Obama is not scheduled to attend the United Nations' conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark until later in the week, but some lawmakers, environmental experts and citizens already know what actions they would like him to take.

"I would like to hear from him that he's ready to sign a treaty," said Richard Worthington, professor of politics at Pomona College, who is in Copenhagen with a group of students.

Representatives and leaders from all over the world are meeting in Copenhagen for a two-week conference seeking an agreement on how to cut carbon emissions to reduce global warming.

The conference began Dec. 7 and will end on Friday - the day Obama is expected to attend.

"I think it would be good if they actually agreed to some targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions because in my experience with environmental policy is that if something is being done that is harmful to the environment the most effective approach is to say `you need to stop doing that'," Worthington said.

"Of course a lot of things you can't stop completely and we're not going to stop completely emitting greenhouse gas emissions. It's something that's pretty clear as a target that countries are obligated."

Never you mind, of course, that none of the nations that agreed to Kyoto actually met their commitments and that carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant at all, but life itself.