Unbound by Non-Binding Laws, the Human Species Slinks into Oblivion
But at least America is proudly leading the way.
Do the two U.S. representatives pictured above look like they’ve been sent to help? They are, an unidentified State Department flunky, and Margaret Taylor, his hired-gun legal adviser. I never much cared for Ronald Reagan’s ‘nine most feared words from your government,’ but here they are artfully depicted in a single photo: "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help."
One could hardly find a more accurate caption.
Allow me to spirit you off for a moment to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague
Our two earnest respondents are there to answer island nations and other climate-vulnerable countries who are calling for those wealthy polluting nations most responsible for climate breakdown to be held legally responsible.
Who, us?
Yep, ‘fraid so. It seems our industries (mostly oil and gas), our economic impact (world’s largest GDP), and our standard of living (7th among 34 OECD countries) slide us into first place among polluters. Oh, and about that standard of living number, have we really sunk to 7th?
Grist for another day’s mill.
Margaret Taylor, never breaking to a smile, seems to agree
The current UN climate change regime “embodies the clearest, most specific, and the most current expression of states’ consent to be bound by international law in respect of climate change”, she told the ICJ judges on Wednesday.
Call me over-cautious, but when a defense attorney seems to agree with the prosecution, my personal history feels a trickle of sweat down my arm.
“Any other legal obligations relating to climate change mitigation identified by the court should be interpreted consistently with the obligations states have under this treaty regime,” added Taylor.
Oh, shit. Now she’s coming to the unbinding part
The opposition leapt to its feet.
“Once again, we witness a disheartening attempt by the US to evade its responsibilities as one of the world’s largest polluters,” said Vishal Prasad, director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change. “The US is content with its business-as-usual approach and has taken every possible measure to shirk its historical responsibility, disregard human rights and reject climate justice.”
Ashfaq Khalfan, Oxfam America’s climate justice director, said: “It is absurd for the Biden administration to argue before the ICJ that countries do not have clear legal obligations to reduce carbon pollution, especially as it prepares to turn over the executive office to a proven climate denier like president-elect Trump, whose policies are likely to deeply harm US climate action.”
Anyone paying attention would agree, but the sad (and quite racist) fact is, that Americans relate far more to the Margaret Taylors of the world, than the Vishal Prasads and Ashfaq Khalfans. It’s an unfortunate cultural thing, but bleeds to the surface anytime the Greatest Country in the World faces the less fortunate. And, statistically, most are less fortunate.
Representatives from Australia, China and Saudi Arabia (major fossil fuel economies and among the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters) stroked their chins solemnly, and nodded in agreement
W. C. Fields led a rambunctious showbiz life, displaying a fondness for alcohol and mistresses. Not known as a religious man, as his death approached he began to peruse the Bible. When a friend asked him about this behavior he sighed, a tear at the corner of his eye, said he was, “lookin’ for loopholes.”
After years of campaigning by vulnerable nations and the global climate justice movement, the UN asked the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on what obligations states have, to tackle climate change, and what the legal consequences might be if they failed to do so.
An ‘advisory opinion.’ There’s a loophole large enough to jump a horse through
Saved by an equestrian reference, just when I thought all hope was gone.
“ICJ advisory opinions are non-binding but carry significant legal and political weight, and this will likely be referred to as an authoritative document in future climate litigation and during international climate negotiations,” so says the Guardian UK article.
Non-binding, significant legal and political weight, and an authoritative document, ought to be enough weight to sink a few additional island nations, should rising seas be inconclusive.
And so, as an arguably failed human species, we wander toward our ultimate demise
I put the date at sometime around the failure of COP 229, possibly a half-century later. It should bring some historic reverence to WC’s final breath, his having named the epitaph written on humanity’s headstone.
Here lies the most advanced animal species the world has ever known, lost while Looking for Loopholes