US `not Ready' to Commit at Bali

[Jaga]

There is also a huge environmental conference in Bali. The US is the only developed country still against signing any treaty, even Australia changed its mind.

What I do not understand - why our Idaho senator Craig went there. He does not believe in global warming - either he wanted to avoid his criticism in the US or he has lots of fun over there in Bali

here is more about the conference:http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBTCrOwOrOXV9BkLBDRmtO3XWbHQD8TDFRTO1

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — The United States will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008, and won't commit to mandatory caps at the U.N. climate conference here, the chief U.S. negotiator said Saturday.

"We're not ready to do that here," said Harlan Watson, the State Department's senior climate negotiator and special representative. "We're working on that, what our domestic contribution would be, and again we expect that sometime before the end of the Major Economies process."

That process of U.S.-led talks was inaugurated last September by President Bush, who invited 16 other "major economies" such as the Europeans, Japan, China and India, to Washington to discuss a future international program of cutbacks in carbon dioxide and other emissions blamed for global warming.

Environmentalists accuse the Bush administration of using those parallel talks to subvert the long-running U.N. negotiations and the spirit of the binding Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to make relatively modest cuts in "greenhouse" gases.

The United States is the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto and its obligatory targets. The U.S. leadership instead favors a more voluntary approach, in which individual nations determine what they can contribute to a global effort, without taking on obligations under the U.N. climate treaty.

[justjohn]

admin said:

There is also a huge environmental conference in Bali. The US is the only developed country still against signing any treaty, even Australia changed its mind.

What I do not understand - why our Idaho senator Craig went there. He does not believe in global warming - either he wanted to avoid his criticism in the US or he has lots of fun over there in Bali

here is more about the conference:http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBTCrOwOrOXV9BkLBDRmtO3XWbHQD8TDFRTO1

BALI, Indonesia (AP) — The United States will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008, and won't commit to mandatory caps at the U.N. climate conference here, the chief U.S. negotiator said Saturday.

"We're not ready to do that here," said Harlan Watson, the State Department's senior climate negotiator and special representative. "We're working on that, what our domestic contribution would be, and again we expect that sometime before the end of the Major Economies process."

That process of U.S.-led talks was inaugurated last September by President Bush, who invited 16 other "major economies" such as the Europeans, Japan, China and India, to Washington to discuss a future international program of cutbacks in carbon dioxide and other emissions blamed for global warming.

Environmentalists accuse the Bush administration of using those parallel talks to subvert the long-running U.N. negotiations and the spirit of the binding Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to make relatively modest cuts in "greenhouse" gases.

The United States is the only major industrial country to have rejected Kyoto and its obligatory targets. The U.S. leadership instead favors a more voluntary approach, in which individual nations determine what they can contribute to a global effort, without taking on obligations under the U.N. climate treaty.

Bathroom facilities are vastly different in Asian countries verses western countries. As most westerners learn a typical bathroom will consist of a tiled room with a hole in the center and the floor tapering to this. Also strategically placed are elevated porcelain foot pads and hand pads. A cistern with running water and a scoop of some sort will suffice for the water flush.

Now, Senator Craig has to improvise his foot tapping on these elevated pads. That is the purpose of his trip. It is to overcome cultural differences.

[Jaga]

I remember this hole bathrooms from Greece... and also once I remember using it in Czestochova, but this had to be at least 25 years ago. They are hygienic in some aspects.

[kaima]

Ah, I remember seeing these toilets in ceramic catalogs in Europe. They seemed quite simple, effective and sanitary, more so than our western habit of sharing a toilet seat. There are many times when I will take a pause in Alaska and prefer to run off into the woods and squat like a bear instead of using the smelly pit toilet provided (well, this excuse has passed in the last decades with the construction and maintenance of rather nice facilities.)

In Germany they were referred to as French toilets, in France, I believe, as Arabic toilets. I was at a French wayside once when a maintenance truck came by and a fully suited worker went in with a fire hose and hosed the interior of the all-ceramic men’s room. Looking at it later it was simplicity itself and quite sanitary as well as (s proven) easy to maintain.

Recently I talked with an engineer back from Iraq and listened to his distain for this style of toilet. He made no allowances for culture, sanitation or effectiveness in a land with little water. Then again he proved himself ignorant of US sanitary standards as well. He had no sanitary training, did not know a septic system from a holding tank, and only had the protective ignorance that allowed such arrogance.

Now John, that is a good point on Sen. Craig. I just imagine his traditional tap dance would be rather difficult to do with this style toilet!

[justjohn]

kaima said:

Ah, I remember seeing these toilets in ceramic catalogs in Europe. They seemed quite simple, effective and sanitary, more so than our western habit of sharing a toilet seat. There are many times when I will take a pause in Alaska and prefer to run off into the woods and squat like a bear instead of using the smelly pit toilet provided (well, this excuse has passed in the last decades with the construction and maintenance of rather nice facilities.)

In Germany they were referred to as French toilets, in France, I believe, as Arabic toilets. I was at a French wayside once when a maintenance truck came by and a fully suited worker went in with a fire hose and hosed the interior of the all-ceramic men’s room. Looking at it later it was simplicity itself and quite sanitary as well as (s proven) easy to maintain.

Recently I talked with an engineer back from Iraq and listened to his distain for this style of toilet. He made no allowances for culture, sanitation or effectiveness in a land with little water. Then again he proved himself ignorant of US sanitary standards as well. He had no sanitary training, did not know a septic system from a holding tank, and only had the protective ignorance that allowed such arrogance.

Now John, that is a good point on Sen. Craig. I just imagine his traditional tap dance would be rather difficult to do with this style toilet!