I’m not sure whether to file this one under “how low they will go?” or “slow learners.” Greenwire (subscription required) reports the following:
FOOD CRISIS: E.U. links food crisis to climate in bid to nudge U.S. on Kyoto (05/23/2008)
Nathanial Gronewold, ClimateWire reporter
UNITED NATIONS — The European Union is signaling its intention to use the global food crisis to push the United States and other reluctant nations to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009.
Over three days of talks about the dramatic rise in food prices that ended yesterday, many nations for the first time linked climate change to soaring costs. The European Union went further than most, however, calling for nations to consider the issue as another example of why the world must redouble efforts to successfully conclude climate change negotiations.
“Food production and prices have also been affected by climate change,” said Slovenia’s U.N. ambassador Sanja Stiglic on behalf of the European Union. Slovenia currently holds the E.U. presidency.
The movement is the boldest effort yet by governments to blame climate change for the global food supply crunch and rapidly rising prices. The E.U. candidate countries of Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia, as well as Ukraine, Serbia and other Baltic and Eastern European states, also aligned themselves with the European Union’s assertion.
“The present [food] situation highlights the urgent need to reach ambitious, global and comprehensive targets for reductions in CO2 emissions,” Stiglic said.
Given the lack of warming in recent years, this is facially absurd — not to mention crass. Such hectoring of the U.S. is also pretty oblivious, since Kyoto countries perform worse on the CO2 front than either the U.S. or the entire world (see chart below in post below). Finally, however, it shows a remarkable inability to actually learn from mistakes. “The food crisis means we need more government schemes like the biofuels mandates” has got to be a nominee for worst non sequitur of the year.