President Obama's trip to Asia finally lead to the meeting between the President and the premier of the Chinese government, Wen Jiabao, on Wednesday. They first met in public in order to show a public cooperation between the two governments, then they met in private to discuss serious matters. In this discussion, the main topics were to be climate change, nuclear weapons, and human rights. This last issue was brought about cautiously, because no more strain was wanted between the two countries than what already exists. As far as the subject of climate change went, both leaders agreed to work toward cleaner technologies and a global agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions. It seems that although this is a great step forward in the relationship between our two nations, it does not say much for the effort of actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the two countries. The United States and China are two of the most polluting/least green countries in the world, and as such they need to show an effort in cutting emissions themselves. If the world powers do not commit to cutting emissions in their own countries, small countries will not feel obligated to change their own way of living. This is a problem that I see with this agreement. Click on the image for a link to the article, or here.
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