This is a rare completely wrong thread from @noahpinion. This tweet is untrue: US emissions have declined, but not thru explicit govt leadership, which means we didn't engage in a collective action that can be seen by others as "leading". /1https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1051675213375528960 …
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Replying to @mattsteinglass
Yes, there is no way of *proving* that a little more action by the U.S. wouldn't exert the tremendously effective moral influence that Europe/Japan tried and failed to exert and that U.S. de facto emissions reductions failed to exert. But, sure seems like magical thinking.
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Replying to @Noahpinion
I think the fact that the US withdrew from Kyoto under GWB, demonstrating from the start that there would be no serious collective global emissions-reduction standards, may be the single biggest reason nothing has happened.
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Replying to @mattsteinglass
I think the idea that China's emissions would have grown significantly less than they did if the U.S. hadn't withdrawn from Kyoto is an obvious example of magical thinking and illusion-of-control.
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Replying to @Noahpinion
That's a lack of political imagination. I have no idea whether Chinese emissions would have grown significantly less to date, but we would have the framework for international environmental regulation we need now, but which instead never came into existence.
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Replying to @mattsteinglass
Yes, perhaps if we simply apply *more* magic, the magic will work...
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Replying to @Noahpinion
International treaties and norms of interstate conduct are not "magic". For example, WTO treaty commitments are mostly observed, even though the enforcement procedures are woefully slow and inadequate.
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Replying to @mattsteinglass @Noahpinion
Look: you cannot try to impose standards on someone else, or make any serious demand that someone else follow standards, if there are no standards, and you don't follow any yourself.
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A) That is an assertion with no apparent evidence to back it up, B) "Imposing standards" is probably not the way to get results anyway, since each country faces such different challenges in reducing emissions, C) Please read my article and check my proposed policies!
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