I am both excited and anxious – excited about all of the material and watching a truly international and globally significant debate happen in a way that can only be public, and anxious about what the inevitable conflicts and disagreements will lead to. What will the world’s most powerful countries do when faced with the choice to voluntarily halt their economic growth? How will they (we) answer with the world looking us in the eyes?

If history is any teacher, the U.S. will work deals behind the scenes and come out on top, regardless of what naysayers and do-gooders desire. I like Obama as much as the next guy, but he is in the end the leader of the free world, and the free world is free because we have the biggest guns and we have the biggest guns because we have the most money- as the leader of that free world he has the responsibility of holding the high ground, maintaining control and winning the day.

Earth day may be every day, but in matters of power and politics, selfless activism has a tough road.

With all of the debates going on, the EU is taking a bit of a fatherly role, basically telling everyone to shake hands and accept responsibility for themselves. Sweden's Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren, acting president of the EU for the rest of the year including the Copenhagen summit, said this week that the climate talks leading up to Copenhagen are going too slowly because the industrialized nations are pointing too many fingers and asking other countries to do too much.

"The negotiations are too slow because too many are pointing at others and requesting them to do more," Carlgren told a briefing in Beijing on Monday.

The EU has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020.

"So if other parties would start in this way, moving forward, we would achieve great things in Copenhagen," said Carlgren.

Nice. Let the games begin. China recently became the biggest polluter in the world, eclipsing the U.S., yet they are considered a developing nation.

China and India are asking developed countries to cut their emissions by more like 40%. The developed countries at last week’s Italy summit said that developing nations like China and India need to set targets that “would lead to meaningful deviation from business as usual." [quote from Calgren]

Basically that means asking China and India to pledge anywhere from 15-30% emissions cuts. The Kyoto Protocol was based on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” In essence meaning that everyone has the same goal of controlling climate change but that industrialized countries must do more than developing countries about curbing emissions because they are more responsible for the pollution. Sort of like tax brackets. Critics speaking for the industrialized countries argue that this gives China and India a free pass- the developing world is looking at the U.S. like we’ve had a free pass for one hundred years.

I have to give it to Calgren, he is speaking truth to power on a global scale- and he’s not taking sides:

"Even if developed countries reduced their emissions to zero, it would still not be enough," Carlgren said, a view he said that China shares.

"We still expect more from China, just as we know China expects more from developed countries."