5 Things to Be Thankful For This Year

Whether it's the chaos in Kabul or the malaise in Brussels, today's headlines are often downright depressing. But it's not all doom and gloom in the world. Here are a few of the best reasons we should all give thanks.

BY JOSHUA KEATING | NOVEMBER 20, 2009

Carbon Emissions Are Finally Falling

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The good news:  The Earth got an unexpected reprieve in September when the International Energy Agency found that worldwide carbon emissions had fallen 2.6 percent in 2009, the biggest reduction in 40 years. Of course, the main driving force behind the fall was the global economic crisis, which resulted in lower industrial output. But the IEA also credited new emissions standards and energy efficiency policies in the United States, Europe, and China. Since 2007, U.S. emissions have fallen 9 percent -- the first decline in a century -- thanks in large part to reduced usage of coal. The IEA is now arguing the recession will make it much less difficult to reach the emissions reductions needed to avert the worst effects of climate change.

On the other hand:  When the global economy begins to heat up again, emissions are likely to increase along with it, particularly in Asia's rapidly growing economic powers, India and China. And with next month's Copenhagen summit scuttled before it even begins, world leaders appear no closer to the kind of international regulation that could make the recent gains permanent.

 

Joshua Keating is deputy Web editor at FP.

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COURTNEYME109

1:32 PM ET

November 23, 2009

Palin as VP

Yeah. America would be reeling from 19 cents a gallon petrol, American support for democrats in Iran and high paying gigs in the new homegrown energy market, watching China go broke trying to deploy a blue water navy to protect their oil tankers as she lectured unfun, unfree and many nigh unhinged regimes on the retardednes of trying to deny free choice to their captive peoples, womens rights and floating the ideas of tolerance and egalitarianism.

 

GRANT

7:14 PM ET

November 23, 2009

On India please remember that

On India please remember that the BJP managed to self destruct before the elections. Also it's important to note that democracy doesn't mean quite the same thing in the States as it does in India*.
For Palin I will admit that Mr. Obama's experience isn't much greater, but based on his words he seemed to suggest much more willingness for realpolitik than either McCain or Palin. I wouldn't especially mind McCain in the White House, but not if it meant having Sarah Palin for my vice-president. As for Couric, while interviews aren't easy by the standards of an easy person, there is still a reason why I call her Katie 'Softball' Couric. If you don't do well with her then you should make sure you never have to do interviews.

In re. to Courtneyme109: I'm not entirely certain what you're trying to say, but if you are arguing that the States should have done more to help the anti-Ahmadinejad protesters then may I ask exactly what you would suggest? We don't have the manpower and resources for anything more than air strikes (which currently aren't thought enough to even ruin Iran's nuclear capabilities), without the help of China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia we can't hurt Iran financially (though admittedly there are signs that Saudi Arabia is doing that now), and the Iranian protesters have been going out of their way to avoid any links to the States. In all honesty I can't think of a single reliable thing that could have been done.

 

CAPTAIN NOVAL

7:50 AM ET

November 25, 2009

Thank God we don't have Sarah Palin

Yes, much to be thankful for with

1 A president who bows down to every foreign potentate and royal.

2 A president who turns his back on the democratic protesters in Iran and gives his tacit support to the Mullahs and the Supreme Leader.

3 A president who undermines a democratically installed foreign leader, standing in solidarity with thugs like the Castros, Hugo Chavez, and Ortega.

4 A president who announces a complete Afghan strategy review in March, appoints his hand-picked General in May, and in August goes back to the drawing board for a very lengthy bought of Hamlet dithering, with nearly 100 American soldiers killed in the three months after his hand-picked General desperately calls for reinforcements.

5 A president who promised that if we passed his bloated spending bill unemployment would not exceed 8%.

6 A president who bails out every bankrupt, badly-run, and inefficient business with taxpayer money, in order to repay his corrupt union cronies.

7 A president who has doubled the national debt in a single year and whose ruinous fiscal policies sparked a run on the dollar and a real fear of national bankruptcy.

8 A president who gives the back of his hand to allies and friends the world over, and instead gives attention, sympathy, and conciliation to whichever authoritarian thug who happens to pop up on his radar that day.

Yep, we have much to be thankful for this year. Thank God Caribou Barbie and her Reaganesque principles were kept away from the levers of power.

 
January/February 2010