Investigate West: U.S.-China climate pact: Why so late?

From InvestigateWest, the investigative news site started by some former P-I journalists:

The news today on the climate front is a pretty big honkin’ deal: President Obama, on a visit to China, signed an agreement with China calling for the United States to offer a proposal for near-term cuts in greenhouse gases. In return, China will say what it plans to do about not frying the planet to kingdom come.

(I know: It doesn’t sound earth-shattering. But it’s a big enough deal that it’s currently topping Google News. You have to realize that China and America are No. 1 and No. 2 in the list of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.)

If you want more on today’s developments, I recommend Jake Schmidt’s piece over at grist.org.

But here at Dateline Earth, I can’t help but ask: Why didn’t the Clinton-Gore administration convince China to show such good faith?

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