Hype Olympics: World leaders in Paris in order to save "the future of the planet and the future of life"

"Today is an historic day. Never has a conference received so many authorities from so many countries. Never, I say never, have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, for this is about the future of the planet and the future of life."

Francois Hollande at the opening of the COP 21 global warming jamboree

Never, I say never, has there been so much empty hype at any gathering as today in Paris! The sooner this wasteful and totally useless climate hype show is over, the better - also for the environment!

Finally something to celebrate at the Paris COP 21: "Global warming has been good to Champagne makers"

A few thousand bottles of vintage champagne are ready for the COP 21 delegates in Paris.

The famous Maxim´s will be one of the main venues for these much appreciated "side events" ...

As Paris gets ready to welcome the 50,000 or so delegates to the megalomaniac COP 21 climate jamboree, due to begin on November 30, there is finally some good news to report.

When US President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the likes arrive in the beginning of the meeting for a photo opportunity (the French idea is to have heads of state present only in the beginning of the conference in order to make statements) they can wholeheartedly enjoy the champagne offered by their host, President Hollande, knowing that global warming has been good to this noble wine:

As France prepares to host world leaders for talks on how to slow global warming next month, producers of the northeastern French region's famous sparkling wine have seen only benefits from rising temperatures so far.
The 1.2 degrees centigrade increase in temperatures in the region over the past 30 years has reduced frost damage. It has also added one degree in the level of alcohol and reduced acidity, making it easier to comply with strict production rules, according to champagne makers group CIVC.
"The Champagne region and Germany are among the northerly vineyards which have managed to develop thanks to warmer weather," Jean-Marc Touzard, coordinator of a program on wine and climate change at French research institute INRA.
"Even if I feel very concerned by climate change, I have to say that for the moment it has had only positive effects for Champagne," Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of the group that bears his family's name, told Reuters at the company's Reims headquarters.

"Der Spiegel": Germany has been spying on its closest allies

Angela Merkel two years ago:

"We need trust among allies and partners," Merkel told reporters in Brussels. "Such trust now has to be built anew. This is what we have to think about."
"The United States of America and Europe face common challenges. We are allies," the German leader said. "But such an alliance can only be built on trust. That's why I repeat again: spying among friends, that cannot be."


Well, now it turns out the "honest" Germans have themselves carried out extensive spying on their closest allies:

The German newsmagazine "Spiegel Online" has reported that Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) eavesdropped on communications of several of its allied countries until late 2013.
According to reports, these operations may not all have taken place under the guidance of the US National Security Agency (NSA) but also under the BND's own initiative. Earlier this year, it had been revealed that the NSA commissioned the BND for years to spy on German targets using so-called "selectors" - search criteria used to flag activity with vested interests for the NSA.. The NSA was reported to have supplied the technology involved in this method of intelligence gathering.
The latest disclosures, however, might imply that the BND added its own choice of selectors to the list - an act which would fall outside its constitutional mandate and qualify as illegal. The BND is already under scrutiny for the legalities of doing the groundwork for a foreign spy agency by collaborating with the NSA..
Further setbacks for the BND
According to the report, Germany used thousands of such selectors in total, which ended up flagging communications of allied states. France and the United States were reported to be among the nations affected by the intelligence breach.

France´s top meteorologist challenges the global warming establishment

Great news from France! The country´s top meteorologist challenges the global warming establishment:

Every night, France's chief weatherman has told the nation how much wind, sun or rain they can expect the following day.

Now Philippe Verdier, a household name for his nightly forecasts on France 2, has been taken off air after a more controversial announcement - criticising the world's top climate change experts.

Mr Verdier claims in the book Climat Investigation (Climate Investigation) that leading climatologists and political leaders have “taken the world hostage” with misleading data.

In a promotional video, Mr Verdier said: “Every night I address five million French people to talk to you about the wind, the clouds and the sun. And yet there is something important, very important that I haven’t been able to tell you, because it’s neither the time nor the place to do so.”

He added: “We are hostage to a planetary scandal over climate change – a war machine whose aim is to keep us in fear.”

His outspoken views led France 2 to take him off the air starting this Monday. "I received a letter telling me not to come. I'm in shock," he told RTL radio. "This is a direct extension of what I say in my book, namely that any contrary views must be eliminated."

Read the entire article here.

Garry Kasparov to Western leaders: "Stop legitimizing Putin"

Garry Kasparov is - as always - spot on:

Garry Kasparov

Bloomberg TV: "What do you think Obama should do now?"
Me: <pause> "Resign".
Ok, I don't expect that to happen, but my outrage is starting to overtake my grief over Boris's murder. To the question of what the leaders of the free world should do, look at what they have NOT done for years and years to constrain Putin. Treating him like one of the guys, just another leader, instead of a brutal dictator has enabled and encouraged him and is why he is invading Ukraine and why Boris is dead. It may be a little too much to say Obama, Merkel, Cameron, & Hollande have blood on their hands, but they will next time. They can have no more illusions about Putin's true nature. Stop legitimizing Putin, for by so doing, they delegitimize brave fighters like Boris.

Roger Cohen in the New York Times: "It´s time to get real over Putin"

Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, is spot on:

It’s time to get real over Putin. He has not poured tanks and multiple-launch rocket systems over the Ukrainian border because he is about to settle for anything less than a weak Ukraine, sapped by low-level conflict in the Donetsk region, a country with its very own pro-Russian enclave à la Abkhazia or Transnistria, firmly within the Russian sphere of influence: the symbol of his definitive strategic turn away from closer cooperation with the West toward the confrontation that shores him up as oil prices and the currency plunge. He will not let Ukraine go.

There is a language Moscow understands: antitank missiles, battlefield radars, reconnaissance drones. Bolster the Ukrainian Army with them and other arms. Change Putin’s cost-benefit analysis. There are risks but no policy is risk-free. Recall that Ukraine gave up more than 1,800 nuclear warheads in exchange for that bogus commitment from Russia back in 1994 to respect its sovereignty and borders. Surely it has thereby earned the right to something more than night-vision goggles. The West’s current Ukraine diplomacy is long on illusion and short on realism. Two plus two equals four, in war and peace.

Merkel and Hollande as Putin´s useful idiots

Putin´s useful idiot

Angela Merkel and François Hollande seem to be happy acting as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin´s useful idiots. Fortunately, leading US representatives point out what their "peace initiative" in reality is: “Moscow bull****”.

A rift between Europe and the US over the Ukraine crisis appears to be growing after senior American figures reportedly compared the peace initiative by Angela Merkel and François Hollande to appeasement of Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War.

In a meeting attended by General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s military commander, and Victoria Nuland, the US’s most senior European diplomat, Angela Merkel was described as “defeatist” for her opposition to arming Ukrainian forces, according to details leaked to Bild newspaper.

Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande’s peace initiative was dismissed as “Moscow bull****” at the meeting of American delegates to the Munich Security Conference, held behind closed doors at the conference hotel.

Senator John McCain reportedly compared the initiative to the Munich Agreement in 1938 between Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the time, and Adolf Hitler, which allowed Nazi Germany to annexe the Sudetenland.

“History shows us that dictators will always take more if you let them,” Senator McCain allegedly said. “They will not be dissuaded from their brutal behaviour when you fly to meet them to Moscow – just as leaders once flew to this city.” The reported remarks came as a new peace summit to be held in Minsk on Wednesday was announced, following a phone call between Mrs Merkel, Mr Hollande, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president.

Putin more interested in Sochi ice show than in meeting "peace makers" Merkel and Hollande

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Friday gave two hours of his time to "peace makers" Angela Merkel and François Hollande, who travelled to Moscow without any real peace plan. Then Putin´s press service announced that the dictator has more important things to do - to attend an "anniversary ice show" celebrating the one year anniversary of the most corrupted Winter Olympics ever:

According to European diplomats, Putin had suggested reviving the Minsk agreement but with different ceasefire lines that recognised the territorial gains made by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. But that suggestion was rejected by Kiev.
The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the talks involved just the three leaders without delegations, aides or experts. Despite the late start, there seemed little chance of the talks going to a second day, as Putin’s press service announced he would spend Saturday in Sochi at an “anniversary ice show” celebrating one year since the start of the Winter Olympics. He said the three leaders would hold a four-way phone-call with Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko on Sunday to discuss the proposals.
As the day went on it became increasingly clear that Merkel and Hollande had come to Moscow without a comprehensive plan. Instead, they had a response to proposals Putin sent them in letters earlier in the week, in which he envisaged an expansion of territory under rebel control.

There seems to be no limits to the naivity of the German and French leaders.

Putin is evil

Western leders, particularly those in Europe, should read what Alexander J. Motyl, professor of political science at Rutgers University and an expert on Russia, has to say about Vladimir Putin:

Many people -- in Ukraine, Europe, America and even Russia -- probably share Biden and Putin's estimation of the Russian president's spiritual condition. In saying Putin has no soul, it means he seems to lack both the capacity to feel emotions and to show empathy.

Russia's leader certainly has a long record of inhumanity. He was an agent of the Soviet secret police, a criminal institution with a record that goes back to the purges of Stalin, a record more bloody than that of the Nazi SS.

 

John Dunlop of Stanford's Hoover Institution wrote in "The Moscow Bombings" that there is strong evidence to suggest that Putin was in on the plot to bomb two apartment buildings in Moscow in September 1999, in which 300 Russian citizens were killed and several hundred others were wounded. He says the bombings were blamed on Chechen rebels as a pretext to invade Chechnya.

Putin has funded, promoted, supplied and aided and abetted the Russian and pro-Russian terrorists in eastern Ukraine. And by invading Crimea, he created the conditions of war, hatred and fanaticism that led to the destruction of 298 innocent lives aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on that day of infamy, July 17.

Who are Ukraine's pro-Russia rebels?

Is Putin evil? His actions certainly are, if by evil we understand behavior that willfully, consciously and purposely destroys human life. Perhaps we can call his actions undeniably evil and Putin himself "evil enough." Evil enough for what? Evil enough for condemnation by people of good will.

How rebels in Ukraine built up an arsenal capable of reaching the skies

If Putin is "evil enough," what are the implications for policy-makers?

 

First, they should openly state that they condemn Putin's behavior. Because silence implies approval, policy-makers must understand that their moral standing, like that of the countries they represent, is on the line. Evil is indivisible. If they refuse to condemn this instance, they effectively surrender the right to condemn any instance of evil.

Second, they should refuse to shake his hand, engage in chitchat, attend photo ops with him and in any way create the impression that they accept his behavior as a socially acceptable. German Chancellor Angela Merkel would not hobnob with a German neo-Nazi; President Barack Obama would not have drinks with the head of the Ku Klux Klan. By extension, neither of them should hobnob with Putin at World Cup soccer games.

Third, policy-makers should avoid doing anything that aids and abets Putin's proclivities. Since those proclivities largely rest on his ability to employ armaments to cause death, any form of assistance to Putin's war machine or repressive apparatus is the moral equivalent of supplying barbed wire and bullets to Auschwitz.

 

A question to Francois Hollande

An excellent question:

Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63  ·  5h

Hollande still wants to sell warships to Putin. One question for him: Would he do so if it were 193 dead French on MH17, not Dutch?

David Camerons message to Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel: Stop selling arms to Russia

Kudos to David Cameron for speaking out:

The Prime Minister condemned France’s plans to continue with a €1.2 billion (£950 million) sale of warships to Russia. Germany, France and Italy are responsible for 90 per cent of defence exports to Russia, MPs were told.
Mr Cameron said: “We have already unilaterally, as have the US, said that we would not sell further arms to Russia. We believe other European countries should be doing the same thing. Frankly in this country it would be unthinkable to fulfil an order like the one outstanding that the French have. But we need to put the pressure on with all our partners to say that we cannot go on doing business as usual with a country when it’s behaving in this way.”
The US has also urged the French to suspend the Mistral deal. “The Americans are absolutely furious about the French still training Russian military personnel,” said a diplomatic source.

Davis Cameron is finally getting it: Russian billionaires have started to panic about asset freezes and travel bans

Finally, at least the British government begins to react in the proper way against Russia´s criminal dictator:

Vladimir Putin is a threat to Britain’s economy and the country must be prepared to take an “economic hit” by imposing sanctions to stop him, George Osborne has said.

Russia’s disregard for international borders and role in downing flight MH17 poses a risk to the economy that makes sanctions a necessary price to stop him.

Last night David Cameron told Putin in a “frank” phone call that his “cronies” will face further sanctions within days unless Russia withdraws its support for separatist fighters blamed for shooting down the Malaysia Airlines jet over Ukraine, killing 298 people including 10 Britons.

Russian billionaires close to Putin have started to panic, according to some business figures in Moscow. --

The asset freezes and travel bans could target large Russian companies listed on the London Stock Exchange such as Rosneft and Gazprom, the energy giants, as well as oligarchs who have supported Mr Putin. Britain will also push for arms deals to be halted, which could trigger conflict with France because it is selling warships to Russia.
Action against Russia’s elite is likely to harm investors, financiers and lawyers in the City of London where they do business, along with the real estate and luxury goods industries who count wealthy Russians among their clients.
The prospect of asset freezes and wider economic sanctions has left Russia’s business elite “in horror”, Igor Bunin the head of the Centre for Political Technology in Moscow, told Bloomberg news. However, they are terrified to speak out because of the threat of punishment. “Any sign of rebellion and they’ll be brought to their knees.”
Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as Prime Minister under Putin from 2000 to 2004, added: “The threat of sanctions against entire sectors of the economy is now very real and there are serious grounds for business to be afraid. If there will be sanctions against the entire financial sector, the economy will collapse in six months.”

Now we have to see, whether Putin´s de facto allies Germany and France will join in ...

Putin has blood on his hands - Merkel still speaks about "difficulties in the partnership"!

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands, but his de facto ally Angela Merkel still speaks about "difficulties in the partnership, which we have to overcome"(!):

"Events have shown there must be a political solution, and here it‘s all about Russia‘s responsibility for what is happening in Ukraine right now," she said at her annual press conference in Berlin.

She criticized President Vladimir Putin for failing to act to end the fighting in east Ukraine, where the Kremlin is believed to have sway over separatist rebels, who have rejected Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko‘s offer to extend a ceasefire.

"That gesture of goodwill was not used," said Merkel. "The Russian president has influence over these Russian separatists."

Merkel keeps in regular contact with Putin and said she expected to speak with him again soon.

"I can see no other way than to speak to Putin," she said. "There are difficulties in the partnership, which we have to overcome."

France and Italy are even more reluctant to seriously challenge Putin, as US senator Kelly Ayotte has pointed out:

The United States imposed tougher economic sanctions on Russia less than 24 hours before the attack, but some European leaders — perhaps worried that Russia may cut off energy exports to their countries — balked at punishing Russian President Vladimir Putin for his support of anti-Kiev fighters.
“Is there anything we can do to encourage Europe to stand up?” Mitchell asked, noting that French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi have refused to participate in tough sanctions.
“Well if this turns out what we think it’s going to be, given the strong circumstantial evidence of the Russian-backed separatists bringing down the plane — Europeans were murdered in this,” Ayotte replied. “This is an international outrage.”
“And the Europeans — if they aren’t willing to do the right thing, in light of this commercial plane going down and the innocent people that have been murdered — I think it’s up to the United States to really put on the pressure to shame them into stepping up their economic sanctions,” the senator declared.

The Economist on Russia's aggression in Ukraine: "Not to respond to renewed Russian meddling would be dangerous and wrong"

A correct Ukrainian description of Putin: Khuilo (dickhead).
(image by Wiki)

The Economist's editorial should be a wake up call to all appeasers in the west (such as David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Francoise Hollande). The dictator of the mafia state Russia must be stopped before its too late!:

Not to respond to renewed Russian meddling would be dangerous and wrong. If the rebels start losing ground, the Russians may step up their support. Mr Poroshenko still plans to sign the trade deal with the EU that was spurned by his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, last November, triggering the Maidan protests in Kiev that led to Mr Yanukovych’s departure. Ukraine’s government needs further support. The EU should accelerate efforts to become less reliant on Russian energy. That implies guarding against a gas cut-off by completing interconnectors that allow supply from the west as well as the east, searching for new gas sources and building more terminals for liquefied natural gas. It also means that the EU must pursue vigorously its antitrust case against Gazprom, which operates as a monopolistic arm of the Russian state, not a normal firm.--

A third round of sanctions is also needed. The goal of the first two rounds was to persuade Mr Putin to stop meddling in eastern Ukraine. So far he seems to have shelved thoughts of full-scale invasion, but he is intervening more than ever. Appeasers fret that fresh sanctions could provoke more Russian hostility. Yet, as NATO’s deputy secretary-general has noted, Russia has already chosen to treat NATO as an adversary, one reason why countries such as Sweden and Finland are considering joining (see Charlemagne). There is much scope for further Russian revanchism in places like Moldova or Georgia.
Experience shows that the only way to deter bullying is to stand up to it, even if that comes at a price. Having threatened a third round of sanctions, the West should make good on its threats—unless and until Mr Putin stops nakedly interfering in eastern Ukraine. Anything else would be an invitation.

Germany, France and the UK are unwilling NATO allies in the fight against Putin's aggression

In spite of some tough words, Germany, France and the UK are unwilling to do very much against dictator Vladimir Putin's aggression. Business interests dictate their lame response:

Yet the bigger surprise of March's Crimea crisis came from the west with Berlin's muted response to Russian aggression, and its rejection of Warsaw's calls for a stronger NATO response.

The German language has a new phrase for the political and business establishment's attitude: Russlandversteher, or "understanding Russia." Over half of Germans claim to "understand" Vladimir Putin's annexation of Crimea and the bloody conflict it is fomenting in Ukraine—in part blaming America's support for Kiev's democrats for provoking the Kremlin. A similar number oppose further sanctions on Russia. Chancellor Angela Merkel's rhetorically harder anti-Putin line finds little support in Germany.

For the past 25 years, the Poles were told that the new Germany would have their back. After German unification and the eastward expansion of the EU and NATO, as the reassuring slogan went, "When Germans now look East, they see the West"—namely Poland. Germany trades and invests more with Poland than with Russia. Yet Berlin's present approach evokes the memory of a Germany that once carved up Central Europe with Russia. No one's talking of another partition of Poland, but it's sobering to hear Polish officials grumble more about Berlin than about Moscow.

Further west, the continent's divisions get amplified. The French are moving ahead with the $1.6 billion sale of two Mistral naval assault vessels to Russia later this year over the objections of Washington and the newer NATO allies in Poland and the Baltic states. Britain has sold the City of London along with its soul for a pot of dirty Russian money.

 

Thus, the US remains Poland's only real ally, even under a weak president. One must hope that the next US president is somebody closer to the Reagan legacy than Barack Obama and somebody who would put real pressure on the main European NATO allies.

Masha Gessen on Putin in Normandy

Masha Gessen is spot on:

Vladimir Putin should not have been in Normandy, or anywhere where he might be treated like a legitimate world leader — but French President François Hollande invited him, and other Western leaders lacked either the desire or the leverage to object effectively. Putin’s presence at the D-Day festivities served to legitimize him and delegitimize the occasion.

The "leaders" of the Free World welcome Vladmir Putin back to the table

Once again Vladimir Putin, the thug masquerading as a president, has made a mockery of the "leaders" of the Free World. Obama, Hollande, Merkel, Cameron and the rest are nothing but a bunch of weaklings, who do not have the guts to seriously challenge Putin's aggression. It was clear from the beginning that the tough talk was nothing but a smokescreen:

It has taken Russia less than three months since its invasion of Ukraine to find its way back to the table with U.S. and European leaders

Most of Russia’s state media led with the news of the conversation, signaling how eager the Kremlin’s image-makers have grown to cast Putin as a welcome guest among his Western counterparts. --

That condemnation has now eased off of demands for Russia to return the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine, calling instead for Putin to “de-escalate” the ongoing conflict by reining in pro-Russian militants fighting to break away more of Ukraine. The West is now watching for Putin to recognize the legitimacy of his Ukrainian counterpart, and Moscow has signaled its willingness to do that after Poroshenko’s inauguration on Saturday. It would then be a matter of time before Kiev and Moscow come to the negotiating table to resolve their differences, giving Putin a chance to make amends with the West just a few months after invading his neighbor. Considering the price he would have paid in diplomatic isolation, the conquest of a peninsula with two million inhabitants would then start to look like a very good gamble indeed.

Read the entire Time Magazine article here

This is no suprise: François Hollande ready for business with Putin despite of his annexation of Crimea

It is really sad that the French will have to wait for another three years until they have a new president:

PARIS — President François Hollande of France will use D-Day commemorations next week as an opportunity to assume a more direct diplomatic role in the Ukraine crisis, becoming the first European leader to meet face to face with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia since the Western effort to isolate him for his annexation of Crimea.

Though Mr. Hollande and lower-ranking French officials have been in regular contact with Mr. Putin and his inner circle for months, the French have played a more quiet role on Ukraine than the Germans and Americans. Recently, Mr. Hollande joined Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on a phone call with Mr. Putin.

        

His scheduled meeting with the Russian president now constitutes the French president’s most prominent diplomatic foray into the Ukrainian crisis since it began. It follows France’s announcement that it would honor a deal worth 1.2 billion euros, or $1.6 billion, to deliver two Mistral-class warships to Russia even after its land grab in Ukraine, a decision that displeased France’s Western allies.

Read the entire article here

The New York Times editorial: "Some prominent Europeans are willing to ignore Mr. Putin's brutish ways"

The New York Times is right in pointing out that the European Union is to blame for the West's hitherto all too weak reaction against dictator Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine:

Yet given Mr. Putin’s demonstrative disdain for the Geneva agreements, along with the aggressive behavior of Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders and the continued occupation of administrative and security buildings in southeastern Ukrainian cities by Moscow-directed secessionists, such targeted penalties are not likely to change Russia’s behavior. And the sort that would — coordinated United States-European Union sanctions on financial institutions, the energy sector or defense industries — have proved very difficult to construct, largely because of the substantial difference between American and European exposure to Russia’s economy.

 

About a quarter of the European Union’s gas supplies come from Russia, and despite years of talk about reducing this dependence, little has been done. European Union trade with Russia, moreover, amounted to almost $370 billion in 2012, compared with United States-Russia trade of $26 billion. This includes some huge sales, like the two helicopter carriers France is building for the Russian Navy as part of a $1.6 billion deal signed in 2011. What that means is that any sanctions that really bite will cost Europe a lot more than the United States.

But there will be other costs if Europe and America do not join in a unified response. Among other things, a weak and fragmented response would call into question a longstanding trans-Atlantic commitment to protect international law and democratic values against the kind of aggression Mr. Putin is engaging in. And optics here are important: The decision of Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, to meet with Mr. Putin on Monday in St. Petersburg and embrace him in a bear hug sent an unacceptable signal that some prominent Europeans are willing to ignore Mr. Putin’s brutish ways.

 

This is another example of the fact that the European Union is once again unable to reach a common position on a matter of great importance. What kind of a member of NATO is e.g. France, which is selling helicopter carriers to a dictator with blood in his hands! Schröder is a hopeless case, but it is shameful that Germany's business leaders want to continue their co-coperation with Putin and his cronies as if nothing would have happened.

Environmental news from France: President Francois Hollande's scooter

                                                                    (image by wiki)

Model AMCA Troupes Aeról Portées Mle. 56 - modified by the French military that incorporated an anti tank weapon. It is not known whether M. Hollande uses a modernized version of this French military vehicle.
 

The latest environmental news from France:

Closer, echoing reports published on various websites in recent days, said Hollande routinely drives through Paris on his scooter to spend the night with his 41-year-old mistress.

Shouldn't France's socialist president Francois Hollande at least be complimented for using an environmentally friendly mode of transport during his nightly escapades?

Perhaps not:

When it comes to emissions of nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons – so-called smog-forming pollutants – motorcycles and scooters emit many times more per kilometre than cars and trucks. 2 stroke scooters are much worse than 4 stroke scooters when it comes to smog forming pollutants and, when it comes to smog, are worse than most cars.
In short, scooters produce fewer greenhouse gasses (GHG’s) than automobiles and GHG’s are the primary enemy of climate change. But scooters produce a lot more smog forming emissions than an automobile. These are the emissions that put a haze in the air and provide poor air quality for breathing.