Climate Change: UN and Rick Perry Opposed on the Science, Can a Deal Ever be Struck?

Ricky Perry is a proud global warming doubter and does not believe that human activity has an effect on the current warming trend. Added to this, the GOP Republican Presidential candidate believes that scientists have manipulated the evidence.

The United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon Wednesday called on the world to step up their efforts to fight global climate change. Rick Perry is most people's favourite to challenge President Obama in 2012. If Rick Perry is elected to the White House can the leaders of United States of America and the United Nations be so opposed on arguably the biggest issue that faces our plate today. Clearly work needs to be done.

Republican Presidential candidate Rick Perry is a staunch global warming doubter, something that could well cost him in his quest to challenge President Obama in the 2012 US election. In August Rick Perry grabbed the headlines in a controversial statement claiming that scientists had manipulated date of global warming. It also proves that Perry is not going to temper his anti-climate change views for the national electorate as he runs for president.

"I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized," Perry said. "I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects."

"I think we're seeing weekly, and even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that manmade global warming is what is causing the climate to change," Perry continued.

"The issue of global warming has been politicized," Perry said. "I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects." Perry's stand against not just the idea of climate change but the scientists who've set out to prove it contrasts with the views of his chief 2012 rival, Mitt Romney.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Thursday for the global community to step up their efforts to fight global climate change, while directly linking climate change to the droughts in Africa and the flooding across Australia. Speaking at the University of Sydney in Australia, Mr Ban criticized sceptics who challenge the science behind global warming and said climate change is real by saying that task in November must overcome political deadlock which marred the Copenhagen summit in 2009.

China and the U.S., the two biggest polluters in the world, have so far refused to back binding emission targets while Japan and Russia have said they will not back any extension of the Kyoto protocols.

Given that the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires next year, a political formula must be found to ensure that a robust, post-2012 climate regime is agreed on, and is not delayed by negotiating gamesmanship," he said.

The latest survey from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communications analysed the climate beliefs of members from each of the major US political parties, including those who self-identify as Tea Partiers. There has been little change in the beliefs of those who identify as belonging to the major political parties: 78% of Democrats said they believed climate change was happening, as did 71% of Independents and 53% of Republicans. But amongst those who say they're members of the Tea Party, just 34% said global warming was real.

If a new administration is elected in the US in 2012 there can be little to no hope for a deal on climate change at a time where the world needs it most.