Copenhagen Goals Scaled Back: World Leaders Put Off Climate Change Treaty

TIME:

Confirming doubts that had been growing for months, the world leaders in attendance at APEC -- along with Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen -- announced on Sunday morning that a legally binding deal on climate change would be impossible to achieve at the U.N. summit on global warming in Copenhagen next month.

Read the whole story: TIME

Comments

[realpolitic]

We risk, by ignoring climate change, letting China become the center for green technologies. We could lead the world in green technology development here in America, but if we do not start soon may lose it to others.

"At a high level, the position of companies such as GE and venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers --and many others--is that developing low-carbon products and services will serve both economic and environmental goals: low-carbon technologies, such as efficient lighting or solar, can revitalize American industry and curb greenhouse gases."

"Doerr and Immelt's piece strikes at the heart of the energy and environment policy debate in the U.S. There are a number of technologies that can displace fossil fuel use right now and new technologies, such as plug-in electric vehicles, hold more promise."

[Richard2]

If the Copenhagen Conference is going to be scaled back, then why not scale back the immense size of this gathering. Reportedly 20,000 people are planning to attend this conference. This must be a huge expense to the governments of the world. If the conference is being scaled back, then each nation should also be scaling back its actual participation.

In the current difficult financial situation the world faces, a conference that has been scaled back by top leaders should be a prime candidate for actually being scaled back in size and scope.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

Does it say the conference is being scaled back? I didn't read that.

[realpolitic]

No, he is a dedicated propagandist.

[Please-Play-Fair]

Who cares about the cost per country ... what about the affects to the environment to send 20,000 people ... .most by private jet!!

[realpolitic]

We need more meetings like this one and not fewer ones. As Secretary of Energy Chu said,

"It is the first such meeting, and we hope that it will be the first of many, in a long series of meetings, that could actual – that would substantially improve both the EU and the United States ability to transition to a clean, sustainable energy economy. These transitions are extremely important, both for our energy security, for our mutual economic development, and of course, for the climate of the world. And so I'm looking very much forward to fruitful discussions today."

[denny8844]

Here is the great unspoken expose and scandal, one that no one will utter publicly, that the leaders of the world are starting to have their scientific advisors whisper in their ear with doubts about the efficacy of the studies and the soundness of the predictions of global warming. You see it as a trickle in the evidence and in actions of the media that show some interest in whether the global warming that has been experienced was in fact anthropogenic and more importantly whether we are in fact heading to a prolonged cooling of the earth and no one wants to get too far ahead in the coming decade when the overwhelming evidence starts to prove that we are cooling off. Who wants to look like a fool, Even some formerly strong proponents are raising questions that at this time cannot be answered. Will we have to dig thru glacial material to get to Al Gore's house to retrieve the Nobel Prize

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

You think that is what Chu and Holdren are saying to Obama?

Get a grip- it is the opposite.

http://www.state.gov/s/d/2009/131344.htm

[BannedNBoston]

What we need is a COAL TAX payable to the states.
Legalize hemp we need a textile industry again.
MADE IN USA HEMP GARMENTS NOT IMPORTED.

Hemp 6x more btus than corn
Hemp 6x more fiber than cotton
Hemp 1,000 gallons of hemp diesel per acre Canola 133 gallons per acre.

[fumes]

and hemp stalks instead of coal..

much cleaner.

[Spiky Kitten]

And our children sneaking off into the fields at night - priceless.

[realpolitic]

Who is working on ending abortion will you are fiddling away here?

[argentino]

and carlin, part 6:

"Well, that's a poetic note. And it's a start. And I can dream, can't I? See I don't worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we're part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron." The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn't punish; it doesn't reward; it doesn't judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while."

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

That is a bit defeatists don't you think?

[argentino]

carlin, part 5:

"So! So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that it has already started already, don't you? I think, to be fair, the planet probably sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And I am sure the planet will defend itself in the manner of a large organism, like a beehive or an ant colony, and muster a defense. I am sure the planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet trying to defend against this pesky, troublesome species? "Let's see... What might... Hmm.. Viruses! Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh...viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction."

[argentino]

carlin, part 4:

"The planet will be here for a long, long — LONG — time after we're gone, and it will heal itself; it will cleanse itself, because that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover; the earth will be renewed; and, if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the Earth plus plastic! The Earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, "Why are we here?" "Plastic! Arse-holes.

[argentino]

carlin, part 3:

"We're going away. Pack your s**t, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet will be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet is doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, "How the planet's doing?" You wanna know if the planet's all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room."

[argentino]

carlin, part 2:

"Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f****d. Difference. Difference! The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what? A hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles; hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors; worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages... And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet... the planet... the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!"

[argentino]

george carlin said it best:

"We're so self-important. So self-important! Everybody's going to save something now. "Save the trees; save the bees; save the whales; save those snails." And the greatest arrogance of all, "Save the planet." WHAT? Are these f*****g people kidding me? Save the planet? We don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the f*****g planet?"

and

"I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a s**t about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me."

[Bryan Castille]

I find it endlessly amusing that, up until Al Gore's Nature Gone Wild was released, the global warming discussion was...a discussion. Then, suddenly hurricanes are blowing in from outer space and the sun is exploding and we have only days left before total annihilation. I mean, this has gotten ridiculous. Now, every natural phenomena, from soil erosion to warming cycles, from water evaporation to monsoon seasons, is being reinterpreted as a global warming event. And the worst part is, most of the folks who are screaming GLOBAL WARMING aren't scientists, know nothing about science, and serve as proxy propagandists by regurgitating all the faux-science they read in Newsweek, Huffington Post, and whatever other rag is failing to get to the facts.

[TimnySlagle]

Why are we still flogging this horse?

We need to realize that reducing CO2 is IMPOSSIBLE.

Humans produce lots of CO2, it isn't going to change. Ever.

Deal with it

[shockmagog]

Another reason why the Republican party is forever d.e.a.d.

[sc300nc]

Keep up the good work fellow patriots. We can and we are making a difference. These tax revenue generating programs disguised as "climate change" or "healthcare reform" are nothing but new feed for the gov't hogs.

[Bryan Castille]

thank God.

And why does Obama and company look like they just stepped off the USS Enterprise?

[DangerClose]

Good! ... all this green babble makes me wanna hurl. The best thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down. Its replenishable. Why dont you freaks check out Lord Monkton? Monkton, along with the top climatologist guru at MIT just released 20 years of " MEASURED DATA" not some "computer model" which Gore uses. The data clearly debunks all this climate change bullship... Now Im gonna go put some gas in my F250 and work on my carbon footprint :)