In the heat of the day, with the very best crew, Sir Branson was flying quite far from the ground, enjoying the view of our planet so blue, when he heard a distinct, but a very small sound...
Sir Branson looked down. He looked toward the sound,
"That's funny," he thought, "There's no one around."
Then he heard it again! Just a very faint yelp
As if some tiny voices were calling for help.
He looked and he looked, and could see nothing there
But some specks far below his great plane in the air.
He ordered his pilot down toward the Pacific
And the specs that he saw became more specific:
The small island nations soon came into view:
Fiji, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Nauru,
Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and more
The Solomon Islands, Tonga, so small they're all shore,
Tuvalu and Vanuatu appeared to his eye
It was suddenly clear the dear source of the cry:
The islanders were crying that they soon might die!
With the ocean warming and rising each year,
They fear that the end of their islands is near!
Sir Branson knew that this just isn't right
He's powerful, kind and what's more, he's a knight.
He held the small hand of the smallest young lad
"We must prove climate change is not just a fad!"
Sir Branson climbed with the lad up the Tuvalu Tower
"This," cried Sir Branson, "is our world's darkest hour!"
"The time for all folks who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of our planet!" He said,
"We've got to make noises in greater amounts!
So open your mouth lad, for every voice counts!"
Thus the world heard the lad and the plight of his nation,
And people took note, even those on vacation.
From installing solar, to using less gas,
Folks 'round the world responded en masse!
For the small island boy was the coal mine's canary
And showed the whole word: climate change is real scary!
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held by those dead set on a fossil fuel binge,
who want to dig deeper, lop off mountains, fill streams,
to fuel their outmoded American Dreams;
Treating our land like an asset liquidation,
with hardly a thought for the next generation.
While we fiddle debating which fuel to burn,
other nations invest in green tech that we spurn.
While we war, clean up spills, watch our economy sputter,
they invest in infrastructure and education, leaving us in the gutter.
It's about clean air, stable climes and fuel costs of zero;
Despite what you say, I say Branson's a hero.
But when it comes to the science, of climate explicit, your views are somewhat absurd.
Please dig 'neath the hype, the overdone tripe, the politicised agitation
You'll find much to like, with truth in full sight, and no CO2 consternation.
For sadly to say, in an emotive way, and I don't really want to lecture,
But demented claims, the alarmist refrains, are based on feeble conjecture.
The record is plain, some places have warmed, and some cooled over recent generations
The overall trend, an average computed, shows a warming of modest dimensions
With that gentle warming, we escaped the Little IA, and we should be most pleased to so do
For the spectre of cold, in stories oft told, is much worse for me and for you.
The role of that gas, which we exhale in each breath, is minor indeed in the climate
But there are those, we suppose, for whom the opposite view is a mandate.
Their careers get a boost, on high perches they roost, and expose all and sundry to trauma.
But their platform is vain, the facts they disdain, in favour of computer programming
For positive feedback, which their models don't lack, is in our air very thankfully lacking.
Their models are guff, and not good enough, for forecasts they admit to be dire
Yet they talk from their printouts, their preset projections,and act like the world is on fire.
Look, gentle Lisa, at the facts on the ground
See, for yourself, there is nothing profound.
The sky is not falling.
The seas don't run high.
The ice is no different
From times now gone by.
Our pollution decreases, our efficiency grows, we look for countless improvements
No need to destroy it, no need to despair, no need for fanatical movements.
The fact that that it isn't, warming that is, will soon make him look like a fool.
I can reveal to you, Lisa, my plans - as 1000.org comes along
And I'm penning the words to 'More CO2' as a soon-to-be chart-topping song
For this wonderful gas is life-giving and gentle
And gives this planet its pretty green mantle
And only in models electronic does it harm our good sky up above
If you knew a bit more about it, I'm sure you would soon fall in love.
For CO2 goes up as it gets warmer, it has done this for many an aeon
And when it gets cooler, in a global-like way, the levels will start to go down
Now take a look at the big picture, the Holocene right to our day
You'll find we've been cooling on average, our interglacial is doomed in its way.
You must be getting your facts from Fox
I hope that you're right and that no one will suffer
But Check 350.org, since we might we might need a buffer
Even the Oil loving W administration
admitted climate change was real - I sense your frustration
I speak for the children, I don't mean to hound
But we might not get a SecondTime around...
With 'More CO2 Please' as a leading pop-song
For a gas so good and gentle
It gives us our green mantle
And has never been shown (date this Fall)
To impact our climate at all.
The gas comes out more when temperatures rise
And falls back again upon their demise.
It has done this for years, for many an aeon
To argue else is but a delusion.
Climate change is most certainly real
We can see that and often can feel
How some winters are colder than others
And some summers can give one the shivers
No effect of CO2 on our weather has ever been shown
And the political hype is just too overblown
Only in models electronic, and set to show an effect,
Does CO2 do as it is told by a sinister sect
They care not for children - they'll scare them for votes
And nor for real science - since real data denotes
That our climate has been cooling for six thousand years
And another little cooling may well soon appear.
The warmist alarmists will not disappear
(They love their power to cause panic and fear)
Instead they will spin like a precessing top
And adjust a parameter in their modelling shop
Our models do cold as well they will cry
The warming is merely delayed in the sky
So listen to us and destroy your lifestyle
Buy carbon indulgences from Gore all the while
The fact that that it isn't, warming that is, will soon make him look like a fool.
I can reveal to you, Lisa, my plans - as 1000.org comes along
And I'm penning the words to 'More CO2' as a soon-to-be chart-topping song
For this wonderful gas is life-giving and gentle
And gives this planet its pretty green mantle
And only in models electronic does it harm our good sky up above
If you knew a bit more about it, I'm sure you would soon fall in love.
For CO2 goes up as it gets warmer, it has done this for many an aeon
And when it gets cooler, in a global-like way, the levels will start to go down
Now take a look at the big picture, the Holocene right to our day
You'll find we've been cooling on average, our interglacial is doomed in its way.
I see you're a skeptic, since you're so contrarian.
In terms of science, the evidence is strong
that our fossil fuel addiction is unhealthy - it's wrong.
It's not just what I say, nor what Sir RB says
I wonder why you support taking chances?
A gamble is one thing when it's done in Las Vegas
but we're talking about life, for all time, for all ages...
But I beg to differ this way
The weather we've had is not strange
It is all within the historical range
The ice comes and goes as before
Sea-levels so sluggish - a bore
The hurricanes are not getting worse
Tho' storms are sometimes a curse
Only in computer contraptions
Does CO2 drive climate disruptions
In the world we enjoy it does not
It scarce seems to matter a jot
It drives not a thing 'cept kids witless
And the egos of people quite ruthless
Sir Richard is not known for his scientific nous
The rest of us, you know, are perfectly able
To see CO2 as the perfect wild goose.
"Foreign airlines are threatened with a flight and landing ban from 2012 in the European Union if they do not participate in emissions trading.
The ban is proposed in an internal document by the EU Commission seen by Handelsblatt. Summarised on nine pages, the guidelines describe how such a ban could be implement. The Commission considers a flight and landing ban as a last resort to make the airlines surrender over its Emissions Trading Scheme."
From the German publication, Handelsblatt