Copenhagen summit fails

[mateykatie]

There is no legally binding agreement.

This was just a photo-call for the politicians. Climate change is a very serious problem, but these so-called leaders are more interested in narcissistic grandstanding.

I am particularly disappointed with Obama. I thought he was a genuine leader rather than just another politician, but he seems to be all rhetoric. What's the point of being persuasive if you're so timid when it comes to the crunch?

So much of the problem in selling these ideas is the fundamental lack of understanding of human psyschology. Forcing authoritarian targets and pain on people in the name of ideology isn't going to win much goodwill, especially when so many are so sceptical of climate change anyway.

How about some environmental policies that actually appeal to people? Carrots instead of sticks? Saving money on electricity bills by providing grants for insulation, instead of more and more tax? How about more renewables anyway, independent of what other countries do? Why do we need global targets, when becoming more self-sufficient is great for us anyway?

The worst thing about Copenhagen is the ridiculous ramping. Surely managing expectations is the most basic political skill? Sell results, not hopes.

Not to mention the obvious. The BBC news at 10 shows Obama's plane landing in a Copenhagen covered in snow. What idiot decided to hold a conference on global warming in such a cold place?

Pathetic, the lot of them.

Think it is worth posting a highlight/excerpt from the Guardian article Justine linked:

''Everyone more or less agrees by now that the climate-change talks at Copenhagen were a failure. While it has been fashionable to blame Barack Obama, a British man who was inside the negotiations lays the blame squarely at the feet of China. ?China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful ?deal? so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame,? Mark Lynas writes for the Guardian. It was China, not the U.S. or any other western country, that insisted an 80-percent emissions-reduction target for rich countries by 2050 be taken out of the deal. "Why can't we even mention our own targets?" Angela Merkel apparently fumed. Lynas says that the move was probably because China predicted?correctly?that Obama would be blamed. Lynas writes, ? I saw Obama fighting desperately to salvage a deal, and the Chinese delegate saying ?no,? over and over again.?

But it doesn't really matter if humans are on the planet for 5 minutes or 4 minutes .999 which is all the climate change stuff is on about. Waste of time but it suits a lot of people's political interests so let them get on with it

It's just very human supremicist though to go on about wanting to maintain humans on the planet or assuming mother earth prefers to have more trees on her or certain levels of water rather than gas. You can just see God or other forms of life out there in the universe having a huge laugh at our expense.