Monday, December 28, 2009

COPENHAGAN MADNESS 2

Well the grand meeting fully sponsored by the long suffering taxpayers of the world has ended in abject failure.

Copenhagen where assorted world leaders, dictators, NGO’s and any number of fringe loonies and tens of thousands of assorted “hangers on” literally burnt millions upon millions of dollars. In an oh so predictable and futile attempt to come to an agreement on what to do about climate change we witnessed waste on scale that boggles the mind.

Of course, what any self respecting voter in a democracy should be asking is what on earth were their elected representative s doing at meeting that started with despots like Mugabe the murderous tyrant of Zimbabwe and the socialist loon of Venezuela President Hugo Chávez hectoring and lecturing various democracies on how they should behave in providing for their people? It would be funny in a Monty Pythonish way, if we weren’t funding these murderous loons and people dying because of it. Of course, they all had their hands out for free cash with no accountability. Does anyone really think that any money sent to Mugabe and his blood soaked henchmen would really reach any environmental program????

Closer to home, a young lass from Fiji delivered a heartfelt, stirring speech imploring world leaders do something so her children and her countries children have a future in 2050 and before her island is swamped under raising seas. Of course, no one has pointed out to the poor lass that since 1992 the average tidal rise in Fiji has been 5.3mm a year, much of which may well be attributed to uncontrolled removal of ground water and tectonic plate movement. Even if absolutely due to Climate Change, she is looking at about a 26 cm rise by the year 2050. The population is not going to be standing waste deep in water particularly on the main island (home to 70% of the population) where Mountains rise to over 1324m. Perhaps Fiji should send money to England where the highest mountain is 978m, seems much more at risk. Naturally, nothing was said about the future of Fiji’s children living under a military regime after an illegal coup.

Even closer to home, the nonsense took on gigantic proportions with the Mayor of Jakarta (and his assorted hangers on) declaring that Jakarta was a green city. A description that defies belief and left those trapped in environmental disaster called Jakarta choking even more than usual. Meanwhile the Indonesian President announced Carbon Reduction targets that were simply breath taking in their scope and time frames. We all awaiting with eager anticipation of the forest protection policies that will produce such result, to save us being cynical someone could point to just one government sponsored environmental program that has produced verifiable, and accountable results.

Now perhaps the nonsense is over, real people can get back to doing something for the environment.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Stump,

I wonder whether the next conference will have better result that the one in Copenhagen.

oigal said...

Hi Harry,

One would hope so but I doubt it. Unfortunately the next conference will quickly turn into a poverty and us vs them free for all and hi-jacked by the self absorbed. A shame it would be good to see some accountable processes put into place an results delivered on the environment.

Who knows some smart countries might realise there is a lot to be gained by allowing themselves to be set up as models for future environment investments.

Unknown said...

Stump,

Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.

oigal said...

Thanks Harry..

Happy New Year to you and yours as well. I look forward to your comments in the new year!

Jakartass said...

Hi O.

Nice post, and you may not believe this, but I wholeheartedly concur. However, do bear in mind that Fiji is a collection of many islands, many of which are low-lying atolls.

Meanwhile, in a recent post I suggested that you may have something to say about the toilet paper (t)issue.