Cancun vs. Copenhagen
Ahh Cancun. Sun, sand, se... you get the idea.
You would think that paler-than-santa-claus journalists would love the opportunity to head down to Cancun, and write all about the latest round of climate talks for the UN.
A year ago, Copenhagen was a big deal. A huge deal. We heard about it all the time, for weeks and weeks. And then, when it came around... more or less nothing happened. All of the countries agreed that... well.. they said they would agree to agree to something in the future and would try some stuff on their own. Actually, some of them did not even agree to that.
So... Copenhagen was setting up the agreement, and now with Cancun, they can all get together and get closer to a real agreement. Right?... right?
Interestingly though, there have been 1% as many news stories about Cancun as there have been about Copenhagen at the same point. 1%. That's pretty damn low my friends.
And why this sea change? Simple. No one gives a shit.
You see, there are things that are real, and that matter. These things include your job, your family, your home. In the bigger picture are the economy etc etc. Being green... well, you can take care of that when all of the more important things are all set. And preventing climate change? Well - that's a pretty goddamn difficult thing to pin down anyway, even more so than whether you should recycle (hint: on anything but aluminum, recycling probably does not make any sense where you live). This is even more difficult after the hackers of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit showed the world that a large portion of climate science is based on bullshit. While that does not mean the conclusions are "wrong," it does mean that they are utter crap. A monkey with a dart might be able to pick winnings stocks, but his monthly newsletter would still be as useful as
A year ago somehow the world was riding this wave of hope (which coincided with economic meltdown... yeah... odd that...) and everyone hoped that we would be saved from billions of dollars in damages by cutting trillions of dollars out of our economies. A year later... and well... for how many of you is this the first time you have read about the UN summit in Cancun? Yeah, I thought so.
You would think that paler-than-santa-claus journalists would love the opportunity to head down to Cancun, and write all about the latest round of climate talks for the UN.
A year ago, Copenhagen was a big deal. A huge deal. We heard about it all the time, for weeks and weeks. And then, when it came around... more or less nothing happened. All of the countries agreed that... well.. they said they would agree to agree to something in the future and would try some stuff on their own. Actually, some of them did not even agree to that.
So... Copenhagen was setting up the agreement, and now with Cancun, they can all get together and get closer to a real agreement. Right?... right?
Interestingly though, there have been 1% as many news stories about Cancun as there have been about Copenhagen at the same point. 1%. That's pretty damn low my friends.
And why this sea change? Simple. No one gives a shit.
You see, there are things that are real, and that matter. These things include your job, your family, your home. In the bigger picture are the economy etc etc. Being green... well, you can take care of that when all of the more important things are all set. And preventing climate change? Well - that's a pretty goddamn difficult thing to pin down anyway, even more so than whether you should recycle (hint: on anything but aluminum, recycling probably does not make any sense where you live). This is even more difficult after the hackers of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit showed the world that a large portion of climate science is based on bullshit. While that does not mean the conclusions are "wrong," it does mean that they are utter crap. A monkey with a dart might be able to pick winnings stocks, but his monthly newsletter would still be as useful as
A year ago somehow the world was riding this wave of hope (which coincided with economic meltdown... yeah... odd that...) and everyone hoped that we would be saved from billions of dollars in damages by cutting trillions of dollars out of our economies. A year later... and well... for how many of you is this the first time you have read about the UN summit in Cancun? Yeah, I thought so.
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