President Barack Obama spoke on the last day of climate talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The President called on all major economies to put forward decisive national actions that will reduce their emissions and turn the corner on climate change.
Excerpt From NYT’s ClimateWire, By DARREN SAMUELSOHN AND LISA FRIEDMAN
Obama Tries to Rally U.N. Climate Conference, but Deadlock Persists
Behind the scenes, dozens of presidents and prime ministers worked on a three-page document that they hope will become the lone outcome of the two-week negotiations here.
But the blame game is also under way with more than 115 heads of state in Copenhagen — many with years of work and their prestige on the line — struggling to bridge a divide between the world’s rich and poor nations. Several major industrialized countries pointed the finger at China for balking at demands to ensure their emission commitments would be open for public scrutiny.
A hush fell over the entire Bella Center during Obama’s eight-minute speech (pdf). He took on climate skeptics with his opening words and then made an all-out push for a collective agreement.
“While the reality of climate change is not in doubt, I have to be honest, as the world watches us today, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now and it hangs in the balance,” he said. “I believe we can act boldly, and decisively, in the face of a common threat. That is why I have come here today. Not to talk, but to act.”
But with nearly 200 countries handing the negotiations over to their heads of state after two brutal weeks of gridlock, those talks have yet to bear any fruit.
China’s leader ignores compromise meeting
Obama and 19 other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met for about 90 minutes in the Bella Center trying to find a compromise.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao boycotted the meeting and instead sent his vice foreign minister, He Yafei. In remarks to reporters, Sarkozy noted the protocol breach and said an agreement remained out of reach because of Beijing’s resistance to emissions monitoring.
Read the rest of the story at the New York Times: Obama Tries to Rally U.N. Climate Conference, but Deadlock Persists
Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, should be given a Gallileo Award for having the sense to stay out of the Copenhagen decisions. It seems likely that he is on side with India and China and knows a “scam” when he sees one !
[need valid email address to post here ~ charles the moderator]
I’m not sure what “TROWAL” is, the discussions are written for meteorologists and weather geeks.
TROWAL Trough with warm air aloft – I think, hey it has been 33 years since meteorology classes.
The point being that the TROWAL and the embedded instability will enhance the snowfall rates.
Deadman (08:40:12) :
“… All of you would not be here unless you — like me [3] — were convinced that this danger is real. [4] This is not fiction, it is science. [5] Unchecked, climate change will …”
Actually, there were a few punctuation mistakes in the transcription. – corrected version :
“… All of you would not be here unless you like me. We’re convinced that this danger is real. This is not fiction. It is science, Unchecked. …”
Big O’s Copenhagen speech fell flat. It even sounded flat The ever-observant El Rushbo pointed out the reason. For every domestic speech Obama’s ever made, he’s had a measure of RReevverrb-b-b added in, but he didn’t control the microphones at Copenhagen.
Without the reverb, his speeches sound about as exciting as George W’s.
I love when he talks about the importance of reducing the US’s dependence on foreign oil.
Among the countries he’s addressing, of course, are all the ones we buy it from. He’s all class, that one… does he even KNOW who he’s talking to? Does he care?
As to the suggestion of giving Obama a break for (perhaps) genuinely not realizing it’s bogus, I have two things to say:
1) I seriously doubt that he could really care less about whether or not it’s real. AGW is just a tool to be used towards his nefarious political ends. If anything he seems agitated that the conference, if not the whole AGW movement itself, is self-destructing. He knows that neither eventuality will bode well for him.
2) As a President trying to lead his country into multi-trillion dollar decisions, it’s his job to find out for sure what the deal is. There are no excuses for getting this wrong. He’s in the majors now – he deserves to take his lumps for his mistakes.
And, yeah, the snowstorm – while meaningless – is still pretty funny.
Re: Buddenbrook (13:00:53) : I agree with you. It takes many many hours of deep research and patience to get a feel of it, and then be able to put your hand on your heart and speak from knowledge.
Sure “Smokey (14:25:00)”, it IS politicized. But don’t worry, they won’t be giving away your money so easily.
The problem is where to go from here.
Personally, many of my friends happen to be left-leaning believers, and are mostly well meaning, but certainly prone to grandstanding, like all of us. But we will never bring our friends around by beating them over the head with aggressive political arguments, no matter how much fun that is! There is a common ground and we have to stake it out and then build on that.
Stick with the science and the statistics, and if you don’t feel qualified on those then look to arguments from common sense. Political mud slinging has no useful role in this debate.
Hmmmm …. “The time for talk is over” has a very familiar ring to it! For the statistically inclined, the following is a link to Google search results using criteria:
Obama +”time for talk is over” -“climate change” -Copenhagen
Date range: 1/01/2009 to 12/15/2009
http://tinyurl.com/ycjlzpz
Random sampling of topics treated to this line (or slight variants thereof): Economic Stimulus, Health Care Reform, Environment (natch!), Israel, Iran, etc.
Seems to be one of his favourite lines. Oh, well, at least he’s not preaching “hope ‘n change” anymore. But he really does need to stop looking down his nose while he’s trying to pretend that he’s not depending on TOTUS:
PJTV Video: “Above the People, In Spite of the People, Not For the People”
http://www.pjtv.com/v/2846
If the “reality of climate change” was not in doubt, there would be no reason to say it. The only logic behind this is that “reality of climate change” is indeed in doubt, and he knows it.
Well, by this time it is OVER. They have agreed not to agree. Remarkable!
This is almost nothing. #Obama flew outta #COP15 before the ‘#Copenhagen Accord final draft’ was even finished: http://scribd.com/doc/24293958
Did anybody else notice that Obama looked really tired in his initial speech to the assembly and throughout. He didn’t sleep going over and was operating on sleep deprevation the whole time there. Dumbass.
Carsten Arnholm, Norway (17:48:05) said:
Actually, the reality of climate change is not in doubt, at least in my mind. However, this is the bait and switch that the MSM and the AGW morons promote.
Of course the climate changes on scales from decades to centuries.
What has not been established, in my mind, and is highly unlikely, is that humans will cause such large temperature changes by producing CO2 that the planet will be inhospitable to us.
I do accept, however, that we have affected climate on local scales because of land-use changes (cf, Kilimanjaro).
Buddenbrook (13:00:53) : Said
“What has this anti-Obama venom visibly and overwhelmingly present in this and the other thread got to do with the criticism of CAGW? It’s poisonous, politicized and unwarranted…..”
That is easy to answer. It is all about MONEY, no actuaully it is about National Bankruptcy Obama and Congress have bankrupted this country and AGW is just another con game to grab more of our wealth before we finally are completely bankrupt as a country.
In the first three months of this year Obama DOUBLED the USA money supply. This means a 2009 dollar is worth half of what a 2007 dollar was worth. I am certainly not alone in being horrified at how Obama has mismanaged this country.
I am amazed that the US government, in the midst of the worst financial crises ever, is content for short-selling to drive down the asset prices that the government is trying to support….The bald fact is that the combination of ignorance, negligence, and ideology that permitted the crisis to happen still prevails and is blocking any remedy. Either the people in power in Washington and the financial community are total dimwits or they are manipulating an opportunity to redistribute wealth from taxpayers, equity owners and pension funds to the financial sector. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury http://www.countercurrents.org/roberts250209.htm
That is bad enough but what really frightens me is this: Stewart Dougherty, a specialist in inferential analysis, stated. It is now “statistically impossible for the United States to pay its obligations”. http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/08.09/metastasis.html
Now on top of that mess Obama is pushing an agenda designed to hamstring our economy, raising taxes, give away more of our wealth and worse raising the cost of energy. As far as I am concerned Obama, Clinton and several members of Congress should be up on charges of treason!
Bill Clinton wrecked the economy beyond repair on November 2 ,1999 with the repeal of Glass-Stegall which tore down the wall between investment banks and S&Ls. This lead to the feeding frenzy known as leveraged buyouts that gutted much of American industry by heavily mortgaging healthy debt free businesses. Barney Frank (D-Mass) also has his fingerprints all over the mess with the passage of the Community Reinvestment Act which required lenders to make risky loans to low-income minorities to purchase housing. You can add Clinton’s ratification of WTO that is directly responsible for the deaths and suffering of Americans as well as shipping what was left of our jobs overseas.
WTO brought us the international HACCP regs to replace “the safest food system in the world” and Just like AGW “food Safety” is being used to take away more of our freedom, benefit the rich Corporations and is based completely on lies, lies the politicians are fully aware of after TWO Congressional investigations. Waxman is sponsoring both the Cap and Trade and the “Food Folly” bills. Surprise Surprise
References on the deaths and suffering of Americans caused by WTO/HACCP
http://www.marlerblog.com/2009/07/articles/lawyer-oped/one-e-coli-o157h7-outbreak-i-think-i-could-have-prevented/
http://www.mfu.org/node/276
http://www.opednews.com/articles/History-HACCP-and-the-Foo-by-Nicole-Johnson-090906-229.html
“Ain’t it interesting that subsequent to the detection of positives at downstream plants, agency personnel spend 99% of their time reviewing written records, as if the presence of enteric pathogens is created by the absence of a theoretically complete written HACCP Plan. They show a callous disregard for what is happening on the meat production line, or the high probability that enteric pathogens come into the plant in incoming shipments. Naw, let’s dissect written records instead. Egads, HACCP has degenerated into a paper chase, so we should not be surprised when outbreaks and recalls continue….” http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/blog/BlogDetail.aspx?blogID=11&topicID=4947
COP15: The fraudulent using the fallacious to achieve the farcical.
The most funny thing in this talk was a lady passing the back of the speaker. She destroys the solemnity of the speach and thereby symbolizes the farcialness of the stage.
“Robin Flockton (16:54:01) :
Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, should be given a Gallileo Award for having the sense to stay out of the Copenhagen decisions. It seems likely that he is on side with India and China and knows a “scam” when he sees one !”
Harper was possibly the most productive politician at the Copenhagen Circus. He had dinner with the Queen of Denmark. Hopefully he was working on resolving the boundry dispute Canada has with Denmark.
OT – Any bets that M&M are awarded the Order of Canada?
I can’t wait for the Progressive “thinkers” here in the U.S. to start telling us , “See all the money we’ve ‘saved’ due to the collapse of cap and tax? Electricity bills won’t have to skyrocket! Hey, now we can spend the trillions we’ve saved on something almost as worthy,
ruiningfixing Healthcare in America! And it will be ‘budget neutral’ for everyone because it will be only the ‘savings’ we will need to take from you to pay for it!”Well, Obama did not leave Copenhagen empty handed as he closed a new nuclear arms reduction deal with Russia, which won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on.
When that announcement was made it was evident that Copenhagen was dead, at least for now. Any future treaty will still be called the Copenhagen name.
In the mean time:
ClimateGate is still expanding.
The Media are “turning”
Weather is on our hands
Very nice to hear that the US team took off seven hours earlier than planned to prevent a landing in Blizzard conditions in Washington.
I am not sure however if we can stop the process of creating a World Government.
There are other ways to achieve such an objective but I fail to see the sense of it.
It is an incredible huge step back.
I am more convinced than ever that the UN and the EU have become a major embarrassment.
What has happened to Lord Monckton is an absolute disgrace, as is the behavior of people like Pachauri, Gore and Schneider, the treatment of critical journalists, the suppression of free speech, all this should not been taken lightly.
The last words about his have not been said.
We can’t afford to let them get away with it.
“President Barack Obama spoke on the last day of climate talks…”
yawn
Would somebody PLEASE take their village idiot back? Indonesia? Kenya?
He was supposedly White House trained, though we haven’t seen evidence – he just keeps pissing in the wind and we’re getting tired of it getting all over us!
Can’t believe that Pompous POTUS, burning up a zillion gallons of fuel, to get to Hoax-en-Hagen, just in time to underwhelm the world!
Oh, in case Aligory is missing, here is a UAV photo of Phelim McAleer, taken in a parking lot in Hoax-en-hagen (photo courtesy of Islamist hackers):
http://tinyurl.com/ygua47e
Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd told the Australian Media today, “It was tough, but at least we have an agreement which is better than no agreement at all.”
And you Americans think you have a lot to put up with regarding your political leaders. A famous politician once said to me about a forthcoming election, “The trouble with elections is we vote in politicians but we never get rid of the bureaucrats”.
Global Warming? Snow in Saudi Arabia…
For those of you wondering what we will be doing next in Copenhagen I can tell that a camping exhibition will take place in the Bella Center soon.
I’m guessing Obama won’t attend – not even among the kitchen staff – but I’m pretty much sure that a few more legally binding deals will be closed at that event. Maybe a Brazilian!
The Chinese were the wisest at Copenhagen. They insisted on inserting the term “Science” into the final Accord. As of
“2. We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are needed according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions as to hold the increase in global emissions below 2 degrees Celsius, and to take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity.”
Perhaps the next level of research is to more clearly define the boundary between science and non-science. Climategate showed the demarcation was purely scientific, but also involved agreement with a small group. It is quite possibly the case that if the barrier is raised for admissible science from being peer-reviewed to having statistically significant and independently replicated results, then much of the existing science would become non-science.
I discuss further at http://shandonclimate.blog.com/2009/12/20/the-chinese-are-the-wisest-at-copenhagen/
Vincent Shand (17:47:27) :
“2. …to reduce global emissions as to hold the increase in global emissions below 2 degrees Celsius…”
Apples and Oranges? Global emmissions are not thermal units, unless thermal emmissions(?)
More jibberish BS, worth 1/2million I-D-10-T’ers attending Fraudenhagen, wearing out the town hookers and causing snow storm(?)