From CFACTBy CFACT |August 27th, 2019|Environment
How does the United Nations convince people that they are super serious in their outrage about fossil fuels? How about flying 4,000 people from all over the world in fossil-fueled jet airplanes to isolated Salt Lake City to whine about it? Sounds like a good plan to the United Nations bureaucracy, which is sponsoring a sustainability and climate change conference this week in Salt Lake City.
The UN brags that up to 4,000 people are likely to attend, representing more 300 nongovernmental organizations (read, environmental activist groups) and more than 80 countries. There is no compelling agenda, no compelling actions items, and no expected meaningful outcome from the conference. It is simply an opportunity for leftist global activists to get together and express outrage about economic freedom and the existential global climate disruption that is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced – surpassing Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, the Black Plague, smallpox, AIDS, and the threat of nuclear war combined.
Salt Lake City is an isolated, medium-sized city with little national or international media impact. Most people flying to Salt Lake City for the UN conference will have to make at least one or two connecting flights to get there, exacerbating their carbon footprint for the conference. Why didn’t the UN choose New York or Brussels for such a conference? Because, silly, UN bureaucrats get tired of New York and Brussels and want to go someplace really cool and fun for their events. Carbon footprint, shmarbon footprint.
Seriously, now, if global warming is the greatest existential threat facing humanity, as the UN and Democratic presidential hopefuls claim, why would the UN induce 4,000 people to carbon-bomb the atmosphere with 4,000 multi-leg, roundtrip flights to whine about it? Almost nobody (other than us wonks here at CFACT) really cares or will be paying attention to the conference. Couldn’t they hold the conference at UN facilities in New York or Brussels? Or better yet, couldn’t the conference can be held online for a much lower carbon footprint?
The truth is, Salt Lake City is a beautiful place. There are breathtaking mountains all around. Posh Park City is just a 20-minute drive away. Environmental leftists may even catch a glimpse of part-time nearby resident Robert Redford. Holding the conference in Salt Lake City is an opportunity for the self-righteous environmental left to travel to a gorgeous city, take a nice vacation at taxpayer or employer expense, and all the while compliment each other on how they really CARE about climate change. All while carbon-bombing the atmosphere in order to travel there.
Makes you wonder just how existential they believe their contrived climate crisis truly is….
Author
CFACT, founded in 1985 by Craig Rucker and the late (truly great) David Rothbard, examines the relationship between human freedom, and issues of energy, environment, climate, economics, civil rights and more.
Taken, https://www.slc.gov/mayor/un-conference/ ——- Each United Nations Civil Society Conference focuses on a different UN topic of interest related to the work of civil society and non-governmental organizations.
The Conference is traditionally held at UN Headquarters, but has recently been hosted by global cities, including Melbourne, Australia; Paris; Mexico City; and Bonn, Germany. The 2019 Conference in Salt Lake City will be the first time the event is held in the United States outside of New York.
Mayor Biskupski encouraged the United Nations to make Sustainability Goal 11 the focus of the 2019 Conference. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 lays out a series of targets for cities to reach by 2030, including access to safe and affordable housing, transportation, and green and public spaces. Goal 11 also encourages cities to adopt and implement plans to reduce the environmental impact of cities, particularly air quality
UN conference Bonn, Germany:
Bonn climate talks: Key outcomes from the June 2019 UN climate conference:
“But as temperatures soared to 37C outside the conference centre, the atmosphere inside also became heated as a group of nations sought to discredit a major report undertaken by the world’s leading climate scientists.”
https://www.carbonbrief.org/bonn-climate-talks-key-outcomes-from-june-2019-un-climate-conference
Here is where they should have held the meeting
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ok,+Iceland/@64.5951337,-20.8801174,14z/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x48d43cea0d482feb:0x28bdfa32d2b30267
Just set up 4000 foldable chairs around 1000 cards tables and they can also whine about the vanished glacier as they play bridge
And the cost?
$1,000 each, absolute minimum.
$4,000,000 of taxpayers money.
The wast of the UN is staggering.
HotScot, the waste at the United Nations is far worse than you can imagine, if you have never seen it up close and personal. I was an official country representative to a United Nations-International Atomic Energy Agency meeting in Vienna, Austria, when El Baradai was Chairman. Everywhere you looked were glaring examples of corruption and waste. I ate one lunch in the in-house resturant and sat next to two UN officals who ordered an expensive bottle of French wine, both drank a small glass, and abandoned the bottle. Tall blonde (add some more descriptions yourself) secretaries were everywhere, and absolutely nothing got done. I searched for Radiation Safety experts for advice on Radiation Safety Protocol for our uranium exploration company, and found about a dozen, only one of which would talk to me without a consulting fee. Vienna was incredible, but the UN-IAEA, not so much.
Life-long bureaucrats have no sense of money. In the business world, you have to earn money; if you need more, you have to work harder to get it. In the government world, you just take money; if you need more, you just take more. Therefore, bureaucrats do not appreciate how hard it is to earn money. Thus they waste it or don’t realize that costs are always passed on to the next lowest rung. Obviously there are corrupt ones, but many just don’t have the life experience to know about fiscal responsibility. The bigger the bureaucracy, the bigger the waste.
Here in the USofA Bureaucrats are assigned to their positions by the “man” who purchases the Politician his/her office. Politician = Puppet. Which is why they sound so stupid when they speak off teleprompter. Bureaucrats write the legislation. Politicians put their name on bills.
Bureaucrat works for the man. The man pays them with middle class tax dollars and unaudited per Diem. Bureaucrat makes sure the Man gets what the man wants through regulation and the courts. The Bureaucrat retires from government work to K-Street jobs, Book Deals, Speaking fees and TV and internet News consulting gigs. Best Job in MERICA. Paid political corruption.
Churchill might say, if still living:
Never has so much been wasted by so few on so little.
He had a way with the language.
That four million bucks doesn’t even include the prostitutes!
Looks like Mikey figured out my (add some more descriptions yourself) comment above.
Were do you think they recruit their staff from. For years they used Pamela Martin and Associates Run by the Washington D C Madam – Deborah Jean Palfrey. Its been under new management for over a Decade.
Latest Competition: For the person who can provide the most imaginative words which could be used on an Expenses Claims Form without using the word ‘prostitute’. For starters: “Servicing the local economy” but I am sure others can do far better.
Heck, they probably have an express bus to Nevada…
I think that you are assuming that the attendees flew in basic economy. I imagine that most of the self important attendees flew “C” at the very least. I would venture a guess that the airfares alone averaged far more than $1k per attendee.
My company makes employees use WebEx for meetings instead of flying. They say it is substantially cheaper.
Where do all these groups get the money to fly and stay?
The longest “teleconference” (Skype) I was involved in was about 11,500kms. There is no excuse, if CO2 is a problem, to fly anyone anywhere.
Try skying to a member of the climate cult – they live on another planet.
Where do all these groups get the money to fly and stay?
Have you checked your wallet lately?
Me!
Take that and Al Gore, Leo DiNardo and Barack Obama all buying or have bought beach front properties.
Pull the other one.
I expect most of these lying hypocrites have beach front property. Follow the money.
I’m super cereal about Manbearpig.
Beach front is not the same as ocean front when used by realtors, etc. Beach front is what Al Gore has—on a cliff ABOVE the beach. Google it on Google maps. Unlike Obama, Gore is not waterfront.
How do I search it up on Google Maps without an address?
Close your eyes and double click. Maybe it will be beach front.
Excellent, concise parody of the doomsday cultists.
‘Cept the credit goes to the alarmists themselves.
No parody is better than self-parody.
funny how the sanctimonius media never ask the questions about the cost the co2 and the money for these gabfests..
curious how that escapes their attention
Where’s Greta when you need her to call out the hypocrisy?
I think she’s waiting for the 4 man crew to fly in to New York take her yacht back to Europe and then bidding fond farewells to dad who will be flying back later. Fortunately its only celebrity activists co2 being expended which doesn’t count, in fact it cools the planet, not warm it
It’s simple EHS bandwagoneering.
Is Greta Dumberg going to follow the Mormon road???? Sailing boat, wagon and horses, what next?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_Road
Sailing Boat, Wagons and Horses oh my..
May there be a North or Northwest breeze, lots of summer heat, and a healthy crop of brine shrimp in the Great Salt Lake to join the meeting. That would be completely appropriate and match the smelly propaganda being pedaled by these activists.
Brine Shrimp? I thought they were Sea Monkeys!
July 25, 2019…
Think of all the jet fuel!
More Jet Fuel Locks-In More Oil Demand
MAGA!
Justin Trudeau here. Everyone knows jet fuel is not hydrocarbons, so using jets is ok. I think Al Gore told me this.
🙂
That is one heck of an impressive image. Don’t show it to Greta, she will have a heart attack.
Scream…where in the he*l does this nonsense end!!!
Just as soon as the “climate players” run out of “free” money, …… then the “show” will close.
IS it 4,000 or 5,000? Oh, who cares?
They’re all in the same building, same room, right? Fine. Lock the doors. Provide ventilation, heat in the winter and A/C in the summer, and shove boxes of MREs through a chute in the ceiling. Pipe some really dismal music into that room, and tell them that they can only emerge and go home if they admit that they are committing fraud. Of course, admitting to fraud means admitting that they’ve engaged in felonious behavior, which is a crime, so….
Dang and I saw the parallel to the Papal Conclave.
Thought you were going in a different direction up to the end
If we could just get them all isolated some place and leave them there, how long would it be until they were at each other’s throats?
It is true that many people would be challenged to find our city on a map, but the designation ‘isolated’ is going a bit far! > ; }
Metaphorically Speaking, perhaps.
I’ve told many of my friends that I will begin to believe in CAGW if, and only if, their prophecies improve to 1% and their prophets practice what they preached. Until then, I will refuse to believe that something that is 0.041% of the atmosphere is some magical control knob.
Expect to see photos of attendees looking out over the Great Salt Lake and discussing sea level rise.
Here are the “targets” for Goal 11. Mostly, it’s feel-good nanny-state socialistic pie-in-the-sky PC-ism on steroids, but whatever:
11.1 By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums
11.2 By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons
11.3 By 2030, enhance inclusive and sustainable urbanization and capacity for participatory, integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management in all countries
11.4 Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
11.5 By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters, with a focus on protecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations
11.6 By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
11.7 By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities
11.A Support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas by strengthening national and regional development planning
11.B By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels
11.C Support least developed countries, including through financial and technical assistance, in building sustainable and resilient buildings utilizing local materials
Not a single measurable item to be able to confirm success.
The ‘Priests’ of any religion/ideology do not necessarily subscribe to that religion. To them it’s a hierarchy that they can rise to the top of. One of the ways that ideologies try to keep only true believers in positions of leadership is by enforcing a higher code of conduct on the leadership than the follower-ship. My experience in the Christian community tells me that people are willing to forgive ethical lapses of people who promulgate the ideology well. Spreading the ideology is more important than the ideology that is being spread. It’s a logical flaw. Ideologies are prone to it because the people who should be teaching the believers to reject leaders who don’t follow their own rules are the leaders themselves. It doesn’t do any good for outsiders to point out the hypocrisy. It has to be done from inside the movement. Unfortunately, people who point out the hypocrisy of the leadership of any particular movement tend to get crucified, either literally or metaphorically.
My nephew’s ex-father-in-law is a Lutheran minister. He is an atheist. He says being a minister is just a job.
My parents saw the Lutheran Church going that way over 50 years ago (when I was a freshman in high school) and got us out while the going was good.
I have it on strict authority (Albert Arnold Gore Jr of the Hangin’ Chad party) that all the aircraft were gliders.
No carbon footprint but a heck of a lot of elastic bands were broken.
From the “Hope you are kidding” department.
Last night I was having dinner with an old friend and we got to discussing the climate hoax. He told me that the 21 year old daughter of his neighbor had quit her internship with a company in Orlando in order to be with family when the world ends in less than 12 years. I thought he was joking but he states it is true.
The old ad song: “Kool aid, Kool aid, tastes great….” came to mind immediately.
I’ve said this before, but it bares repeating. Before this is all over we are going to end up seeing a ‘Climate Jonestown’. Too many people honestly beleive that civilization, and possibly all of nature, are doomed unless the whole world Decarbonizes in the next few years. And that just isn’t going to happen.
People do crazy things when they think the end is happening. We’ve seen that over and over. And the Climate Cult is the largest, most influential Doomsday Cult ever.
What do you think will happen when all those people come to realize that Renewables WON’T be replacing Fossil Fuels?
~¿~
Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, etc. If the “end’ doesn’t come when it’s on the schedule, then schedule the end and make sure it happens.
What does it take to get people to understand that the whole thing is a scam?
That is the saddest thing I have ever run across.
A testament to the apathy and stupidity of human beings. Abusing their children with doomsday prophecies.
CTM
Which figure is correct?
Headline says 5000 people but the body of the article reads 4000?
At the link under the first paragraph you can read — from the Mayor’s Office:
“Salt Lake City will host the 68th United Nations Civil Society Conference on August 26 – 28 th 2019. The annual conference attracts 2,000-4,000 representatives from over 300 non-governmental organizations representing more than 80 countries.
Note the range of 2,000 – 4,000.
Bottom Line is they don’t know until after registration.
Today, Aug 31st, they should know.
Even if it just 1,000, that’s a thousand too many.
I’m going to guess it will be more than 5k, with all the hangers-on, activists not invited, and general climate loons who don’t want to be left out of the catastrophe.
Bigots (i.e. sanctimonious hypocrites). That said, it’s a Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, unprincipled establishment, complying with a quasi-religious (i.e. moral) or “ethical” (i.e. relativistic) code. So, technically, they are neither sanctimonious nor hypocrites. Looking out, looking in, it’s a double-edged scalpel, which has served their special and peculiar interests well. Forward!
I shur hope the Sea Gulls don’t hear about that impending infestation of Salt Lake City.
It would be a travesty iffen they flew all the way there just to find out the invading vermin was inedible.
Don’t tell Alfred Hitchcock.
This is the NEW WAY with the lefty idiots. Our waste of skin corrupt Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is up to 142 flight legs jetting around Canada and the world already this year. This is the 243 day of the year for 2019. Justin actually went from Ottawa to Tofino BC on the west coast to go surfing one weekend. Them Justin flew back to Ottawa then back to Tofino and Vancouver to attend the Pride parade there. Then Justin switched planes from a Challenger jet to the A320 to barn burned the Arctic areas stopping three times at remote communities to drum up some support for his corrupt lagging Liberal party in the north. The biggest joke about this Arctic trip is there are only 2 parliamentary seats for this whole area. Justin and his corrupt Liberals declared a Climate Emergency in July while telling the rest of the unwashed masses that we will be paying a higher federal carbon tax if the get re-elected in October. The hypocritical attitude of these lefty types is most sickening when they are abusing the system like Justin and his cronies while preaching that rest of us must reduce our use of the dreaded fossil fuels that we need to actually live in a northern climate.
My 16 year old daughter went to the first day of the conference. She came home and said “The UN is very good at getting people to think they are doing something good when they are actually accomplishing nothing.” She skipped the rest of the conference.
The rest of the family did help with the 500k meals for the hungry children. We actually did something useful whilst they were over there running their mouths about fake climate problems and accomplishing nothing.
I disagree with tax dollars being spent on silly conventions, but wonder whether any airline will add any additional flights to their schedules?
Of course, even without additional airline flights scheduled, there will certainly be oodles of additional limousine and taxi trips, and lots of elevator trips up and down.
SR
I guess the UN Central Command has a new mission to convert the American hinterland to the propaganda line.
At least some of our massive dues to the UN and being spent locally.
Those feeding at the public trough go tt conventions because it is a nice activity that makes them feel important.
The theme of the conventions does not matter. Any current theme will do and while summaries will be made, not much will get done.
For serious skiers, Alta is much better than Park City.
Heartland also went to Salt Lake City for their Rebuttal to UN ‘Civil Society’ Sustainability Conference, and has posted it online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naTVziGVk64
I note that earth shattering asteroids did not make the list.
That is the ONLY item which can possibly be dealt with given a long enough time frame of discovery.
It would still require a certain degree of political will, which other than a certain US President, seems to be sorely lacking in the world today.
“Because, silly, UN bureaucrats get tired of New York and Brussels and want to go someplace really cool and fun for their events. Carbon footprint, shmarbon footprint.”
Meanwhile, other fun things to do in area this weekend:
Burning Man Festival to the North west of Salt Lake City.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Black+Rock+City,+NV/@40.780938,-119.2235675,13.63z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x809fb834cedea63b:0xbeb0dbe188039187!8m2!3d40.7886448!4d-119.2030177?hl=en&authuser=0
The place is packed with all sorts of strange vehicles straight out of a Mad Max movie. All burning fossil fuels.
The Department of Mutant Vehicles at Burning Man is NOT worried about carbon foot prints.
Can someone please remind me why climate change would be a bad thing?
1. We’d have a direct path through the Arctic making shipping more efficient.
2. Coffee could be grown in less remote places.
3. Food crops are begging for more CO2 so they’d grow faster.
4. Sewer cities like NYC and San Francisco would be gone.
5. More people die from cold exposure than heat exposure so we’d save lives.
6. People wouldn’t need to snowbird to warmer climates in the winter.
7. Fargo could have a water park.
8. 90% of Canada’s population lives within 100 miles of the US border because it’s too cold up north. They’d be able to spread out more if it was warmer.
9. Lots of deaths on snowy and icy roads. Again, saving lives.
10. I’d be able to wear shorts more throughout the year.
11. If there were more hurricanes then CNN would have more real news to report on other than Trump’s tweets. Of course, there has been NO increase in number or intensity of tornadoes or hurricanes even though the earth has supposed to have warmed nearly 2C.
RE: “Sewer cities like NYC and San Francisco would be gone.”
True, but the sludge from those sewers would be relocated at Federal/FEMA expense and some of them might wind up here.
“1. We’d have a direct path through the Arctic making shipping more efficient.”
Or ice all the way to Panama, depending on which way the climate changes.
Because if climate change would be mostly a good thing, politicians, media, and activists couldn’t use it to gain attention and virtue signaling points.
If they were really concerned about the increasing CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels then they would hold meetings like this over the Internet and stay at home. The technology is already in place. Apparently taking trips is fun and they really do not care about how much CO2 their trip taking adds to the atmosphere.
Everyone else has to worry about CO2 emissions not them.
Flying thousands of people in is so transparently hypocritical one must assume the gathering
is really about something else entirely .
Given the UN ‘s involvement my bet is there will be a small break out clique
of top dogs who focus on the UN global governance and population reduction goals .
They will be pleased to know that over the course of their gathering approximately
700,000 abortions will have taken place world wide . How’s that for a CO2 reduction strategy ?
Hypocrite heaven!