In this space last week, I wrote a column that I thought might draw the ire of some greens for its cynical outlook on Copenhagen. Instead, it drew a fair amount of attention from readers concerned that I had glossed over the significance of “Climategate.” Like that column, this one is not about Climategate in the broader sense, but about its impact on the goings-on this week in Denmark. And, as we look back at week one of COP-15, last week’s column looks to have been borne out in that context. Join me for this more complete review of the political freeze that has taken over the warming talks.
Climategate is Good as Gone…For Now – As expected, Climategate disappeared as fast as it rose to the top of Google’s search rankings. Worldwide, media reports are focusing on the very compelling, very well-packaged stories about climate change impact and emerging technologies that were in the can as this conference approached. The email controversy may well reemerge at the conclusion of the conference; and, as I noted in comments responding to reader comments to last week’s piece, Climategate may ultimately be seen as the sort of watershed moment that was needed to reignite some passion in this debate. But, at least in the world-within-the-world at Copenhagen this week, Climategate-stoked doubt about climate change is not the issue.
US Fizzles- After months of pressure and rhetoric in US politics, marked by doomsday scenarios that would befall the world should the US not have a climate change bill on the President’s desk before Copenhagen, the US delegation arrived with the following: an EPA declaration that was inevitable and had been dramatically undersold in favor of pushing for legislation; and, a December 10 announcement by a tri-partisan (including an independent) group of Senators, which purported to “outline the basics” for a domestic climate bill that might come to the floor in the spring. In a week when the President of the United States delivered what has to be the most impassioned defense of war in the history of Nobel Peace Prize acceptances, his delegation at the climate conference tried to claim leadership in a very tricky geopolitical negotiation after having failed to clear the relatively less complex partisan, political and special interest hurdles at home.
China Sizzles, But Where’s the Steak?- China is the Donald Trump of climate change action. Big promises, high-dollar investments. Big, big, big! 800 turbines in three gorges? Bring it on! Planting enough new trees to cover all of Norway? Why not! Just don’t ask them to cut emissions. First, it is not practical to do so, their growth makes it impossible. Second, they don’t have the money to pay for it (probably because it is all on loan to the US, but that is another column for another blog). And, the reports coming from state-controlled media do not offer much comfort. Long term, China looks like a promising green partner for the world. They are going to continue to develop clean energy technologies domestically and will continue to flood the global market with low-cost, Chinese-fabricated panels, blades and batteries.
Right now, the Chinese would be foolish to have fabricators sell those products to domestic buyers and capture the revenue in yuan when they could be sold overseas for more valuable dollars, Euros and pounds. Will they ever reach a tipping point where some of those items will stay in country instead of being produced exclusively for export? That tipping point appears to be approaching for jeans, TVs and other Chinese-made goods, but clean energy technology? Don’t hold your breath.
For signs of success in week two, watch the tail numbers of planes at Copenhagen Airport – It will be interesting to see who actually shows up in Copenhagen next week. We know President Obama is en route, but will the Russians, Chinese or Indians keep their dates to have heads of state make the trip to town? Probably. Will it move the needle? I doubt it.
In the end, the problem with Copenhagen cannot be solved by next week, no matter who is at the table. That problem can best be discerned in the verb tense most-often used in speeches, discussions and negotiations there: the future. For thirty-five years, the public (including skeptics) have been hearing about what WILL happen to the planet and about the technologies that WILL emerge to make clean energy affordable. The urgency has not come yet. The world is not ready. Let us hope that by the time we are, it is not too late.
Hey,
I enjoyed your blog post; however, I would have to argue that China is doing more than other countries in the world to combat climate change impacts. Especially, China, as a developing country, has put forth thoughful proposals to reduce emissions levels, compared with the marginal policy proposals and performance of the US. I don't think Obama will accomplish much at C0P 15 and passing anything through the Senate. China is not the problem, but developed countries need to take responsibility for thier emissions. Check out http://www.chinadialogue.net/copenhagen for more information and analysis.
Matt
The climate monkeys at the conference are ignoring anything they don't want to see, hear or speak but the officials are getting an earfll I would wager……at least the handfull that are accountable to anyone other than their "peers".
Could the major news media outlets conspiring the keep Climategate out of the news with their pledge be the reason why we don’t see as many articles on it now?
you are wrong, climategate is still very much alive, it will not go away, its too late, poeple are waking up
just because you fraud deniers don’t accept it, don’t think for a second that its gone..everybody will go to jail for fraud…you will see
What a strange article! With google hits for “Climategate” almost 33 million today, this article is a joke. As few or none of the main stream press are reporting on this at all (maybe they are not allowed to) this is amazing. More and more people are only just finding out about the collosal scam so the reaction is going to get stronger. The general public has had enough of junk science with political agendas (and being used to pay for it).
Let us hope that by the time we are, it is not too late.”
Not too late for what? Global cooling? Global warming? Climate change? Weather?
Few things have demonstrated quite so clearly to so many people the sheer censorship of the media, including self-censorship.
I for one am sick and tired of hearing about “some scientists”, “a few scientists”, “some emails”, “scientists at some little and unimportant university” etc. No, these are the lead authors and primary data source of the IPCC.
I’m sick of hearing how it “doesn’t change the data” when the emails reveal data already changed and faked.
I’m sick of hearing how “peer reviewed” science still agrees, when the emails prove the peer review process was and is hijacked.
I’m sick of hearing how “deniers” are funded by big oil, when both big oil, other industries, the massive and growing green industry and government funding for this hoax is 500 times larger than any funding for “deniers”.
I’m sick of hearing how “other data sources” agree with the faked and fudged data, which strongly suggests those data sources are equally fake. We already have evidence of New Zealand and Australia faking their data by ‘adjusting’ the raw data in upward sweeping fakery, as NASA continues to block FOIA requests for their data. Yes, this being the same NASA that “didn’t notice” a lump of ice the size of California (“sensor creep. Oops”) and have been caught repeatedly “adjusting” historical temp’ records.
I’m sick of hearing about “scientific consensus”, as though science were a freakin’ democracy, instead of reproducible proof and transparancy of data.
I’m sick of hearing about how the emails and code were “hacked” and “stolen”, when this data was required by law to be public and they blocked FIOA demands.
I’m sick of hearing how the science is “settled” when it’s anything but. No scientist anywhere can prove AGW. This is “god of the gaps” science, where the “proof” is “and then something happens we can’t explain, so let’s blame capitalism and raise taxes”.
I’m equally sick of hearing how every freakin’ weather event or occurence is “the result of manmade global warming, and scientists say such things are likely to get worse”, while the fact the Earth has cooled over the last decade is a minor detail that doesn’t mean anything.
In short, I’M SICK OF YOUR LIES AND YOUR SPIN AND YOUR POLITICALLY-CORRECT BS!!
Alan.
Ah, from a reporting start to an advocate finish, hoping we aren’t “too late”. Almost managed to find a story written by a journalist, not a believer. But not quite.
Climategate isn’t going away. It isn’t, because in the past week 3 more studies of specific temperature stations that feed into IPCC reports have found not just fudging, but clear fraud. Adjustments of 2 degrees off the early part of last century, 2 degrees on to the latter part. Which creates warming, of course. More will come. The entire “homogenized” temperature record is a crock, and all raw data must be made available for comparison against the fiddled science.
Check out: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/08/sticky-for-smoking-gun-at-darwin-zero/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/11/giss-raw-station-data-before-and-after/
And it won’t go away because ordinary, if slightly nerdy, people like me won’t let it. For the first time in my life I’m ready to go onto the streets to stop this. As are many law-abiding, ordinary friends. There is an energy in this that will dwarf anything that is expected. Just give us a trigger and you will see.
Truly a “fudge” article. And certainly the sheep at the Copenhagen conference would not find it in their interest to bring up such troubling facts as climategate has revealed. Why spoil the fun? But wait till they get home …
Are you angry about this obvious fraud and the national media's complicity in the cover-up, misinformation, reframing and misdirection of the issue? Take responsibility and take action. STOP all donations to the political party(s) responsible for this fraud. STOP donations to all environmental groups which funded this Global Warming propaganda campaign with our money, especially The Environmental Defense Fund. They have violated the public trust. KEEP donations local, close to home. MAKE donations to Oklahoma’s Senator Inhofe, the only politician to stand firmly against this obvious government/media coordinated information operation (propaganda) targeted at its own people. People that government leaders and employees are sworn to protect. WRITE your state and federal representatives demanding wall to wall investigations of government sponsored funding and coordination of this and related propaganda campaigns and demand indictments of those responsible. WRITE your state and federal Attorneys General demanding Al Gore and others conducting Global Warming/Climate Change racketeering and mail fraud operations be brought to justice, indicted, tried, convicted and jailed. Carbon is the stuff of life. He (Obama) who controls carbon, especially CO2, controls the world. Think of the consequences if you do nothing! For one, the UK is becoming the poster child for George Orwell’s “1984” and the US government’s sponsorship of this worldwide Global Warming propaganda campaign puts it in a class with the failed Soviet Union’s relentless violation of the basic human right to truthful government generated information. Given ClimateGate’s burgeoning revelations of outrageous government misconduct and massive covert misinformation, what are the chances that this Administration’s National Health Care sales campaign is anywhere near the truth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bdneX1djD0
As James F. so simply put it, ClimateGate is not going away because people like him won't let it.
This has n-o-t-h-i-n-g to do with emails. It has everything to do with the computer code in the climate model. And the code is irrefutably fraudulent! The emails only establish intent.
Don't f*ck with programmers! We know what we're talking about and we know more than you idiot "journalists."
Have a nice day!
The 'real' cause of Global Warming?
—-> U.N.scientific Data <—-
Here at the Democracy Center we are working hard to draw attention to the impact of climate change already happening in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world. We've recently produced:
A a video on Bolivia's melting glaciers (http://democracyctr.org/blog/2009/12/visit-to-cemetery-of-glaciers.html)
A new article in Yes! Magazine (http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/as-glaciers-melt-bolivia-fights-for-the-good-life).
We are also getting ready to report on the upcoming World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (http://democracyctr.org/blog/2010/03/global-climate-change-conference-coming.html), an alternative response to failures of Copenhagen.
Keep your eyes out for our coverage!
(www.democracyctr.org)