SPOTLIGHTSPOTLIGHT
THE SUMMIT OF ALL FEARS
The Copehagen Summit was riddled with controversy due to leaked files. But it wasn’t the hack that was causing the problem - it was what they uncovered
“You can’t handle the truth!” is the infamous line Jack Nicholson deals down to Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men. And thus it was deemed by the scientiteratti - we couldn’t handle the truth. Maybe the truth of the matter was that they couldn’t - when the news of the leak broke, it wasn’t the hack that generated headlines - but rather the years of botched figures, fixed data and skewiff mathematics that captivated and enthralled the minds of a nation. Suddenly the sketptics (read ‘sensible’) were proved right - climate change wasn’t as bad as all that.
At the summit itself, talks broke down - a fairly obvious result
GORDON BROWN
with 115 nations involved. Barack Obama claimed the agreement with China wasn’t enough while Gordon Brown’s perpetually positive Prozac theory seemed to think it all went well.
As per usual in these types of meetings - and, indeed, every large gathering of too many opinionated individuals - blame was being thrown about like there was no tomorrow (and maybe there won’t be, say the scientists...). The rich blamed the poor, the
poor, the rich and by the time everyone has finished yelling and come to some agreement, we’ll realise that the temperature has suddenly stopped rising and climate change ain’t all that.
BARACK OBAMA
THE SUMMIT IN NUMBERS
0.7 DEGREES GLOBAL TEMPERATURE HAS RISEN SINCE PRE-INDUSTRIAL TIMES
350 1.1
PARTS PER MILLION DEEMED TO BE THE SAFE UPPER LIMIT FOR CO2 IN THE ATMOSPHERE
MILLION DOLLARS SPENT ON TRANSPORT BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION. NOT COUNTING THE 50 ADMIN OFFICIALS.
60 LEADERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ATTENDED THE SUMMIT IN 2009 600,000,000,000 POUNDS* PLEDGED
NICOLAS SARKOZY
Ò We have made a start. I believe that what we need to follow up on quickly is ensuring a legally binding outcome.Ó
Ò WeÕ re going to have to build on the momentum that weÕ ve established here in Copenhagen to ensure that international action to significantly reduce emissions is sustained and sufficient over time. WeÕ ve come a long way but we have much further to go.Ó
Ò If we had no deal, that would mean that two countries as important as India and China would be freed from any type of contract... the USA, which is not in Kyoto, would be free of any type of contract.Ó
* APPROX 915,000,000,000 USD
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