John Hepburn, at Crikey’s Rooted blog, has a pair of posts from the Poznan conference, and the news does not appear good. He is reporting that the Australian delegates are hiding in the bar and contributing very little of substance.
He says, and I couldn’t put it better myself:
It is not acceptable for our negotiators to distract and delay the negotiations and then, if they fail, jump up and say some formulation of “We tried are hardest but the negotiations broke down and other countries didn’t come to the party”
Mind you, until the US comes to the party, there is an argument to suggest that all the delegates may as well go to the bar. Indeed, Joe Romm argues something very interesting – he believes that it might be easier for the new Obama administration to get a carbon reduction bill through the US Senate if the talks collapse.
Occam’s Razor suggests a simpler explanation for the Australian delegation’s behaviour, though. And it’s not one that reflects well on the Australian government’s seriousness about the issue.
All this for 5 marginal electorates, 3 in central Queensland that are extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts.
Weak.
Are they that sure they won’t lose as many urban electorates?
I had the impression that Poznan was made an extension of the lame duck curse when McCain was turfed. Nobody really knows what the Democrats actual position will be until they hold the reins, do they?
It is difficult to imagine Pres. Obama getting rolled on a cap and trade bill ln 2009/10 such that he dare not get a message to Poznan with a promise that is less than the EU is offering. He will come into office with that much goodwill…shades of LBJ and the civil rights legislation of the 1960′s. If ‘change’ means anything then Obama just has to bite the bullet and say this is what we have to do. I just hope a few of those Aussi bar flies are capable of coming in to match the best of the best when it counts.
This Government’s weakness on Climate Change and the Environment sickens me. What does give me heart is that every time they pull something like this they put at least another thousand votes in the Greens column. Hopefully after the next election the Greens will have control of the Senate and an increased vote share, and they can have a real influence on Labor’s policies.
As scientists worry that the climate in the Arctic has flipped we have the Europeans worrying that the Poles and Italians have torpedoed their plans it seems that the Chinese say Obama has to do more.
Is it? I think it depends. Most religious indoctrination is imparted by two things: family and fear.
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The thing is it’s in the nature of the religious mindset to be intolerant. How many sects of the Cult of the Weak are out there saying their little group of thirty or so malfunctional sacks of abysmal protoplasm are The One and everyone else is going to Hell? Jeez look at the Jihadists. It’s okay as far as they’re concerned to blow up other Muslims. Why? Because they ain’t pure enough. Education is about inquiry and the attainment of knowledge religion doesn’t do this by and large.
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And the trouble with the ‘values’ argument is this: What value and whose? Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists – all of ‘em – have different views on the good and that’s just Christianity. All of the Abrahamic faiths seem to poist a God who is petty, mean and obsessed with our sex lives. If you want to believe this claptrap fine. But I ain;t funding it.
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Values? Let’s start with Aurelius or some such. Philosophy’s superior to religion. Why? because it leads to knowledge and it’s made by humans and admits to being such. Any reasonably intelligent survivor of a religious education class knows that the most elementary questions remain unanswered. For example: who did Cain marry? But you aren’t allowed to ask those questions. Why? You just aren’t. What kind of values does that teach? Value #1: Blind subservience to authority. Pretty good idea for a democracy!!!
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The truth is that in a modern , multicultural liberal society you need values to be sure. But values appropriate to a modern multicultural liberal society. People who’re trying to reassert religion – especially this batshit laying on of hand and miracles CRAP – are leading us to war.
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Moon guys. Now! You’d like it. It’s dead and dusty just like you.
President Obama will go in hard on Co2 pollution. It is the one domestic area, given the economic murkiness, where he will have a clear way forward and no coherent opposition. He has eight years – arguably the most critical eight years we have left – and he’s the type of guy that does not stand still on important issues. He is driven by issues – not by party politics. Rudd had a minor chance to lead on this but appointed a nervous nelly to the brief – and so we will now just have to wait until 2009 for action on Co2.
Climate Progress has also reported that
Peter, it’s interesting that the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are operating as negotiating blocs at the conference.
Since they represent the countries in the front line on climate change, they should be represented at all sub-groupings, such as the G8+5 or the group of major economies convened by Bush.