‘Is that green smoke we see above Notre Dame? That can only mean one thing – – we have a climate deal!’ – A Manufactured ‘Success’ in Paris
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/12/12/a-manufactured-success-in-paris/
World leaders can spin this however they like, but the real meaning of the Paris agreement is that the world is as far from adopting the kind of climate strategies greens want as ever.
Nobody is serious about this “agreement,” but the diplomats have agreed that a hollow facade of an agreement is preferable to the PR disaster that failure would have been. There will no doubt be many follow-ups, jet-setting conferences in many more attractive destinations, and climate diplomacy will continue to produce more greenhouse gasses than climate agreements block.
The agreement is a far cry from the binding international treaty eco-activists envisioned in the run-up to the summit. Instead, it is the codification of national pledges called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) made by UN members.
Overall what came out of Paris was the diplomatic equivalent of a New Year’s resolution to go on a strict weight loss regime involving no more than six chocolate eclairs between meals.
Much as the last great Malthusian panics (the population bomb and peak oil) quietly fizzled out, the panicky, Chicken Little aspects of the green movement are likely to fade over time.
The Chinese are rich enough now to care about how filthy their air is; that will drive change more than anything that happens in Paris. Fracking has made natural gas cheaper and more reliable than coal in the United States. Online shopping is keeping people home from the malls, and more and more workers are working remotely. Down the road, more changes will come as the world shifts from a manufacturing economy based on metal bashing to an information and service economy. Technological change is also coming: self-driving cars, renewable energy that can actually compete with fossil fuels without generous government subsidies, genetically modified plants that don’t need fertilizer or pesticide, safe nuclear power. Always and everywhere, capitalism is pushing companies to produce more goods using fewer raw materials and energy, and generating less waste.
It’s also worth noting that the annual $100 billion climate fund, established with great fanfare in 2009’s failed Copenhagen summit as a way for the developed world to help the developing world cope with the effects of climate change, wasn’t exactly enshrined in “legally binding” language. From the relevant section (Article 9, paragraph 3):
As part of a global effort, developed country Parties should continue to take the lead in mobilizing climate …
Praise be to the — UN!? UN Climate Summit Healed The Climate?!
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2015/12/13/cop-21-healed-the-climate/…
UN draft climate agreement refers to ‘Mother Earth’
Wow… draft climate agreement refers to ‘Mother Earth’
http://junkscience.com/2015/12/wow-draft-climate-agreement-refers-to-mother-earth/
Now that’s some science. Here’s the draft agreement. Here’s the first page — note highlighted text:
— gReader Pro…
Muslim Clerics Launch ‘Green Jihad’ On Climate Change
Excerpt: Imam Ibrahim Saidy brought his symposiums and his monthly fasting to the Paris climate talks, hoping to call attention to the problems and injustice of global warming.
He calls it “green jihad.”
The Muslim cleric from Norway came up with the idea of an environmental holy movement a year ago. He uses the word jihad in its meaning of a struggle to do good, as opposed to extremists’ use of it to signify a holy war.
“The green jihad is to protect and save lives,” Saidy told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “To make people aware of the dangers of climate change and fight for climate justice.”
Saidy is part of a growing interfaith religious movement seeking action by governments to fight global warming. For the past two years, about 10,000 religious activists have been fasting on the first day of the month to call attention to global warming, according to Caroline Bader of the Lutheran World Federation.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/green-jihad-climate-change-cop21_56605efbe4b079b2818d6386
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Obama goes apocalyptic: Warns of ‘submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields that no longer grow’ – Transcript of Obama remarks
http://junkscience.com/2015/11/transcript-of-obama-remarks-to-cop-21/
Obama at UN Climate summit:
“This summer, I saw the effects of climate change firsthand in our northernmost state, Alaska, where the sea is already swallowing villages and eroding shorelines; where permafrost thaws and the tundra burns; where glaciers are melting at a pace unprecedented in modern times. And it was a preview of one possible future — a glimpse of our children’s fate if the climate keeps changing faster than our efforts to address it. Submerged countries. Abandoned cities. Fields that no longer grow. Political disruptions that trigger new conflict, and even more floods of desperate peoples seeking the sanctuary of nations not their own.”
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Climate Statistician Dr. Matt Briggs: ‘The Pope Is Wrong About Global Warming’
…Pope: World headed toward ‘suicide’ if no UN climate agreement
…Pope, in Africa, lobbies on behalf of UN – Says failure of UN climate summit would be ‘catastrophic’
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/26/uk-pope-africa-idUKKBN0TF0HI20151126
World leaders must reach a historic agreement to fight climate change and poverty at coming Paris, facing the stark choice to either “improve or destroy the environment”, Pope Francis said in Africa on Thursday.
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“We are confronted with a choice which cannot be ignored: either to improve or destroy the environment,” the pope said in Nairobi, home to the U.N. Environment Programme headquarters.
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He said the international community had to listen to the “cry rising up from humanity and the earth itself.”…
Climatologist Dr. Judith Curry branded a ‘heretic’ for challenging ‘global warming’ – ‘I was tossed out of the tribe’
Curry’s independence has cost her dear. She began to be reviled after the 2009 ‘Climategate’ scandal, when leaked emails revealed that some scientists were fighting to suppress sceptical views. ‘I started saying that scientists should be more accountable, and I began to engage with sceptic bloggers. I thought that would calm the waters. Instead I was tossed out of the tribe. There’s no way I would have done this if I hadn’t been a tenured professor, fairly near the end of my career. If I were seeking a new job in the US academy, I’d be pretty much unemployable. I can still publish in the peer-reviewed journals. But there’s no way I could get a government research grant to do the research I want to do. Since then, I’ve stopped judging my career by these metrics. I’m doing what I do to stand up for science and to do the right thing.’…
World facing ‘grave environmental crisis’, pope warns
The pontiff also drew a “clear link” between climate concerns and social justice.
“In effect, there is a clear link between the protection of nature and the building of a just and equitable social order,” he said. “There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature, without a renewal of humanity itself.”…