Saturday 29 January 2011

Egypt is burning - Ban Ki Moon and others blabber about climate change in Davos


While Egypt was burning, UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon and other world leaders gathered in Davos were busy blabbering about the imaginary threat of human-enduced "climate change".

Ban Ki Moon:
The United Nations chief pointed out that Washington should set its own house in order instead of waiting for others to take action.
"You have to do your own homework before waiting for others to do."
There are "psychological games" between the United States and Europe on one side, and China, India and Brazil on the other, said Ban.
"They ask you should do first. I think all the proposals are on the table.
"We know each other's pollution. I think they should be responsible for humanity, we have a responsibilty to keep this world sustainable," said Ban.
Making a plea for action on climate change, Ban noted that the world has believed in "consumption without consequences" until now.
"Climate change is showing us that the old model is more than obselete. It has rendered it extremely dangerous. It is a recipe for natural disaster. It is a global suicide attack,(sic!)" he charged.

(entire story here)

AFP reports: "Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Jacob Zuma of South Africa, hosts of global climate change summits, on Thursday urged the United States to take stronger action on the issue."
"The world needs action from the United States," Calderon said.
But climate change legislation is all but dead in the United States for the forseeable future. Instead, Obama has floated the idea of reducing the country's emissions by requiring that 80 percent of the country's electricity come from "clean energy" sources like wind, nuclear and natural gas by 2035.
At the Davos summit, European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said that, lacking strong policy, U.S. businesses must act to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
"The solutions have to come from business," she said, according to The Associated Press. "They will have to come up with alternative ways of doing things."

Allan Friedman, writing in the Atlantic describes the atmosphere in Davos:

It was truly surreal however to watch Ban Ki-moon, Bill Gates, and world leaders sitting on stage to calmly discuss climate change and sustainable development while Egypt was burning. When the UN chief addressed the crowd he waxed eloquently about scarce resources, saying "we have mined our way to growth and pawned our way to prosperity and now supplies are scarce and the scarcest resource is time."

PS
It is time for the organisers to start rethinking about the whole Davos concept. The event has become much too big and bureaucratic. And the participants should seriously consider, whether it really is worthwile to fly to Davos only to hear "world leaders" repeating the same old political, economic and environmental propaganda phrases. But maybe the allure of the Swiss winter paradise blinds their sense of reality? And, of course, there is always the lavish blick tie soarée on Saturday evening to look forward to - all in the name of making the world a better place for us ordinary tax payers.

(image by antiqueprints.com)






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