December 2009
Quebec premier slams Harper's environment stance →
CBC ~ Quebec premier Jean Charest slams Harper’s environment stance
A war of words has erupted between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the premier of Quebec, with Jean Charest tearing a strip off Ottawa’s environmental performance. In 25 years in politics, Charest says, he’s never seen a federal government rely so heavily on the White House before taking a position on an...
Ottawa wasted climate talks: Ontario Premier... →
Toronto Star ~ Ottawa wasted climate talks, McGuinty says: Canada ‘missed’ chance to lead in the fight against a global threat
Canadians are “punching below our weight” on climate change and Prime Minister Stephen Harper squandered an opportunity to lead at Copenhagen, charges Premier Dalton McGuinty.
In his most candid remarks since world leaders last Friday concluded a...
Obama's phony climate victory →
Jeffrey Sachs @ Globe & Mail ~ Obama’s phony climate victory: If the Copenhagen farce proves to be a step toward global ruin, blame the President and his big-power politics
Two years of climate-change negotiations have now ended in a farce in Copenhagen. Rather than grappling with complex issues, President Barack Obama decided to declare victory with a vague statement of principles...
Canada has long shadowed US on climate change →
Jeffrey Simpson @ Globe & Mail ~ Canada has long shadowed the U.S. on climate change: A diluted congressional bill will suit the Harper government just fine
Ever since the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Canadian governments have hugged the U.S. approach. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gave his negotiators at Kyoto one overriding mandate: Stick close to the...
Copenhagen: Things Fall Apart and an Uncertain... →
Bill McKibben @ YaleE360 ~ Copenhagen: Things Fall Apart and an Uncertain Future Looms: The Copenhagen summit turned out to be little more than a charade, as the major nations refused to make firm commitments or even engage in an honest discussion of the consequences of failing to act.
It’s possible that human beings will simply never be able to figure out how to bring global warming under...
If u want to know who's to blame for Copenhagen,... →
George Monbiot @ Guardian ~ If you want to know who’s to blame for Copenhagen, look to the US Senate: Obama’s attempt to put China in the frame for failure had its origins in the absence of American campaign finance reform
The last time global negotiations collapsed like this was in Doha, in 2001. After the trade talks fell apart, the World Trade Organisation assured delegates that...
Copenhagen's failure belongs to Obama →
Naomi Klein @ Guardian ~ Copenhagen’s failure belongs to Obama: The American president has been uniquely placed to lead the world on climate change and squandered every opportunity
Contrary to countless reports, the debacle in Copenhagen was not everyone’s fault. It did not happen because human beings are incapable of agreeing, or are inherently self-destructive. Nor was it all was...
Copenhagen - Historic failure that will live in... →
Joss Garman @ The Independent ~ Copenhagen - Historic failure that will live in infamy: Green activist’s searing despatch from Denmark
The most progressive US president in a generation comes to the most important international meeting since the Second World War and delivers a speech so devoid of substance that he might as well have made it on speaker-phone from a beach in Hawaii. His aides...
The truths Copenhagen ignored →
Johann Hari @ The Independent ~ The truths Copenhagen ignored: The politicians have chosen low taxes and oil money today over survival tomorrow
So that’s it. The world’s worst polluters – the people who are drastically altering the climate – gathered here in Copenhagen to announce they were going to carry on cooking, in defiance of all the scientific warnings. They didn’t seal...
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with...”
– Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967 speaking in Los Angeles on the matter of the war in Vietnam. #copenhagen #climate #COP15 #climateaction
Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that... →
Naomi Klein @ Guardian ~ Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that spells catastrophe: The only offer on the table in Copenhagen would condemn the developing world to poverty and suffering in perpetuity
On the ninth day of the Copenhagen climate summit, Africa was sacrificed. The position of the G77 negotiating bloc, including African states, had been clear: a 2C increase in average...
