Anesthesized to Failure
Two years ago, we saw many headlines like this and this, warning that the future of humanity hinged on the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks.
Now that we are in the run-up to the annual climate equivalent of Groundhog Day, I suspect we’ll start to see more headlines like this one:
Failure is not an option for global climate change talks
Until next year, that is, when failure really, really, is not an option.
We see this in politics all the time. Iran having nuclear weapons – not an option to US politicians, despite the fact that there isn’t all that much they can do about it. Failure is always an option. I think this also applies to your other recent post about sustainability. People can’t fathom that what has worked so well for a few decades, maybe a century or two, could ever possibly not succeed for the coming centuries.
There’s this clip of Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying fewer than 50 days to set a course, ….. or irretrievably too late
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jZlB-ta_o
and then he and the other politcians promptly forgot about it, becaue of other issues like economies, wars, party politics, getting relected. Some wonder why the public don’t listem to this stuff any more.
Interesting bit of the clip puts IPCC glacier mistake into political context, some say IPCC the glacier mistake, was a minor mistake and wasn’t that imprtant.
Yet, im the same clip above Gordon Brown, it was politically important:
“in 25 years glaciers that provide water to three quarters of a billion people will disappear.”
“only last week, we saw new evidence of rapid disapearance of artic sea ice.”
“every year 300,000 people are killed by climate change”
(man made presumably)
obvioulsy some sceptic put together that clip, and a few inserts (a couple of years ago) I just spent a few seconds googling gordon brown 50 days. It does sound so 2009!
I wonder what we will hear from the polticians in the 20th annivesary of Rio year!
I think the new politically correct euphemism for these things is “last best chance”.
Funny. In the Guardian piece under the “failure is not an option” headline, was this line about the pre-summit summit:
“Indeed, delegates went further, offering widespread support for a strong drive towards much greater resource efficiency and endorsing a WWF call for 100% renewable energy by 2050.”
There you go- A declaration that the Tooth Fairy is real and doubt is not an option. That’ll pack ’em in.
“massive scaling-up of transformative policy solutions”
Nominated for a lifetime achievement award in Bullshit Bingo 🙂
I predict the only significant result of this meeting will be setting another meeting in another exotic location. Screw the planet – let’s all fly to the Seychelles next year.
meanwhile. “basic physics” and consensus continue to meet observation. Moving on the AP wire now:
“A fundamental pillar of physics – that nothing can go faster than the speed of light – appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein’s theories.”
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BREAKING_LIGHT_SPEED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
We need a new DeGaulle to come up with a riposte equivalent to his ‘the graveyards are full of indispensable men.’
The whole thing is like an annual zombie worship festival, with environmentalists chanting slogans that are supposed bring the essentially dead Kyoto Protocol back from the grave.