The incomparable Naomi Klein on the Copenhagen summit:
Here's Johann Hari on the 'giant fraud' being perpetrated by Western leaders:
"Our leaders are aren't giving us Hopenhagen – they're giving us Cokenhagen, a sugary feelgood hit filled with sickly additives and no nutrition. Their behaviour here – where the bare minimum described as safe by scientists isn't even being considered – indicates they are more scared of the corporate lobbyists that fund their campaigns, or the denialist streak in their own country, than of rising seas and falling civilisations.
But there is one reason why I am still – despite everything – defiantly hopeful. Converging on this city now are thousands of ordinary citizens who aren't going to take it any more. They aren't going to watch passively while our ecosystems are vandalised. They are demanding only what the cold, hard science demands – real and rapid cuts, enforced by a global environmental court that will punish any nation that endangers us all. This movement will not go away. Copenhagen has soured into a con – but from the wreckage, there could arise a stronger demand for a true solution."
I encourage you to read the whole thing.
Those activists have been met with heavy repression from the Danish police, whose tactics (e.g. 'kettling') suggest they have been taking lessons from the London Met. Demonstrators were'held for hours in freezing conditions without medical attention, water or toilets':
On Saturday nearly 1,000 protestors were arrested - all but 13 of them have been released without charge.
The latest news is that the bloc of developing countries has withdrawn from the summit in response to attempts to marginalise their concerns by the Danish presidency and the rich states generally - for more on that, see the secret document leaked last week showing the efforts by Denmark and other rich states, the UK included, to sideline the influence of poorer countries and the UN in climate negotiations.
Finally, here is President Nasheed of the Maldives explaining why the achievement of a strong deal to reduce carbon emissions to the levels demanded by the science is perhaps the central moral and political challenge facing us today. As he put it, quite simply: if such a deal is not reached, his country along with many others will simply cease to exist:
As I'm sure I don't need to remind you, there is a name for the wilful destruction of an entire people, and it's not "climate change".
Cross-posted at The Heathlander