Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Climate skeptics hold their own Copenhagen conference
With the world’s eyes firmly fixed on the U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen it is easy to forget that there remains a significant group of scientists and politicians who do not accept that humanity’s emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate change.
These climate skeptics are in Copenhagen too and they held their own two-day conference not far from the Bella Center, home of the main summit. The Copenhagen Climate Challenge brought together a cluster of scientists who believe the real causes of climate change are being overlooked, ignored and even purposefully distorted.
They presented their evidence and called on world leaders to recognise that there is in fact no scientific consensus on climate change and asked that their dissenting views are given a fair hearing.
We spoke to some of the attendees. Here is a video clip of Craig Rucker, Director of the Committee For a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), the organisers of the Climate Challenge Conference, and another of Professor Niklas Nils-Axel Mörner, an expert on world sea levels.
from Tales from the Trail:
Boycott Copenhagen, Palin urges Obama
If Sarah Palin had her way, President Barack Obama would be staying away from this month's global climate change talks in Copenhagen and "sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices."
The summit will hear from scientists like those from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, where recently revealed e-mails showed information that raised questions about climate change was suppressed, writes Palin.
from Mario Di Simine:
Africans protest COP15, say “process manipulated”
In the most heated protest of these early days at COP15 in Copenhagen, African representatives accused the political leaders of the developed world of hijacking the conference to the detriment of developing nations.
The marchers said the process of the talks had been manipulated by the developed world's political leaders to impose on Africans a deal that won't benefit them.
from Mario Di Simine:
Fossil of the Day Award: And the winner is…
The UN Conference on Climate Change is a weighty gathering of serious folks looking for a way to cut carbon emissions. It's also a great place to bring some much-needed humor and along the way hammer a few perceived laggers in the fight against global warming.
Enter the Fossil of the Day Awards, a tongue-in-cheek dishonor first presented in 1999 and given to the countries with the worst performances at the previous day's talks during UN climate conferences.
from Mario Di Simine:
Is there a climate conference going on?
Walking through the Copenhagen airport, it's pretty much impossible to miss the signs that illustrate the city's focus is squarely on the climate. Those signs, literally, are everywhere, with advertisements adorning the walls on the walk from the flight ramp through to baggage claim and off into the arrivals area.
Big companies from Siemens to Shell are making sure you know they care.
Those are nice, but to really get a message across the big conglomerates may want to contact the ad guy for Greenpeace and its NGO alliance. The environment group has plastered the airport walls with a campaign "to mobilize civil society and to galvanize public opinion" to help bring about a new climate deal. The ad series features unflattering photos of world leaders like Germany's Angela Merkel (pictured in the ad below), President Obama, and others beside this quote: "We could have stopped catastrophic climate change" followed by the subtext "We did ... nothing". Whether you agree with the group and the alliance of NGOs participating in the ad, you gotta admit it's pretty striking.
from The Great Debate UK:
John Reid on climate change and global security
- John Reid MP, formerly UK Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Defence, is the Chairman of the Institute for Security and Resilience Studies at University College, London. The opinions expressed are his own. -
Barack Obama’s announcement that there will be no all-encompassing protocol agreed at Copenhagen underlines that climate change is perhaps the most complex issue facing the world today. In part, this is because it involves long-term thinking and modeling which our existing political, financial and economic institutions and governance frameworks are ill-designed and configured to grapple with and resolve.
from Mario Di Simine:
Copenhagen Climate Conference: Who is right?
Ask anyone about climate change and you likely will get the kind of emotional response not seen since George W Bush left office. People on both sides of the debate – from politicians and scientists to your regular Joe on the street – are often adamantly in one camp or the other, with little wriggle room in between.
The majority of the camp believes that Mother Nature is indeed terribly sick, and that humankind is the virus that caused the disease. The symptoms are a climate that is warming to such a degree we are faced with certain calamity if we don’t do something about it.
from Global News Journal:
What to do while the world burns
A firefighter puts out a fire at a village near Bangkok March 31, 2008. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
This opinion piece by Mort Rosenblum originally appeared in GlobalPost. The views expressed are his own. For the full article, click here.
Climate experts on Copenhagen
If we can predict one thing about the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen it’s that no one will have all the answers.
But there will be plenty of questions.
To help cut through the tide, Reuters has gathered a panel of some of the world’s leading thinkers on climate change.
What will they say in 2100 about what (didn’t) happen in 2009?
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber can speak eloquently and at length in English, German, French or Spanish 
about the perils of climate change. But the cold language of science in any of those languages melts away when the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 59, mentions his 18-month-old son and the impact that global warming will have on the toddler’s life.
“I’ve got a young son,” Schellnhuber says, pictured at the right with the boy, his wife and Britain’s Prince Charles on a visit to Potsdam in April. “I hope this all turns out to be wrong. I would be delighted if it turns out that we haven’t understood the system as well as we think we do, and that we might get a 20- to 30-year ‘breathing period’ when global warming slows or is even halted,” Schellnhuber said in an interview.
