UN Climate delegates are full of hot air

Climate change delegates are not being very climate friendly.

An article in The Wall Street Journal describes how delegates at the UN Climate Change Summit in Bali failed to participate in energy saving activities like wearing short sleeves so they could ratchet down the air conditioner or riding one of the 200 bikes provided by the conference organizers.

Delegates on bikes? Ha.

Bikes are for the commoners – the delegates have earned their limos

Honestly, I live around the UN; there are more idling Escalades in front of that joint then outside the MTV Music Awards. Bikes? Come on.

The article further discuses the irony of how the 12 day conference was being held at a luxury resort built on a man made beach. All the fresh water must be pumped in, and tons of white sand was imported to create that ideal setting. Doesn’t Indonesia have like 18 billion miles of coastline? Did the developers of the resort really have to bring in all that sand?

They should have had the conference somewhere harsh, grueling and unpleasant – Death Valley, Siberia, Times Square. That would serve 2 purposes.

First, it would show the bureaucrats what we all are facing if their chitchat and useless arguments amount to nothing – as usual. Second, it might also force them to actually get something done. I bet they could hammer out a working plan in about 2 days if the summit was held in a big tent in Death Valley.

Instead, they are laying back in a manicured piece of Indonesian Heaven – hey why wouldn’t they spread the thing out as long as they could? No agreement - well guess we’ll have to have another summit in Hawaii – why not on Capri?

The delegates’ failure to trim their global warming habits is a glowing example of how humans will not change behavior for green causes.

Wow, you recycled that bottle of organic apple juice - now crank the AC up to max and flop down in front of your 40-inch plasma TV. Hey that’s what I do (minus the organic juice. Oh, and I don’t have a plasma)

Real global climate change will only come through technological breakthroughs. And breakthroughs will only come when renewable energy makes economic sense.

That’s what’s driving Google’s latest energy investment – and it is an investment.

In the mean time, maybe we can stick some UN delegates on treadmills and have them run off a little electricity? After all, a bureaucrat can’t fill the atmosphere with useless hot air if she is out of breath.