Perhaps the biggest news coming out of Copenhagen: Presidents and Prime Ministers recognize that greenhouse gases are a problem they have to deal with.
Shouldn't that read "...an opportunity for more taxation and control"?
"Is Global warming an economic or a enviromental issue?"
Neither, it's a political issue.
And from a commenter on ESR's latest:
# Some Guy Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 6:57 am
I think that the main thing history will take note of from the copenhagen conference, is that China saved the world from a global, communist government.
"Perhaps the biggest news coming out of Copenhagen: Presidents and Prime Ministers recognize that greenhouse gases are a problem they have to deal with. The naysayers of global warming are finished."
I suspect its more likely that this is the last hurrah of the Global Warming believers' power struggle.
One would hope so, but many observe that AGW/CC is Too Big To Fail. 5 billion plus US$ annually is a lot of "research" money to give up and the potential for power and money is just too tempting for a number of governments and businesses. E.g. any bets on the U.K. or NZ repealing the laws they've passed on this?
This is a political comment, not a scientific one. And I know it sounds cynical.
Once you started framing the political discussion around the idea of giving money to dozens of corrupt third-world regimes the jig was up: the U.N. will push and push until something happens, if for no other reason than it lines the pockets of hundreds of little petty bureaucrats and warlords all over the globe. We're already seeing some countries pay for and organize "protesters" at the summit. The west is like a big piggy-bank, and this is a lot of folks' chance to cash in. If it takes twenty years they're not going to give up on this. The idea of free money is extremely difficult to give up.
I don't think where the science goes has anything at all to do with the political discussion at this point.
Shouldn't that read "...an opportunity for more taxation and control"?