Saturday, December 19, 2009

The road to hell...

As the dust settles on Copenhagen, I find it hard not to feel depressed and disappointed at the abject failure of the leaders of the world's richer nations. All the hope and hype that was present at the start of the summit has evaporated away, leaving only a bitter tasting dust.
The potential for a moment of global unity in the face of approaching disaster was crushed beneath the reality of modern politics.
In the end, what ruled in Copenhagen was money and power. The desperation and eloquence of the world's smaller countries, those most likely to feel the effects of climate change, was dismissed by the so-called "big players", the likes of America and China.
The needs of these small countries, their very survival, has taken a distant second place behind the self-interests and nationalistic posturing.
So what if some small tropical country vanishes beneath the waves, saving it would negatively impact on Jo Schmo from Arkansas's quality of life, and we can't have that, because obviously his need to have a large SUV far outweighs the need for an entire nation to be above water.

Our leaders, if such they could be called, have failed us - either because they do not care or because they have no chance of passing any meaningful legislation in their home countries as their governments are hamstrung by know-nothing morons (yes, the US Senate, I'm talking about you). I had hoped, living as I do in something of a fantasy world, that Obama might somehow be able to drag the world where it needs to be, but people in America keep electing idiots as senators who think there's no problem and even if there is then God will sort it out.
It's hard not to be fatalistic when faced with this kind of self-destructive stupidity, but there were some encouraging signs. The protests on the streets, the willingness of the smaller nations to stand up and at least try not to get trampled by the bigger ones.
And there was an agreement. Kind of. Between 5 countries. That was likely cobbled together just so the leaders could save face and so the whole thing wouldn't look like a complete and utter waste of time.
That's better than nothing, right?

Oh the hell with it, I'm going back into my fantasy world of Warcraft and Spider-Woman, reality's too depressing...

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