The upcoming Copenhagen summit on climate change was facing tough odds even before the "climategate" scandal cast its shadow over the delicate negotiations. Now parties from all sides of the debate over man-made global warming are offering pessimistic prognoses for the highly-anticipated gathering. Al Gore has even cancelled a speech in the Danish city. Is the Copenhagen summit now officially doomed? (Watch a report about the impact of "climategate" on Copenhagen talks)
Climategate has destroyed Copenhagen: Climategate will have a “huge impact” on the global-warming summit, said Saudi Arabia’s top climate negotiator, Mohammad Al-Sabban, to BBC News. “It appears from the details of the scandal that there is no relationship whatsoever between human activities and climate change,” so curbing carbon emissions will only hurt countries economically. We’ll only consider “no cost” proposals.
“Climate e-mail hack ‘will impact on Copenhagen summit’”
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The hacked e-mail flap will help the Copenhagen effort: Climate scientists are frustrated by the Climategate conspiracy theory, says Joseph Romm at The Energy Collective. But since it’s being “lapped up mostly by people who never understood or believed the science to begin with,” this affair is actually a good chance for “the too-reticent, too-insular scientific community to explain climate science to the broader public.”
“Nature editorial: ‘Nothing in the e-mails undermines the scientific case that global warming is real....’”
Copenhagen was already dead: “It’s great fun—and entirely worthwhile—to make a big stink about Climategate,” says Jonah Goldberg in National Review, but those leaked e-mails aren’t the reason Copenhagen is “doomed to failure.” Money is. If “Canada, the Dudley Do-RIght of the International Community,” won’t agree to leave its cash-generating, carbon-spewing oil reserves in the ground, “nasty” oil-rich countries certainly won’t.
“Assessing Pre-Blame for Climate-Change Summit”
If it’s dead, good riddance: The Climategate scandal is ridiculous, says leading climate scientist James Hansen to The Guardian, but if it kills the “half-assed” solutions on the table at Copenhagen, its at least useful. The cap-and-trade proposal is “so fundamentally wrong,” it would be better if the talks fail. We need to end carbon emissions—you can’t compromise on that any more than you could with slavery or Nazism.
“Copenhagen climate change talks must fail, says top scientist”
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SEE THE WEEK'S LATEST ON CLIMATE CHANGE:
• Copenhagen climate wars: A battle guide
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• Obama vs 'Climategate'
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