CLIMATE – NO CHANGE

I have not written about climate change before now – there is enough hot air out there already.

I received an email last week from one of the blog’s readers, Sandra, inviting me to sign a petition for the Copenhagen Summit – apparently it was the largest petition in the world. No major surprise there as this is a crisis that worries all the people of the globe.

My knowledge on the subject is limited after all I am a hack and not a scientist. So I listen to what the experts say. The problem is there are pro and anti lobbies, each with their own dogma to preach. After a lifetime of excess I now preach moderation in all things so suspect the truth lies somewhere between the two arguments.

In November when I climbed up the hill to chew the cud with Prospero over breakfast in the Vecina Bar in Jimena I needed just a shirt. We marvelled at the warm and dry weather - perhaps global warming was indeed with us.

Now in December we meet wrapped in sweaters and an overcoat – peering out of the bar window at the deluge in the knowledge that winter has arrived and normality has returned.

We were warned ahead of Copenhagen that a deal on climate change was unlikely so the fact that just that happened should not have surprised anyone.

For me alarm bells rang when I saw day after day packed in to the conference centre in Copenhagen the world’s politicians, officials, climate change professionals of all hues and the media at this circus. If the world’s nations were intent on solving climate change it could have been done in New York with the same swiftness and certainty that the USA and Britain sought a mandate to invade Iraq.

So gathered in the corridors of power was that ogre Robert Mugabe, a Chinese delegation that was intent on hiding what is going on behinds its wall, a US President who’s offer was limited by what Congress and the Senate would allow him and the British PM who sought the spotlight not to save the world but his political skin.

Did we really believe they were going to save the world?

If we did then may the good Lord help us!