Blue Crab Boulevard

The Absurd Factor

Some 15,000 politicians, lobbyists, activists, journalists and some even more totally useless folks like Leonardo DiCaprio will be gathering to discuss climate change at a super luxury resort in Bali. The little clambake will cause an estimated 100,000 tons of carbon emissions. More than some nations produce in a year.

Around 15,000 politicians, civil servants, green and industry lobbyists and journalists will fly in for the summit, emitting the estimated equivalent of more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide – on a par with the annual emissions of the African state of Chad.

John Hay, spokesman for the UN conference organisers in Bali, said: "The Indonesian government will be announcing its offsetting deal on Wednesday. It will involve tree-planting but how exactly, where and when will be announced then. We at the UN climate secretariat are offsetting by buying emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism. Then it is up to the individual delegates and journalists. The responsibility lies with them."

The UK's delegation of three ministers and over 40 civil servants, including the treasury's former chief economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, will offset their flights using the Government's own, highly-rated fund which buys up emissions of industrial gases with global warming potential under an approved UN scheme.

The meeting, which runs from December 3 to December 14, aims to create a framework for a post-2012 climate change treaty that would replace the Kyoto protocol.

However, the surge in climate change's political importance is expected to boost the number of delegates travelling to the resort of Nusa Dua, a palm-lined promontory on Bali's south coast, from the 10,000 who had registered by Sunday to 15,000 at least.

Among those expected to attend, some by private jet, include Arnold Schwarznegger, Governor of California, Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and Leonardo DiCaprio, the actor. Peter Garrett, the former singer with the Midnight Oil rock band and now a member of Kevin Rudd's new Labor government in Australia, is expected to attend.

Chad has something like 9 million people. The 15,000 attendees will exceed the carbon emissions for all of those people put together. That's not all, either. The hotel accommodations for the British contingent alone cost about £330 per room per night. Others are paying even more. Anybody else seeing the absurdity here? Millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of tons of emissions. And they are talking about maybe planting a few trees like it is meaningful.

It has never been easier to rape the planet and scam up a great living. All you have to do is say you're fighting global warming and you can get away with literally anything.

(H/T to feeblemind in comments for the tip.)

UPDATE: NortonPete, another commenter, found this absolute gem from the Baltimore Sun. The blog post there is covering the vote tomorrow on a 'global warming' bill by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. That is just a post. The gem here are the comments. They are almost uniformly very much against anything to do with the global warming cult – some are brilliantly written, virtually all are very much against the bill and the entire global warming racket.

Environment, Junk Science | Gaius December 4, 2007

By NortonPete, December 4, 2007 @ 4:58 pm

This maybe the best scam in the history of the world. No one can prove or disprove that carbon offsets work.
Imagine, we have reached a point in time were we have made significant advances in all sciences, only to fall victim to a nearly medieval black art called global warming.
By martian, December 4, 2007 @ 6:02 pm

The worst of it is that the global warming crowd completely fails to see the absurdity. It’s like they walk around wearing blinders.
By Anthony (Los Angeles), December 4, 2007 @ 6:13 pm

And I’m sure the irony in this goes way over their heads
By NortonPete, December 4, 2007 @ 7:34 pm

I have never seen a series of response to a blog like the following.
The first response is some nut but then follows hundreds of responses that reject Global Warming. I’m stunned.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/2007/12/historic_vote_on_global_warmin.html
By feeblemind, December 4, 2007 @ 7:35 pm

I wish the 15,000 would show a little sincerity. Hold the conference in a country with a low carbon footprint. Maybe next year they could have it in N’Djamena or Pyongyang where the locals are so much more earth friendly. Maybe they could send back film footage showing us enviro-sinners the kind of life style we need to lead to preserve the earth?
By Gaius, December 4, 2007 @ 7:44 pm

That is a hell of a find, NortonPete. I’m putting it up in an update.
By NortonPete, December 4, 2007 @ 8:07 pm

Call me early, but is this the initiation of a broader reponse to this nonsense? I’ve never seen the amount and depth of true response to this issue before. I know Druge linked it, but I could not comment until someone moderated and accepted the comment.
There appears to be hope.
By Neo, December 5, 2007 @ 1:28 pm

We should all pray for a tsunami.