What no Copenhagen summit thread?

[DCI Harry Batt]

What no Copenhagen summit thread?

Haha, no indeed. Though it does make it suss.

Who is he?

[NHH]

What no Copenhagen summit thread?

He's the author of this. He's caused a stir in green circles by coming out for nuclear power as the only way to avoid catastrophic climate rise given the failure to power down or invest in renewables.

[anton pulisov]

What no Copenhagen summit thread?

Then I have doubts about him, because readibly accessible uranium is running out and the uranium left would make mining for tar sands look like digging in a playground sand pit. Logistically it makes no sense. (And then there's the whole waste problem)

The problem with the pro-nuclear lobby is that they are hypocritical. They bash renewable technology for not having come on far enough, yet at the same time their estimates for future uranium supply includes reserves that would only be viable using technology that does not yet exist. They will say that market forces will make us come up with this new technology when the current uranium runs out. Make the same argument for wind power, and they will scoff at you. But nuclear power has never been viable in a market, it has always received massive subsidy from governments and militaries. Renewables have come on more in the last 20 years than nuclear power has in the last 60, and with a fraction of the investment from public funds.

The best way to reduce emissions is energy efficiency and more prudent use of resources. You could achieve 50% reductions in CO2 through this alone, even if you kept on using fossil fuels, because we are an incredibly wasteful society. We wipe our arses with paper sourced from virgin rainforests in South America. We buy Tetra-Pak milk cartons because we couldn't be arsed bringing back glass milk bottles. We drive big cars with one passenger. We have empty trains going up and down countries. Billions of people commute from one town to another because they want to live and work in a different town.

[anton pulisov]

What no Copenhagen summit thread?

From that article:

Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame. How do I know this? Because I was in the room and saw it happen.

This is such bollix. Why do we need a UN summit and a global agreement to do something? Such an agreement is never going to happen. So China were blocking stuff happening. Previously it was the United States. You're never going to get all the the world's powers to be in a "green mood" at the same time, because governments change all the time. So these summits are bullshit. It's all about finger wagging. It reminds me of 10 drunk guys out on the town who spend half an hour on the street on a Saturday night arguing about what to do and then end up at the titty bar. It might be shit, but at least they can all agree that it's shit. If any of them had a bit of independence about them they might have ended up doing something else. The same applies to nations and climate change. There's nothing stopping nations from unilaterally engaging their own CO2 reduction plans. Sweden overshot their Kyoto reduction target by 8%. Just because they could.

[Moonlight Shadow]

What no Copenhagen summit thread?

Yeah but the mentality seems to be one of "Why should I do something if some are doing nothing?". Well, because you can can because it's a step forward (a la Sweden).