Thegoodbadtruth's Blog

Politicians didn’t kill Copenhagen, we the people did December 20, 2009

Climate Demonstration, Germany

Grey clouds of carbon footprint were to be seen in the skies ever Copenhagen yesterday as hundreds of planes took off, flying their valuable human cargos of world leaders, diplomats, lobbyists and journalists back home for Christmas. Below them, thousands of people were busy clearing up the mess as quickly as possible so that the city could get back to its daily routine.

The leaders know, of course, that they are being lambasted in the world’s press and accused of not having the nerve or the willpower to come up with the goods. Their efforts have singularly failed to produce any real progress on any of the issues, and, despite the sophorific spin-lines about tightening up what precious little decisions were taken in early 2010, everyone knows that nothing can be done to improve matters until the next planned summit in Mexico at the end of 2010.

And, even if Mexico did come up with a satisfactory deal, we are still about three years away from seeing any meaningful policy implementation.

So most of the analysis to be read, heard and seen on TV today blames the refusal of leaders to come to an agreement, and, according to the point of view you’re reading, the fault lies with Obama, China, rich countries, developing countries, or any combination of them. All the leaders know, of course, that that rather simplistic analysis does not explain everything.

Whatever, the rest of us are left to read the press, shrug our shoulders and get on with our lives as best we can. After all, we all knew that failure was on the cards even before the summit began and, because no-one asked us for our opinion on the matter, we knew we were powerless to influence events.

In the run-up to the summit, demonstrations were held in many major western cities to demand concrete results this time. Those demonstrations were well covered by the media and so much the better. But they did not succeed in changing anything, and nor could they be expected to. They were only very small demonstrations in terms of what was really needed.

Those participating in the demonstrations were, for the most part, environmental groups and associations, with a small number of more radicalised and politicised elements who, as in France, jumped thankfully onto the bandwagon to stick another pin in the governmental or presidential voodoo doll. Their marches, where peaceful, were a credit to them, and the same can be said for the thousands of peaceful demonstrators who went to Copenhagen. They said that the people of the world were demanding change.

But they were wrong. The people of the world have not been convinced that change is necessary yet, and to believe otherwise is confusing dreams with reality.

What everyone seems to want to conveniently forget here is that there was a notable absence at the demonstrations, that of the public at large. Joe Average was hardly to be seen.

The dirty little secret here is that the future of the planet is not at the top of most people’s priorities. Far from it in fact. In almost all highly developed countries – in other words, those who had a lot of potential Copanhagen Clout – the main priorities are keeping a job or finding one, paying the bills at the end of the month, hoping the car doesn’t break down today because there’s a lot of things to do, and stemming crime. And it’s the same in China and India too. A majority of the world’s polulation is too busy surviving to actively support climate change legislation just yet.

They are quite simply not prepared to, or even in a position to, fork out the amount of extra tax money needed to combat global warming effectively. Many of them believe that big polluters should pay more. They are right, of course, but the fact is that even draconian and forced corporate contribution to a slowdown in global warming could not possibly be enough on its own to change anything in a meaningful way. In the case of developing countries, nobody would accept the expense needed to reduce their pollution whilst the West is still on top of the heap.

Not only that, but most people are confused by so much conflicting information about the seriousness of the situation and see the debate as highly technical and far from having a real direction. Besides, no-one has even asked their opinion by, say, holding a referendum or other participatory action. They are out of the loop. Simple as that. And no graph-wielding, figure-quoting or brow-beating by well meaning ecology groups or political parties is going to change that.

World leaders know all this very well of course. Politicians are often criticised – and often quite rightly so – on the climate issue. But they cannot be accused of not knowing more than the average citizen on climate issues. They know a lot more. In fact they know enough to be more than well aware that their citizens are quite simply not yet prepared, or able, to make the sacrifices necessary to save the climate from deteriorating. It’s all very well talking about green jobs and bio food, but both cost a fortune right now, and cash-strapped families just cannot be expected to be milked more than they are being milked right now.

No leader in his right mind was going to go to Copenhagen and insist on the deal they all know needs to be stuck one day or another because he knew that it just isn’t possible to finance it without major disruptions in the way our society works. Most of the propositions submitted before the summit began were quite simply not realistic in terms of implementation and were thus inevitably scaled down by an unspoken common agreement and, in the case of the Danish Leak, an underhanded policy decision.

Besides that, we live in a world where countries are each trying to get the biggest market share, the biggest profit, the best standards of living for their populations. All countries have their political, geopolitical and economic enemies, and the richer among them were hardly to be expected to level the playing field as a Christmas present to the others, before going home and announcing “Hey guys, gotcha a real climate deal for once. Problem is, it’s gonna cost ya thousands of dollars each, starting in two months. Developing countries? Oh, we exonerated them to help their economies. Oh, and Happy Christmas.”

The world could change tomorrow if we all wanted it to. The potential to create all the clean energy we need exists. Building all the necessary infrastructure to start cleaning up the planet could start tomorrow.

But it wont. Because too many people do not understand the debate and no-one, from politicians to ecologists to scientists, have been able to convince them for reasons to varied to mention here.

Thus far, the people are not demanding change. By “the people” I mean the people, not just small interest groups. In fact there are no signs whatsoever that their opinion is going to change soon.

And, besides, it’s comin’ on Christmas, and they have to get out there and buy all those millions of tons of plastic and chemicals called toys and processed food.

And I for one can’t blame them, because no-one has yet been able to convince them otherwise.