Climate Change & Bali

Well the final word has been spoken on Global Warming at the Climate Change Conference 2007. This has been done because Nobel Laureate, inventor of the Internet, and the self-appointed John the Baptist (feel free to substitute Chicken Little here) of Global Warming has pronounced that, "My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here.." as quoted in an article in Time http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1694259,00.html?imw=Y  

Boy, I hopes he's right. I won't go into the debate on global warming again, I've already voiced my opinion on the subject http://justblowingsmoke.blogspot.com/2007/09/global-warming.html so I won't try to bore you with repetition (though one should never be afraid of pointing out the facts any time the opportunity presents itself). 

Here's the problem that I have today... Why Bali? I know that there are people terribly concerned about global warming. I know that people concerned for worthy causes need to gather, exchange information, and come up with plans to work toward solutions. But don't they think that we would take them more seriously if they weren't basking in clear blue skies, swimming in crystal clear waters, and working on their tans on the island of Bali in the dead of winter? 

Wouldn't their protestations gain more respect and better press if they were, oh hanging around a power plant in China which was spewing dark smoke into the air, coughing up their lungs in the haze of Mexico City, or even choking on the smog in LA? Wouldn't pictures of them standing outside with the very places where the greenhouse gases that they are concerned about are visible in the background send their message more effectively? 

While I'm at it, I might as well ask what the carbon footprint of all of these people flying half way around the world to an island that probably doesn't have much of one is? Or should I ask how many of them flew down on private planes instead of going commercially? I guess that I am just confused as to why government officials, bureaucrats, and celebrity hanger's on feel the need to hold their gatherings at places that none of the rest of us can afford to go to, and probably at someone else's (taxpayers) expense. 

Actually, I know why they do it ... cause it's good to go to a tropical paradise in winter. I just wonder why the rest of us accept that such meeting should be held in exotic and no doubt expensive locations. I get confused with what tropical islands might have to do with global warming anyway. After all, its already warm there, and has been for a long, long, time. Perhaps such things are simply beyond me. After all I am not, have not, nor ever expect to be part of a government delegation to anything (unless I get a spot on the group being sent for the next worldwide Village Idiot's Convention). 

I also read in this same article that Sen. John Kerry, NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and dozens of officials from California were in attendance as well (Arnold wanted to go, but has a pesky little budget problem in California). Since none of these people is part of the official US delegation, one has to ask why it was necessary for any of these to attend. The answer, of course, is as obvious as the picture in the Time article where Mr. Gore is pointing his finger at the audience. (Did anyone else notice that this finger pointing thing seems to be a habit of members of this former administration? Is there a message here, or is this simply the equivalent of Pinocchio's nose?) I guess that these guys know a good vacation spot too. They also know where the press is going to be and where to be seen and photographed as "people who care". 

As always, it is more important to be someone who cares than someone who accomplishes something. And while the mayor of NY is basking on a tropical island, who is running his city or trying to reduce the pollution that the buses, cars, and cabs in NY are putting out? While John Kerry is seeing and being seen, who is casting his vote on important legislation in the Senate?  

OK, OK. I know that this is probably nothing more than another feel good conference that will accomplish nothing for the goals for which it was intended. After vasts amounts of money and time were spent, the Kyoto Accords were produced, but most of the countries who signed them did not meet the very goals that they agreed to. That's because governments don't accomplish things, people do. 

People created the power generation systems and the internal combustion engine that seem to be at the heart of this problem (real or imagined) and people will come up with any of the solutions to begin to resolve it. Governments are only good for getting in the way of solutions and diverting our attention from the money and the freedom that they are stealing from us. I guess that such feats of legerdemain require an exotic stage for the performance, and in Bali they succeeded.  

Just a side note, but I am still angling for one of the Village Idiot Convention spots. I hear that they are going to someplace warm, Death Valley.