Not content with his humiliation at Copenhagen, Denmark this past September, President Obama will be traveling there again in December to attend the UN COP15 Climate Change Conference. This agreement would commit the United States to punitive and expensive greenhouse gas regulations dictated by the United Nations without recourse.
COP stands for "Conference of the Parties" and the December Copenhagen conference will be the 15th under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), hence COP15. According to their website, it will be one of the largest conferences ever held outside the New York or Geneva headquarters, with an anticipated attendance of over 10,000 people, including governmental representatives from 189 countries, industry groups, and other non-governmental organizations.
The theme of the December 7 - 18 conference is "Hope," so perhaps Mr. Obama will have more luck this time. Instead of soliciting the International Olympic Committee with trite clichés and no payoffs, he will be doing something much easier: selling out our country. After all, ceding power, relinquishing billions in U.S. tax dollars and destroying U.S. economic competitiveness is a pretty easy sell to the countries that will benefit, and he has had a lot of practice doing the same thing here at home. He will have a hard time screwing this one up.
The Hope site optimistically pronounces:
On 7 December, leaders from 192 countries gather for UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and decide the fate of our planet...
Decide the fate of our planet... Do these people have any idea how mindlessly grandiose they sound? Of course not. They are out to save the planet, just like Nancy Pelosi! It is hard for a normal person to imagine making such proclamations without embarrassment. But this is today's political class
This agreement will cede U.S. sovereignty permanently and irrevocably to the United Nations. So said British Lord Christopher Monckton at an event at Bethel University in St Paul, Minnesota this past Wednesday, October 14th.
Lord Monckton was former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's science advisor. He has lectured and written extensively on the issue, including an in-depth scientific critique to the 50,000 member American Physical Society, a serious side-by-side comparison slap-down of Al Gore's global warming assertions, and a recent summary of the global warming issue. In introducing his topic at Bethel University, he states unequivocally:
. ...and I am going to show you the latest science, which now doesn’t leave the question unsettled any more, this is now settled science, it is now settled science that there is not a problem with our influence over the climate. The science is in, the truth is out, and the scare is over.
You can watch his entire 1 hour 35 minute presentation here - well worth the time if you can spare it. The slideshow he frequently points to in this presentation can be viewed along with the video, here. Lord Monckton presents a series of statistics, charts and studies making a compelling case that not only is global warming insignificant - if it exists at all - but is likely not manmade, and more importantly, that the global warming alarmists have repeatedly, blatantly, deliberately lied, suppressing the facts to promote the myth.
Despite his effective refutation of manmade global warming, his closing remarks about the Copenhagen treaty are chilling:
I read that treaty. And what it says is this, that a world government is going to be created. The word “government” actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfication of what is called, coyly, “climate debt” – because we’ve been burning CO2 and they haven’t. We’ve been screwing up the climate and they haven’t. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.
So, thank you, America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your humanity away forever. And neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back. That is how serious it is. I’ve read the treaty. I’ve seen this stuff about [world] government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or not.
Watch him make his powerful concluding remarks in this Youtube video. (4 mins.)
You might call it a bit of rhetorical overkill, but given everthing else this administration and Congress have already done, only a bit. As Monckton later stated in a Q & A session, for such a treaty to be ratified requires a positive vote from a two-thirds majority in the U.S. Senate.
It seems difficult to imagine Democrats convincing seven Republicans to assist them in committing national suicide that way. Indeed, a recent Wall Street Journal article quoted Senate Republicans as saying that whatever deal Obama cut at Copenhagen would be dead on arrival:
Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner, the top Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, predicts "a repeat of Kyoto -- namely an environmentally ineffective agreement that cannot be ratified" by the Senate.
However, perhaps an easier option would be for Democrats to pass legislation enacting some or all of the proposals. The House has already passed the Waxman-Markey (Cap and Trade) bill. This onerous legislation calls for an 83 percent reduction in greenhouse gasses from 2005 levels by 2050. That means almost complete elimination of carbon based fuels, and parallels the goals identified in COP15, which asks participating countries to reduce global emmissions 50-85% by 2050.
Such reductions would essentially bring our economy to a screeching halt, as Lord Monckton states in his speech. Even the more modest goal for 2020 of a 17 percent reduction will force radical changes in how we do business and conduct our daily lives.
Senators John Kerry (D-MA), and the increasingly addled Lindsay Graham (R-SC), put out an Op-Ed in the New York Times last week, under the frighteningly Obamanoid title "Yes We Can," indicating that perhaps Senate Republicans shouldn't be so sanguine either. Their article concludes thusly (emphasis added):
We are confident that a legitimate bipartisan effort can put America back in the lead again and can empower our negotiators to sit down at the table in Copenhagen in December and insist that the rest of the world join us in producing a new international agreement on global warming.
So if Kerry and Graham get their way, not only is America going to agree to UN global warming regulations, we are going to lead the charge in getting them imposed!
And the UN panel is fully anticipating a more conciliatory approach from the US. Recognizing Kerry's efforts, as UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer, stated:
I think that a major shortcoming of Kyoto was that the official delegation came back with a treaty they knew was never going to make it through the Senate. And this time I have the feeling that the communication is much stronger, that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, through John Kerry, is really expressing strongly what they feel needs to be done in Copenhagen.
Thank you John Kerry.
The UN website states the following about COP15 (emphasis added):
This [the 2009 Bangkok climate change talks] was the penultimate negotiating session before COP 15 in Copenhagen in December, at which an ambitious and effective international climate change deal is to be clinched.
Before COP15, there will be a final round of negotiations November 2-6 in Barcelona, Spain at the Barcelona Convention Center.
The most recent UNFCCC Working Group report (181 pages) can be accessed here in PDF format. Much of it references earlier documents, of which there are many. To fully assess the ramifications of this proposal would likely require referencing these earlier documents as well.
While the prospects for Senate ratification of this treaty are probably in doubt, it seems likely the US Congress may try to pass Waxman - Markey or some other hybrid legislation using the same underhanded tactics now in play on healthcare. All the more reason to redouble our efforts at getting them out in 2010.
Suffice it to say that if the carbon reduction targets already discussed are adapted by this country, nevermind whatever other onerous provisions are in this treaty, we might as well all buy a horse and buggy - sorry, rickshaw; horses create methane - because we will be headed back into the 18th century.
Additional Resources:
UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol: Guide to Climate Change Negotiations (2008)
SourceWatch: UNFCCC summary, listing all participating parties, all COP meetings past and scheduled, and other useful information
De Boer photo and logo from UN Website
Lord Monckton photo by Derek Warnecke
Comments
The steamroller tactics continue unabated, the plus side is, this will hopefully illustrate to all Americans the extreme importance of being at the polls 2010.
Jim, thanks for another informative column.
Why does Obama continue to do what he pleases, unchecked??
Mockton's words are exactly what the U.N. Millennium Development Goal states it will do:
<i>restructure the global financial architecture based on principles of equity, transparency, accountability and democracy, to balance, with the participation of civil society organizations, the monetary means to favour human endeavour and ecology, such as an alternative time-based currency.
introduce binding codes of conduct for transnational companies and effective tax regulation on the international financial markets, investing this money for poverty eradication.
explore the feasibility of a legally binding convention on overcoming poverty, to be drafted in partnership with people living in poverty themselves.
funds could be raised through a currency transfer tax,which could also help to reduce currency speculation, and a tax on the rental value of land and natural resources
revenues from a nominal (0.5 -1.0 per cent) royalty on worldwide fossil energy-oil, natural gas, coal</
I'm really glad Obama is going to Copenhagen (he'll be getting his Nobel during that time in Oslo) and hopefully the nations will reach some sort of agreement on reducing emissions.
I'm thrilled thanks for letting us know. The US need to lead it because we put the most carbon in the air in the past until China surpassed us recently.
It's time to wake up! The game is almost over and most people who would of fought to preserve our country still aren't even aware the game has started.
Thanks Jim Simpson!!!
When Obama goes to Copenhagen in December, can we negotiate a deal for the Danes to keep him?
Monica, can you read? Can you think, or are you just a parrot? Here's an experiment for you. Watch Lord Monckton's 1.5 hour presentation. It is very entertaining, factual, and requires little or no reading. If when it is done you still think we should destroy our economy merely to reduce carbon emissions by an amount that will have little if any effect anyway, then have at it. You will have proven yourself beyond the reach of logic.
Monica, tell me exactly what makes you so glad to see Obama go to Oslo (other than your enamored state about him getting his much un-deserved Nobel)? Do you honestly think he is going to have an impact on anything except trying to make himself more noticeable once again?
I am sick to my stomach about this and Monica, you think it's a good thing???? What part of this don't you get? This "treaty" will take precidence over our Constitution! His goal to destroy our country is near completion. Too many people or should I say "sheeple" believe EVERY word that comes out of his mouth! When have you ever seen our country change this much in such a short period of time? Please wake up and see what he and his administration is doing!
For a guy that speaks Greek, Monckton has a very poor understanding of what rhetoric is.
I certainly hope the cap and trade can be stopped in the Senate. I hope everyone keeps working to that goal. But we are in danger of losing the ground gained if we carelessly repeat 'over the top' remarks. I appreciated Lord Monckton's vigor. But his comments at the end at Bethel don't acknowledge the fact that the senate must ratify any treaty.
And his claim that the science is now settled based on Prof. Richard Lindzen's latest paper is a claim that Lindzen would not make himself. It is an important piece of the evidence that the IPCC is all wet. But you don't win the battle by making claims that cannot be substantiated. Read Lindzen's paper and listen to what he says.
The climate is always changing. We don't need any more restrictions, regulations, caps, trades , save more live better wally world dreams of utopian government controlled material bliss! Step right up to the Pharmacy window free drugs for everybody! They don't do anything but they are FREE!!!
Al Gore should have run in 2008. China is just waiting with a better plan now. It's called the Highway to Saudi Arabia. Onward Christian Soldiers. Yee Ha! FreeBird!
Science is, at its heart, observation and measurement. You believe in rulers, right? The trained professionals who are telling us that the climate is changing are doing so because of things they have observed and measured, ie, proof, that glaciers are smaller than before and animals are behaving strangely (male polar bears are eating baby polar bears at an alarming rate because the ice isn't thick enough for them to go hunt). They are looking at things that the rest of us don't, which is why they see the changes and the average person doesn't; that's why we need them. 99% of species that have ever existed on this planet are dead now. There are times in our history that due to climate change there have only been microorganisms alive (yep, the scientists have observed this fact, too, using fossils and modern experiments), so NOT believing that climate change can effect us is downright idiotic. And not discussing this salient issue with other countries is moronic. Thanks Obama.
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