Monday, December 14, 2009



Climate change: Reports from Copenhagen

John Key headed off for Copenhagen today. He's late. There's already three opposition MP's there, and they're using their party blogs to give us regular updates on what's going on.

Over on FrogBlog, Jeanette Fitzsimons blogs about the importance of forestry and the need to end illegal logging - responsible for half of all deforestation - by import bans in the countries the environmental criminals are selling to. Meanwhile, Kennedy Graham talks about patriotism, internationalism, and his first street protest. And over on Red Alert, Labour's Charles Chauvel looks at what New Zealand can do to make a better contribution (short version: have policies which actually reduce emissions).

Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that por nations are preparing a mass walkout on the final day if as expected the rich countries continue to negotiate in bad faith and attempt to push a bad deal through at the last minute. As I said, they've had enough of these antics in WTO negotiations, and have learned that the way to deal with them is to refuse to participate. Unfortunately, the rich countries - and that includes us - seem unwilling to cease these abhorrent tactics, or put selfishness aside for the sake of the planet.