It wasn’t technically the keynote address, but John Kerry’s gas eruption pretty well summed up the substance of COP-28, the United Nations’ latest climate conference.
President Biden’s “climate envoy” was plummily ranting on — “I find myself getting more and more militant because I do not understand how adults who are in a position of responsibility can be avoiding responsibility for taking away those things that are killing people on a daily basis” — when the distinctive sound erupted and a fellow panelist politely shielded her nose.
That flatulence carried more meaning than all his alarmist verbal emissions on global warming, and all the other noise at the confab— or, for that matter, any UN climate conference.
Consider: He was ranting about nations that refuse to shut down all their coal plants now, when he knows perfectly well that China is still building two new coal plants a week.
But his interlocutors in Beijing nod politely when he blathers on, vow they’ll do better in the future (as long as the United States makes a few concessions, demands Kerry dutifully toots to the prez) — and hold their laughter ’til he’s out of the room.
He might as well be farting as talking: The Chinese would still nod politely and ignore him.
All the self-important nabobs flying their private jets to Dubai for COP-28 are just as dim.
And as deluded: The hottest news on the climate front is how many “carbon credits” turn out to be cons: A joint Guardian-Die Zeit investigation, for example, found more than 90% of “rainforest carbon offsets” certified by Verra, the world’s leading carbon credit certifier, involved nonexistent cuts in deforestation.
That scam centered on Zimbabwe, but the climate warriors might as well have been paying one of those infamous “Nigerian prince” con artists.
And while the conference crowd politely ignored Kerry’s emission, it’s obsessing over another big stink: The realization that “the world” isn’t going to meet their marquee goal of preventing global temps from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; they’re already up 1.2 °C and rising.
Even though the West has been burning gazillions on the cause: Biden and Democrats in Congress, for example, brag of having “invested” hundreds of billions (of taxpayer money) in Green New Deal schemes last year alone.
Right: Between bogus “offsets” and China’s coal plants (plus ones in India and around the developing world), the goal was always a fantasy.
Many at the conference came “carrying a sense of disillusionment,” reports The New York Times.
Good: Maybe they’ll even realize the whole crusade was ridiculous from the start.
As economist Bjorn Lomborg points out, the costs of meeting “net zero” targets far outweigh the costs of unchecked climate change: The West’s “current climate policy would end up destroying a sizable fraction of future prosperity.”
More likely, COP-28 will finish not with an admission of futility, but some “brave” new plan for drastic action (at the expense of the little people).
After all, blowhards like John Kerry need reasons why you should know how important they are.