Monday, April 6, 2009

US seeks restrictions on tourism to Arctic-Antarctic region

It's about time. The next thing to do is stop all the flying around to climate conferences. There were over 10,000 people who flew off to Bali, with the largest NGO contingent being the carbon traders*.
And get those three bozo's off the ice before they kill their silly selves.**
From EarthTimes:
The United States will push for more restrictions on tourism to the North and South Poles to protect the regions' natural environment and avoid the worst effects of global warming, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday. Opening a nearly two-week summit bringing together the two diplomatic bodies that govern the Arctic and Antarctic, Clinton warned that protecting the region was crucial to stabilizing the global climate. "The changes under way in the Arctic will have long-term impacts on our economic future, our energy future and indeed again the future of our planet, so it is crucial that we work together," Clinton said at an opening ceremony at the State Department in Washington....MORE

*Get into the nineties, try that teleconferencing thing:

Who is actually attending the Bali climate conference
So, who do you think is the biggest non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Bali? Which NGO do you think has registered the most delegates to attend the climate conference? Is it Greenpeace? Is it the World Wide Fund for Nature? Could it be Friends of the Earth? Or maybe big business lobbyists the International Chamber of Commerce?

A couple of days ago I went through the official delegates list and did the complex mathematics (i.e. counting) to work this out. And to my surprise it’s a big fat nope to all of these guys.

It turns out the biggest NGO delegation in Bali is the lobbying group, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). With 336 representatives including lawyers, financiers, emissions traders, consultants, certifiers and emissions trading experts from companies like Shell, the IETA makes up 7.5% of the 4483 Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) delegates registered to attend the UN climate talks....MORE