There is going to be a secondary effect of this turn of events, related to Whiskey’s money observation but something that will be slower and deeper but possibly decisive in the final round; the fundamental, core reason for support of the Global Warming hypothesis by the Europeans has just been dealt a death blow.

Think about why the Europeans have been so enthusiastically behind this effort, and no, it has nothing to do with actually believing in the “science”. This was a perfect vehicle for accomplishing 2 core goals:

1) Treaties which would creat new, more powerful international agencies which would have control over the international economy and which would presumably have high levels of European staff, since they felt they had the expertise, and

2) Through those agencies, the creation and control of vast new streams of revenue which could be funneled into European countries for a supposed “green jobs” boom. Germany, with it’s extensive solar projects and research was especially hopeful for this.

Relevance, Control, Money, and Jobs – This was going to be the prize Europe would earn for it’s years of AGW support at Copenhagen. You may say that this was unrealistic at best, but it doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of political players in the EU have been acting as though this were unshakeably true. Who would dare oppose the idea when such a wonderful payoff was just around the corner?

And now – no agreement, no treaty, no new agencies, no revenue streams that Europe can even touch (Obama even has the nerve to ask them to give some up!!) *Everything* that they had gone into this hoping for has been dashed on the hard rocks of reality, and there is no hope of bringing those dreams back from the dead. That is why Browne is so bitterly disapointed – this was the last forlorn hope he had of resurrecting his electoral chances. All gone now.

Dreams die hard, and it will take a while before the reality of this sets in – it will take months, if not years. But it *will* set in, and when it sets in business, academia, and government will realize that there is nothing to be gained from pushing this forward anymore.

And on that day, the entire game is over. This could only be supported as long as the widest possible number of players still believed they had a good chance of grabbing a part of the loot. Once there is no more loot to be grabbed, there is no more reason to play the game.