Prepared With the Help of Russia, China and, Of Course, Iran...

Yes, there are a number of disturbing things which could fit under that heading, including such unsavory items as Iran’s nuclear bomb program. And for reasons not fully explained in the public relations materials, you can also find this trio on the 26-member organizing committee of the latest in the endless series of United Nations climate conferences, this one meeting right now in Geneva, Aug. 31-Sept. 4.

Billing itself as “Not just another climate conference,” this gathering is crammed with the usual UN has-beens, wannabes and hangers-on, including former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and many of the same UN climate crowd whose deep interests in rationing your use of energy have, of course, required that they jet around the world — much of that at public expense — to climate conferences in recent years in venues from Rio to Bali. Some 1,000 “decision-makers and scientists” from more than 150 countries have signed up to attend. It’s all part of the UN effort to build momentum for the “seal the deal” Copenhagen climate pow-wow scheduled for December.

For the current conference, the ambitions include… well, see what sense you can make of this UN-speak, which translated into English means, roughly, that the UN wants license to intrude in virtually every aspect of human life, oversee monumental wealth transfers around the globe, and effectively bill you for the experience.

Attuned, perhaps, to criticisms that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy involved in UN conferences that entail hundreds of people jetting in for a week of dining, wining and filling the plush hotels, the conference organizers have included in their materials some suggestions for making their conclave “more climate friendly.” This includes the reminder, “Don’t forget to turn the light off when you leave the room.” Actually, that could stand as a motto for the entire endeavor. All over the world, if this UN campaign gets any more traction, a lot of lights are going to go out. It’s happened before, and there’s a name for it: The Dark Ages. For that, perhaps it makes some sense to have the governments of Russia, China and Iran on the organizing committee.