The climate hysterics chose the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh to hold their annual Conference of Parties meeting. They could have picked a city that didn’t have raw sewage flowing in the streets or that featured decent food and clean water.
Literally a river of sewage flowing through the COP27 site. So much for cleaning up the pollution. pic.twitter.com/dVd8DRJx1F
— Karl Mathiesen (@KarlMathiesen) November 9, 2022
I guess they’re giving us a preview of a world without fossil fuels.
As you might expect, even in a repressive Muslim country, there are pretty much non-stop parties with a record 600 registered fossil fuel lobbyists. I doubt that many attendees could give a damn what the Koran says about strong spirits when representatives from oil, gas, and coal companies are pouring.
The world is increasingly in agreement that climate change is real, dangerous and happening now – but that hasn’t yet translated into a global decrease in greenhouse gas emissions.
Total fossil carbon dioxide emissions are expected to grow about 1% in 2022, a November report by Global Carbon Project published in the journal Earth System Science Data found. It’s being released in Egypt at the COP27 global climate change meeting.
The report projects a record amount of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere this year: 36.6 billion tons from burning coal, oil and natural gas.
At the rate we’re burning carbon, the world is on track to blow by the maximum amount of CO2 the world can burn to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, very soon.
At which point, we all turn into toads or the world ends — they’re not quite sure which.
Predicting climate change is sort of like reading the entrails of a newt. No one is really sure what it means but it sounds very important.
At this point, maybe we should ask women for help. #COP27 pic.twitter.com/M6ST0MPDTL
— David Ho (@_david_ho_) November 7, 2022
When is this Armageddon moment supposed to happen? Well, that’s complicated. In 2021, we had 11 years until the witching hour hit. But then, earlier this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said we had just three years to save the planet — barely enough time to change our clothes and brush our teeth.
Bjorn Lomborg, the author of Skeptical Environmentalist, is a little confused.
UN routinely warns us that we have just a few years left until catastrophe:
In 1972, half a century ago, Maurice Strong, first UN Environment Programme director warned that
the world had just 10 years to avoid catastrophehttps://t.co/W7mxpVeXJd pic.twitter.com/Ve4QEoWmPa
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) August 8, 2021
Regardless of the time frame, climate activists are miffed because fossil fuel lobbyists are pouring all those drinks, getting attendees drunk, and making them forget how much they’re supposed to hate oil companies.
When they’re at these talks, industry representatives are not just sitting quietly by—they’re making their presence known. And the influence of industry can be felt in some of the outcomes of the talks. Last year, the final text of the Glasgow Agreement contained several loopholes that many advocates and climate-impacted countries complained left room for the fossil fuel industry to survive and flourish as the world tries to move off its product.
Some have argued that having a seat at the table for the industry during these talks can allow them to become allies in the global energy transition. But many from developing countries that are most affected by climate change say that time and goodwill has run out.
“If you want to address malaria, you don’t invite the mosquitoes,” Phillip Jakpor, who works with Public Participation Africa, told the BBC.
That’s very clever, but if you want to get rid of malaria, you ain’t gonna do it without Western technology. And that means fossil fuels — and plenty of them.
Perhaps if Mr. Jakpor would remove his head from his nether regions, he’d understand that there is a price to pay and tradeoffs to be made to exist in the modern world.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member