Monday, December 7, 2009

1200 Limousines, 140 Private Jets -- Must Be a Global Warming Conference

[H/T for the headline and story link to Ace of Spades. Meanwhile, while I was creating this report, Jackie Bruchi at StandFirm has posted in a similar vein.]

Since I am housebound this morning with eighteen inches of snow blocking our driveway, I thought I would take note of the hypocrisy surrounding the Climate Conference in Copenhagen which began yesterday. First of all, if you click on the link just given, you will be treated to this cozy and friendly picture:


The caption reads: "Climate Friendly City Car in front of the Bella Center [in Copenhagen, where the Conference is taking place]."

That is the PR for the event. Now for the reality:

On a normal day, Majken Friss Jorgensen, managing director of Copenhagen's biggest limousine company, says her firm has twelve vehicles on the road. During the "summit to save the world", which opens here tomorrow, she will have 200.

"We thought they were not going to have many cars, due to it being a climate convention," she says. "But it seems that somebody last week looked at the weather report."

Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."

And the total number of electric cars or hybrids among that number? "Five," says Ms Jorgensen. "The government has some alternative fuel cars but the rest will be petrol or diesel. We don't have any hybrids in Denmark, unfortunately, due to the extreme taxes on those cars. It makes no sense at all, but it's very Danish."
So there are no hybrids, because those are subject to "extreme taxes" in Denmark, but they are driving in hundreds of the big limousines from Germany and Sweden -- hundreds of miles (and a ferry ride) away. Thus the picture which the Conference should be running is this:



(Click to enlarge. Oh, wait -- that's not Copenhagen, that's San Francisco. Well, never mind: same same.)

And our climate elites not only have to be driven in style around Copenhagen once they are there; they have to fly there in style in the first place. But no common commercial flights for them: no, the same story reports that there will be at least 140 private jets vying for accommodation in all the local and regional airports:
The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers.
And just who are the people coming in this way? Oh, nobody you ever heard of: just 98 "world leaders," including pacesetters like President Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Helena Christensen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Charles. (What other timely topic could bring together just those six individuals?) Plus, of course, 5,000 journalists sent by the media, who are so objective about the subject of global warming that one or two of them even carried a story in recent days about ClimateGate. But that will be nothing compared to the coverage which 5,000 reporters can churn out about Copenhagen -- just you wait.

The Danes are no slouches when it comes to gouging charging these celebrities the going rate, and helping their expense accounts meet their quotas: hotels are fully booked at rates of $1,062 per night, and room service is stocking up on caviar and champagne.

At the same time, Copenhagen's mayor was doing her bit to promote "environmental" consciousness by distributing postcards to the rooms of each of those first-class hotels which carried this message: "Be sustainable. Don't buy sex." She also wrote hotel managers, asking them to implement measures to prevent ladies of the night from making nocturnal visits. The result? Copenhagen's social escorts were so outraged at this attempt to hinder their business during the conference that they announced their services would be available "on the house" to any delegate who produced one of the disparaging postcards along with his Conference credentials. And no, as Dave Barry says, I am not making this up.

To sum up: this Copenhagen Conference bids fair to outdo a General Convention for assembled hypocrisy and outward farce. Maybe while the 15,000 delegates are deliberating how to make the rest of us cut back on our lifestyles, they could spare a limo -- delivered by private jet, of course -- to get me to work today. (I'll be the guy at the bottom of my driveway, standing in snowshoes.)




2 comments:

  1. Dear Mr. Haley,
    How much truth is there in the runor that Obama is also there with the UN to sign a treaty for one world government?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear TL, The Climate Conference in Copenhagen is being held for the purpose of agreeing on a new protocol to take the place of the one previously agreed to at Kyoto, which expires in 2012. There is considerable skepticism being expressed as to whether any agreement will be possible -- especially since the Earth currently seems to be cooling, and not warming. (We have not had this much snow this early in northern California for years and years.)

    Any new protocol, if one is agreed upon by the representatives, will not go into effect until the individual countries go through whatever procedures are necessary for them to ratify (accede to) it. For the United States, that means that an approval by two-thirds of the Senate would be required -- and that would be extremely difficult in the current Congress.

    So not only is there no proposed treaty for a world government (though a protocol that forced every developed country to reduce CO2 emissions drastically would be about as destructive of our freedoms), but there is little if any chance that anything that does get approved at Copenhagen would be ratified in the Senate.

    ReplyDelete