Copenhagen climate conference’s big carbon bill
The big climate-change powwow in Copenhagen got under way this morning, amid the usual dire warnings from participants whose behavior belies the urgency they claim is necessary:
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 [today], 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 [this] 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.”
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. (from London’s Telegraph; emphasis added throughout)
Climate-change convention delegates eschewing the rules they would impose on everyone else? Say it aint so!
The odd thing about all this carbonation is that Copenhagen is a city which is easily navigable by public transportation and, like many northern European cities, has a population very accustomed to riding bicycles. (This site claims that 55 percent of Copenhagen residents ride a bicycle every day.)
Meanwhile, there is a movement among some physicists for the American Physical Society to withdraw its policy statement about climate change because it was based on the work of the researchers at the heart of the Climategate scandal. (Read an excellent new piece about Climategate by Steven F. Hayward here.)
I’ll keep an eye on the conference and other climate policy-related happenings in the days to come.
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63 comments Add your comment
Linda
December 7th, 2009
10:39 am
Reminds me of watermelons: green on the outside, red on the inside.
Ga Values
December 7th, 2009
11:40 am
Just remember our senior Senator Saxby Chambliss (SOCIALIST/RINO) will be voting for cap & trade. His son is a LOBBYIST for the Ethanol industry and Saxby will be voting for his son not Georgia.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
12:00 pm
- Kyle: China has a large population of bicycle riders too
(or used to have, since cars have come into popularity there).
Their recent industrial expansion has also resulted in them
becoming one of the world’s worst emitters of air pollution.
Their behavior (as well as ours, due to our obsession with
imported goods) is everything when it comes to emissions
control – regardless of what other countries do.
Douglas O
December 7th, 2009
12:23 pm
Ga Values – Have you a source for your statement on Senator Saxby Chambliss’s cap & trade vote?
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
12:28 pm
BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!! AL GORE WRITES A POEM FOR GLOBAL WARMING.
Al Gore: The Poet Laureate of Climate Change
One thin September soon
A floating continent disappears
In midnight sun
Vapors rise as
Fever settles on an acid sea
LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!! LIBERALS. THE DUMBEST PEOPLE ON THE PLANET.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
12:28 pm
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2009/12/al-gore-the-poet-laureate-of-climate-change.html
Linda
December 7th, 2009
12:54 pm
David, check out CT’s blog. I think she’s written her last article on this subject. Georgians have wised up & are letting her have it.
The American People
December 7th, 2009
1:09 pm
“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” Obama told the Chronicle. “Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”
Ga Values
December 7th, 2009
1:19 pm
Douglas O …Send Saxby an email and he will dodge you just like he did on immigration.. That means old Saxby is going with the ETHANOL LOBBY not Georgia.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
1:21 pm
Linda, no I can not stand that woman. She’s a racist and a fool.
Ragnar Danneskjöld
December 7th, 2009
1:36 pm
I would respectfully observe that the elitists in Copenhagen are not hypocrites. They never make any pretense that the cap and trade rules are to constrict the elites; the rules apply only to we rabble. And certainly we would not wish to see leftists calling their overlords “hypocrites.”
Jimmy62
December 7th, 2009
2:18 pm
They aren’t hypocrites, they no full and well what they are doing… Consolidation all the world’s power and wealth into the hands of our “betters” because the normal people like you and me are not qualified to make decisions or control money.
Hillbilly Deluxe
December 7th, 2009
2:20 pm
Do as they say, not as they do.
Jess
December 7th, 2009
2:21 pm
Kyle,
Can you comment on the journalistic fraud by the main street media in hiding any mention of climategate? Cynthia responded to this in my blog to her by saying it hasn’t been mentioned because it’s not worth mentioning.
Kyle Wingfield
December 7th, 2009
2:35 pm
Jess: I’ll just say that I’ve posted about Climategate on the blog a few times and written a column about it, so obviously I disagree.
Kyle Wingfield
December 7th, 2009
2:35 pm
With the idea that it’s not worth mentioning, that is.
h2so4
December 7th, 2009
2:58 pm
Hey I’m all for emissions at current levels. They tend to stress the old (i.e. more likely republican) and thereby ending their lives. Let the pollution flow!
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
3:01 pm
What a paradox. Despite the waning support of climate change theory, most American’s do support energy/resource conservation and sustainability–which is the point anyway. The more conservative we are in our use of resources, what we eat and what we do with our money the greater the impact on every issue at hand. But I guess pigs will never fly.
Linda
December 7th, 2009
3:23 pm
Now there’s 3 classifications of believers in man-made global warming:
1. those who never believed in it: never-dids,
2. those who no longer believe in it: been-hads, &
3. those who still believe in it: still-been-hads.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
3:30 pm
- Axelfraud (or DAvid, DAVID, etc.)
Dec. 7 (Pearl Harbor Day), 1:21 pm
Look who’s talking. POT MEET KETTLE.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
3:32 pm
dewstarpath, I think you have me confused with someone else.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
3:32 pm
Sulfuric Acid (2:58 pm) – Lighten up.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
3:36 pm
No confusion, Axelfraud. You may not like a journalist,
but she hasn’t said anything bad about you that I can recall.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
3:38 pm
dewstarpath, well she rails on my race in almost every column. No, she didn’t say anything about ME personally but she does insult my race and she takes race baiting to a new level.
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
3:46 pm
oops–seem to have blundered into the george wallace/wallace muhammad blog
TRUTH
December 7th, 2009
3:55 pm
You people who think that global warming is a myth are either all advanced degreed scientist who have a legitimate opposing scientific view, or just a bunch of nitwits who couldn’t “cipher” their way out of the basic mathematical timetables with Jethro giving you the “cipherin’” equations.
Pay attention knuckleheads, science is a bit smarter than you.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
3:55 pm
ohmy, yeah, George Wallace was a Democrat.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
3:56 pm
- Axelfraud – I presume from your past posts that by
“my race” you mean “white” – she has railed on “blacks”
in her past articles (AJC print), particularly black men.
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
3:57 pm
…back in the good old days
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
3:57 pm
TRUTH, I don’t take my marching orders from a Vandy flunk out like Al Gore. If the science of global warming is smarter than everyone then why did scientists lie about the numbers?
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
3:58 pm
dewstarpath, I’m sure she has railed on black men.
For example: Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, Larry Elder and Bill Cosby.
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
3:58 pm
Understanding that being wasteful and irresponsible has consequences requires no understanding of science
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
4:03 pm
- I didn’t know Bill Cosby was a republican.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
4:07 pm
dewstarpath, ahhhhhh, the truth comes out. So, if a black man is not a democrat then he is not black! That’s what it comes down to.
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
4:07 pm
ohmy, then by all means, go preach to China and India. They pollute more than any other countries on Earth.
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
4:27 pm
my comment was not country specific
Linda
December 7th, 2009
4:30 pm
Truth, Global warming began 18,000 yrs ago when we started coming out of an ice age. The globe has warmed & cooled for hundreds of thousands of yrs. That in itself proves that it’s not caused by humans. The greenhouse effect is caused by 95% water vapor & 5% CO2, of which 3.2% is man-made. If you think that humans are contributing too much to it & it’s harmful, how far would you be willing to go to go to reverse it? How much would you be willing to spend annually & what freedoms are you willing to sacrifice? Would you go so far as to give up the sovereignty of your country? If the goal is to reduce the global temperature by 1/10 of one degree celcius, is that enough of a difference for the sacrifices?
MoreOfTheSame
December 7th, 2009
4:33 pm
Kyle, you rightsiders are the best at complaining, especially when anecdotal non-issues are noted (limousine use?) that require minimal thought. Always the same, complain, complain, complain. Like the kid who didn’t get his way as a child and never grew up. Not me, I didn’t do it, that’s not fair, I’m telling my mom. Grow up Kyle and use your commentary for something constructive for a change.
JF McNamara
December 7th, 2009
4:37 pm
Wow, are they hypocrites! Somewhat highly important people not wanting to take public transportation. Unbelievable. I’m sure their security people had no say in it.
I don’t want our dignitaries on public transportation in a foreign country, and I’m sure every other country feels the same way.
Kyle Wingfield
December 7th, 2009
4:57 pm
JF McNamara: I highly doubt that there are 1,200 people attending this conference who are in need of security, or who would even stand out in a crowd. And if 1,200 of them are taking limos, the number of them taking cabs must be vastly higher.
The idea that most or even many of the people at one of these U.N. confabs are dignitaries or “highly important” is one of the problems with the U.N. in the first place. And even if they were — couldn’t some of them car-pool in their limos if they really believe what they preach?
Byron Mathison Kerr
December 7th, 2009
5:05 pm
Where are the PR people when you need them?
Putz
December 7th, 2009
5:11 pm
Man I can’t wait for my energy bills to go up. UP UP UP!!!!!
They can tax me until life aint worth living. Anything to help others. It’s fun to pizz my money away on political whims like the war on tactics and fascism using health and energy.
Please government. Screw me good and hard for humanity cause I aint about shat. Please kill my 19 year old on foreign soil – screw him too. Blow his brains all over the rocks like that football player hero you covered up.
Thank you government. Don’t know where I’d be without you. Starving and homeless probably cause I’m really stupid and helpless.
Rush
December 7th, 2009
5:12 pm
Global warming is a myth propagated by the liberals to promote their gay agenda!
Byron Mathison Kerr
December 7th, 2009
5:21 pm
One point of misinterpretation here are the different definitions of “limousine.” Many of us first think of an exceedingly extravagant altered Lincoln, Cadillac, or Mercedes with an extra long body and showy amenities.
But the term in the embedded article is most likely used to refer to any vehicle leased for a short term for private use only. So a highly utilitarian, extremely non-glamourous 10-passenger van can also be referred to as a “limousine.”
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
5:22 pm
- AXELFRAUD – You said that. Not me.
dewstarpath
December 7th, 2009
5:25 pm
- Axelfraud. I’m sure you have facts to back up
your “claims” – like a link to where it states what
party Cosby belongs to, instead of throwing
accusations at me.
SSesay
December 7th, 2009
5:52 pm
http://www.etcorp.com/media/news/2-latest-news/135-usa-tests-pollution-response-technology.html
hatin' on the stupid
December 7th, 2009
6:21 pm
Heck with CO2 emmisions. When are we going to clean up the mercury emmissions that have polluted every stream in Georgia. http://www.gavoters.com/documents/ReduceLevelsofToxicMercuryinGeorgiasFishandWaters.pdf
Fresh caught fish, anyone? Whatever it takes is what we shouild do to stop it.
ohmy
December 7th, 2009
6:44 pm
there’s mercury in fish sticks?
David Axelfraud
December 7th, 2009
7:51 pm
dewstarpath, what accusations? I think you need to re-read what I wrote. Wasn’t accusing you of anything. You seem to have a history of jumping to conclusions. I was simply stating that Msssssssssssssssssss Tucker has a long history of race baiting and crying racism whenever there is a white person with whom she disagrees with. She’s also attacked black conservatives who don’t follow the democrat mantra.
Now, I never said that Cosby was a republican. Your words not mine. She wrote a piece a few years back about how Cosby didn’t follow lock step with the old guard civil rights bozos.