On the Fox News site, NRO contributor Phil Kerpen shares some of “The Crazy Stuff I Saw in Copenhagen” — a story illustrated with this telling picture of the cooperation between Europe’s Green and Socialist parties.
An excerpt:
Visiting the UN climate conference in Copenhagen has been an eye-opening experience. On my way from the airport to the hotel I could tell from the gas station signs — over 10 kroner per liter, which is about $7.50 per gallon — that attitudes about energy prices were a little different here.
There were two groups of protestors outside when we arrived at the conference. The first, a talented (we’ll have a video of their rap routine up soon) group of Danish youth from Climate Debt Agents argued for a huge transfer of wealth from the developed to the developing world, to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions and to finance adaptation. How to pay for it? With a global financial transaction tax of the sort supported by Nancy Pelosi.
The second, a group of predominantly Vietnamese followers of “Supreme Master Ching Hai” picketing with signs calling for adoption of a vegan lifestyle. To their credit, they said they believed it is a personal choice and that they want to educate and persuade, not force people to their views.
Inside the conference was an exhibit hall with everyone from Yale University to the Girl Scouts (did you know when you buy their cookies you help support their global warming efforts?) to the International Trade Union Confederation, who explained to me that their needs to be a “just transition” which includes a global jobs retraining program as well as a global welfare program for displaced workers who cannot be retrained.
A prominent NGO called the Global Canopy Programme was handing out a book called “The Little REDD Book” that provided an overview of proposals to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation. Apparently they were perfectly comfortable with a playful pun on the title of Chairman Mao’s infamous “Little Red Book.”
Speaking of REDD, I was also instructed to “Just say NO!! to REDD” by the Indigenous Environmental Network, whose flyer on the issue says “many indigenous peoples call REDD ‘CO2lonialism of forests.’” The flyer goes on to argue, I think correctly, that turning over forest management to government bureaucrats, green groups, and Wall Street bankers will violate their rights and lead to more, not less, forest loss.