What i have learnt from Copenhagen
Of course, there is another day and a bit still to come before the Copenhagen Climate Change meetings come to an end. But this far I have learnt a few things and most of these things do not make pleasant reading. It has been, in the main, a complete disaster.
First the process. This has been a backwards movement. Things that could have been well sorted out months and months ago seemed to become news during the deciding event. Such is the wisdom and such is the planning of these experts in political-economy. To run out of time is the key term used. What this means is that nobody has really done the work in the long period of time since Kyoto. In other words these experts could not even get through a high school diploma course. In a word pathetic. This lot could not plan a piss-up in a brewery.
Second this has been expensive. I cannot get hold of any exact figures but we can quickly imagine the costs. Think of 190 nations attending with all their fine experts and teams. Think of the police forces in attendance and add to this the more ”private” and ”secret” services for security. Add to this the hotels and the food and the wine and the champagne and the wines and the food. Plus let us consider the ”salaries”. Let us also consider the time spent by these expert groups in the months before this wonderful wonderful Copenhagen holiday. This has been a holiday paid for by you and me. Our taxes. We have been left to foot this huge bill.
The costs have also been sky-high in other ways. The amount of private jets used for travel and the general aeroplane usage has been way above the amount of ”pollution” caused by most ”under-developed” countries in any one year. The media coverage alone would be well worth analysis in terms of the carbon footprint. In other words this Copenhagen event is yet another example of contradictions and even hypocrisy. What makes this even more serious is that the thinking world already knows this.
The costs are heavy in terms of any trust that remains in the political and political-economic democracy scene. The obvious hard-headed and clear over-handed approach by the Danish police (under equally obvious demands from various world leaders) has sent the image of Denmark as a good peaceful and socially-democratic country into a freefall. In fact the trust in political institutions generally has been knocked yet again. This can only fuel more and various extremist groups in the near future. This also alienates the young folk world-wide. This is a very high price to pay. It is not a nice way to go to sleep when really thinking deeply about the future like this.
What has been so clearly lacking in this Copenhagen ”conference” is any sense of a basic domain assumption. That is any awareness of a common philosophical position that guides both debate and decision. There has been a total lack of worldly reason just as there has been a total lack of the ”common good”. What we have seen is that the forces of casino capitalism ignore basic human principles that are attached to wellbeing. What has been seen is the total ignorance of the place that a human has with and for nature as a home. What we have witnessed are individualised power groups and nations playing the card tables and all with the view to win at any cost. We have seen the predictable mess that comes with the greed and the competitive nature of capitalism when it is left alone to be the one and only wild-card on the table.
The Copenhagen basic philosophy has really been the ”winners and losers” game as in the competitive sport this is now seen to be. Again there is no common sense of value in terms of human wellbeing or sustainable eco-Being.
We have also seen some good ideas and potential plans for various technologies that are more sustainable than fossil fuels. We have seen many excellent ideas concerning various forestry improvements. We have seen many ideas concerning the checking and the balancing out of sea-levels on the rise. However all these postive points are dwarfed by the so called ”process” that many say ”wants to walk the talk backwards”.
As a personal opinion on this I might say ( indeed to write this far I must say something) – I might say that we need, badly need, a new kind of measure stick for our global decisions. Once capitalism had the old gold standard whereby something outside of abstract finance would be a kind of balance and a check. Indeed gold has been a favourite commodity on the markets recently. But there can be no return to gold standards. But what kind of standard should be at the back of major global decisions?
If I stick my neck out here I am to say that a twin standard needs to be deeply absorbed into the global consciousness. This is a twin standard that encompasses both the human sense of wellbeing with the sustainable Nature that is a necessary (but not sufficient) part of our human all too human wellbeing. Such a basic philosophy may guide decision-makers in ways that avoid the wild casino capitalism of greed and competition.
But without such a basic background assumption of the ”good” we can expect more of the same ”bad”. We urgently need to think and act again in such an alternative way and with this twin-bodied domain assumption, as to the good life, that must influence decisions.
The end fact is this. No matter what actually happens in Copenhagen over the next 24 or more hours there will be incredible disappointment from so very many around the world and this especially with our more youthful folk that do care. In fact disappointment will be the key word to remember this Copenhagen ”process”. So this has been a massive failure already.
I am quite concerned about this. It is not often that trust can be re-created in the democratic processes of existing states. Lost that now.
After this pathetic performance we and especially our younger ”we” ask our expensive experts: ”Do you expect our support in the future?
Steve Bowles
