Copenhagen. For various reasons I have a soft spot for Copenhagen. The mention of this beautiful city's name conjures up fond images that have endured since I was a lad in a place far from the beauty and elegant sophistication of Copenhagen. It was hard to get further from elegance and sophistication than a Welsh town.As a nipper I used to sing-a-long to, 'Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen" from the musical Hans Christian Anderson. When I purchased my first ever CD playing, Hi-Fi system many years ago, one of the very first CDs I purchased was the London stage version starring good old Tommy Steel. I still have it too!
Today Copenhagen and fairy tales again go hand in hand. I am referring to the much lauded, much anticipated climate change conference.
Everyone knows that nothing will be achieved at this conference. No agreements will be made, no consensus, no putting aside national or regional agendas.
A lot of back-slapping and a lot of applause for speeches that are full of empty promises. I bet you London to a brick that the only thing they will agree on is to hold yet another conference so they can all go back and do it again.
Personally, climate change is not high on my list of priorities for the world. There are far more immediate issues to face and combat than debating a phenomenon that has been going on and off since God looked down on Earth and said, "Not bad at all - even if I do say so myself." Of course things started to go wrong not long after and have been ever since. The only thing we can be thankful for is that Earth and Mankind weren't created by a committee.
Not too long ago we had the Bali talk-fest that spawned the Copenhagen talk-fest. Yet how much debate do you hear about hunger? The voices of the starving drowned out by the voices of the climate change cocktail-circuit junkies and pushers of this theory and that.
Please don't try to tell me that the main cause of hunger has anything to do with carbon footprints, emissions and some obscure glacier shrinking half an inch, because that's a load of bollocks sprouted by the likes of Al Gore and his climate change Black Shirts.
One of the biggest causes of hunger is corruption. How many conferences on the scale of Copenhagen and Bali, have you seen assembled to combat corruption - especially in developing countries? Maybe just as well as half the tin pot little leaders in such countries wouldn't be morally entitled to go anywhere near such a conference.
Can you recall world leaders gathering in one place to thrash out deals to stop supplying arms to dictators, coup leaders and strutting Generals adorned with enough glinting medals to deflect 50% of the sun's rays? No - I can't either. It is far too profitable to combat.
Oh you will hear speeches now and then full of more window dressing than a High Street at Christmas, but that's about it.
My opinion on climate is quite simple. If a mountain blocks your path to what you want to achieve - then climate!
But you wont see too many delegates in Copenhagen trying to do that.
Wherever you may be - be safe
Copyright Mike Hitchen Online, Lane Cove, NSW, Australia. All rights reserved
