#COP26 turns out to be the copOUT we all expected
This Writer opened Twitter today to be met by this from the acceptable face of Countdown femininity:
Word of the day is ‘bloviation’ (19th century): empty rhetoric and a good deal of blah.
— Susie Dent (@susie_dent) November 2, 2021
I bet she’s been monitoring the progress of COP26 – or lack of it.
Here’s the problem:
100 corporate giants are responsible for over 70% of the global emissions. It is not ordinary people who need lectured about their climate responsibilities, it is greedy corporate elites & the Governments they control.
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) November 1, 2021
Sadly, it was the governments controlled by the corporates who were on display at COP26 – with predictable results:
https://twitter.com/Normanjam671/status/1455224965549248512
Leading the parade of meaningless speeches was the UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson, a personality vacuum who could do most good for the planet by sucking all the harmful CO2 emissions into the gaping hole where his soul should be.
So far the PM has made a speech about James Bond, done a car crash interview about cutting tax on domestic flights and new coal, fallen asleep, and announced he’s flying back to London tomorrow.
Planet saved. #COP26 #COP26Glasgow #ClimateEmergency
— Brendan May (@bmay) November 1, 2021
Yes indeed. Here he is sleeping without a mask next to David Attenborough, thereby endangering the life of a national treasure.
When you’re sitting next to 95-year-old Sir David Attenborough and you *still* can’t be arsed to wear a mask.
Or even stay awake. #COP26 pic.twitter.com/xrhXUMky2F
— Dr Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) November 2, 2021
Here he is gassing about James Bond for no good reason:
Here’s that car crash interview. Spot the sideways look when he realises he is being challenged and nobody is going to help him out:
Justin Rowlatt(BBC environment correspondent) rips into Boris Johnson over short-haul flights & the Cumbrian coal mine.
JR – It makes you look a little bit weaselly not answering the coal question
Boris Johnson – I'm not in favour of more coal, but it's not my decision#COP26 pic.twitter.com/ZQm4PMtvQL
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) November 1, 2021
Oh! So tackling climate change is a matter for local planning authorities, is it? Then why did all those world leaders create so many more greenhouse gas emissions by flying and driving to Glasgow so they could drink all that Scottish booze and wag their chins at each other?
As for taking a plane back to London, Downing Street has claimed that he needs to be mobile in order to be where he needs to be at all times, that the plane uses a mixture of 35 per cent renewable fuel and 65 per cent regular (meaning it’s greener) and that the remaining carbon footprint is offset in other ways.
But this is just one flight among many. How many forests are being planted by the government in order to offset them all?
Boris Johnson has taken more luxury private plane flights per day in office than any previous UK prime Minister.https://t.co/k8OuoKZw5E
— Nick🇬🇧🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@nicktolhurst) November 1, 2021
The whole farcical performance is summed up sharply in the following video (but don’t watch it if you’re offended by harsh language):
Johnson is a monumental cockpiece.
That’s the general sentiment of this video.
You’re welcome.#JohnsonOut pic.twitter.com/UZgd13CCn8
— Supertanskiii (@supertanskiii) November 1, 2021
Tan isn’t the only one saying it, either:
I'm getting fed up now watching Johnson stumble about, talk absolute gibberish and fall asleep p*ssed at COP26…Why are his fellow Tories accepting this like its normal? He's destroying this country single handedly and Tory Ministers/MP's are just as bad for letting it happen 😡
— Red Kaz #jft97 💙 #SaveTheNHSFromTheToryVultures (@kazzacoey) November 1, 2021
Of course you won’t hear that on the BBC or ITV:
I see Richard Madeley was salivating at Joe Biden resting his eyes at #COP26 yet no mention of Boris Johnson having a full on hangover kip, yet again @GMB following @BBCNews in protecting this embarrassment of a PM, would they be so protective if it were a Labour PM? No way..
— Loz Argyle (@ArgyleLoz) November 2, 2021
But it was noticed:
As predicted, the elite have turned Glasgow Cop26 as one giant pat on the back for the ruling.
Speaker after speaker, Boris Johnson the worst, boasting about how amazing they all are at cutting carbon.
— Claudia Webbe MP (@ClaudiaWebbe) November 1, 2021
If they were all so great at cutting CO2 emissions – the greenhouse gas mostly responsible for the Earth’s increasing atmospheric temperature that is threatening us all – then COP26 would not have been called.
US President Joe Biden turned out to be another weapons-grade hypocrite (as I suggested yesterday). Look at how he turned up to a conference on reducing greenhouse gas emissions:
The "great & the good" are jgst taking the piss https://t.co/xSGIDujhbV
— Rodders 🚩🌹🏴☠️ (@rodjgrimmer) November 1, 2021
(Mind you, he wasn’t the only one who turned up to a conference about saving the environment in a gas guzzling mechanical monster. Hypocrites all…)
Side streets around #COP26 are choked up with chauffeur-driven cars and vans, many with their engines idling. Interesting look for a climate conference. pic.twitter.com/9NO83ydN0w
— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) November 1, 2021
And his speech was just as bad:
Capitalism as a system places short term profit ahead of all other considerations. That's what is destroying the planet. https://t.co/kDRCgLtLmw
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) November 2, 2021
Here’s a very quick answer to him:
https://twitter.com/Colin4Gorrell/status/1455310888286699521
Exactly. If there was a “market-based solution” to the climate crisis, it would have been implemented long ago and there would have been no need for a summit.
The most sense was spoken by someone who wasn’t even invited…
David Attenborough speaks at Cop26 but they would not allow Greta Thunburg to speak. They are ok with an old man but are shit scared of a young girl.
— JmRoyle #LFC #YNWA #BLM #GTTO (@MyArrse) November 1, 2021
… despite having been a strong voice for reason for several years now. I mean, of course, Greta Thunberg:
#COP26
Somebody that knows what they are talking about.#JohnsonOut pic.twitter.com/DYoKI06XkC— Dicky Sparks, Reluctant Citizen of Plague Island (@Dickysparks) November 2, 2021
“My expectation is that we will hear many, many nice speeches, we will hear many pledges that – if you really look into the details – are more or less meaningless but they just say them in order to have something to say, in order for media to have something to report about, and then I expect things to continue to remain the same.
“The COPs as they are now will not lead to anything unless there is big, massive pressure from the outside.”
Wise words – especially when coupled with the big announcement about saving the world’s forests, and the reaction to it.
The headlines today are about a "landmark" pledge to stop deforestation by 2030. The only problem? World governments made *exactly* the same pledge in 2014 and deforestation increased by 40% pic.twitter.com/Pmz5wA5XMC
— XR Cambridge (@xr_cambridge) November 2, 2021
And check out this dialogue between Labour’s Clive Lewis and Tory Zac Goldsmith on the relative responsibilities of the haves and have-nots:
. It’s not party political Clive. This is an alliance of countries around the world from left to right. It is a turning point for the planet that you and I and everyone else shares.
— Zac Goldsmith (@ZacGoldsmith) November 2, 2021
But it is political. Inequality is hardwired into the global & domestic economic system your party champions. & is clearly a driver for the #climatecrisis. The poor cant give up what they dont consume. Asking capitalism to save the planet is akin to asking a tiger to go vegan. https://t.co/pTu6sQwJd7
— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) November 2, 2021
Goldsmith was trying to dodge responsibility for the problem, on behalf of his rich buddies – but Lewis is right: the poor can’t give up something they don’t consume.
There were good speeches – but they were made by people with absolutely no power.
David Attenborough’s was a barnstormer…
… but he was speaking to a hostile audience. Look at those faces. They really couldn’t care less.
Maori activist India Logan-Riley also made strong points, having been asked to speak at the last minute:
“In the US and Canada alone Indigenous resistance has stopped or delayed greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one quarter of annual emissions. What we do works.”
Logan-Riley was not overstating the actions of Indigenous people in fighting for the environment. A recent report by Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and Oil Change International (OCI) found that an amount of greenhouse gas pollution equivalent to at least one-quarter of annual US and Canadian emissions had been stopped or delayed due to Indigenous-led resistance to 21 fossil fuel projects in the two countries over the last decade.
The report found that about 1.587 billion metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions have been halted. That is the equivalent pollution of approximately 345 million passenger vehicles — more than all vehicles on the road in these countries, or 400 new coal-fired power plants — more than are still operating in the United States and Canada.
Needless to say, she doesn’t have any political power at all.
All in all, COP26 has turned out to be exactly the copOUT we all feared.
This Writer is left in agreement with Tom London:
If the world fails to stop catastrophic climate change it will be for one reason
That reason is GREED
The world has an abundance of resources of every kind right now but a small GREEDY elite has control of a huge amount and will not share any and wants to get more&more&more
— Tom London (@TomLondon6) November 2, 2021
They are in control – because we stupidly allowed it.
And they will make us suffer.
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‘100 male owned and male controlled corporate giants are responsible for over 70% of the global emissions. It is not ordinary people who need lectured about their climate responsibilities, it is greedy corporate elites & the Governments they control.’
Yes these are the greedy money obsessed boys who are the ones responsible for creating climate change! Meanwhile stupid political leaders continue to bow down to the 100 owners of these corporate companies because profits are the only real issue! Don’t worry peasants we will soon see our planet utterly destroyed but the greedy boys who own their corporate companies will ensure they are protected from any effects. Doubtless they’re planning to go into space and colonise Mars or even Jupiter!
Democracy? What democracy given western political leaders are owned and controlled by the 100 owners of their corporate companies!
Indigenous women and men aren’t the ‘experts on protecting the land and climate’ no the real experts are the greedy profit obsessed boys who own those 100 corporate companies.
COP 26 is just another propaganda lie! Don’t forget little fascist dictator duck johnson is responsible for colluding with the private water companies and endorsing their right (sic) to pour raw sewage 24/7 into our rivers and seas because we peasants can all contract cholera and typhoid since we are expendable! So duck johnson is the expert on climate change given he is supporting the right for private companies to pollute and destroy our clean water!