A Sham” and “A Climate Crime Scene” or “A Major Step Forward”? Mixed Reactions from Environmental Groups on Copenhagen Accord
Email“The Copenhagen outcome is not fair, not ambitious and not legally binding,” Nicole Granacki chief organizer for Greenpeace in Chicago emails. “The job of world leaders is not done. Today they failed to avert catastrophic climate change. The city of Copenhagen is a climate crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport in shame. World leaders had a once in a generation chance to change the world for good, to avert catastrophic climate change. In the end they produced a poor deal full of loopholes big enough to fly Air Force One through.”
But while Carl Pope of the Sierra Club agrees “the official political statement coming out of COP15 is relatively weak and incomplete — more of a commitment to keep talking than a real agreement” – he also calls the accord, in his blog, “a major step forward. And perhaps most importantly, it puts to rest the claim that China and India would never join, nor be held accountable for, an international accord — the core argument that has held back Congressional action on U.S. clean-energy legislation.”
Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund in the United States, writes that the “agreement that will capture commitments of key countries and achieves agreement on transparency with China – a key contentious issue that has now been solved. As the President acknowledged, there still remains a huge gap between what we need to do to solve climate change and the commitments on the table. We need the US to reduce emissions further, and to challenge others to do the same. The next step is to take these announcements and give them life, by passing climate legislation at home, and do so with the urgency that this crisis demands."
But Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., calls the accord a “sham agreement with no real requirements for any countries. This is not a strong deal or a just one — it isn’t even a real one. It's just repackaging old positions and pretending they're new. The actions it suggests for the rich countries that caused the climate crisis are extraordinarily inadequate. This is a disastrous outcome for people around the world who face increasingly dire impacts from a destabilizing climate.”
“We have seen a year of crises, but today it is clear that the biggest one facing humanity is a leadership crisis,” Granacki continues, saying “the US failed to take any real leadership and dragged the talks down. Climate science says we have only a few years left to halt the rise in emissions before making the kind of rapid reductions that would give us the best chance of avoiding dangerous climate change. We cannot change that science, so instead we will have to change the politics – and we may well have to change the politicians.”
-jpt
Santorum: Money Will Not Defeat Obama, Ideas Will 
Rick Santorum's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
In light of the failure of Copenhagen, Climategate and the fact fewer and fewer people believe in man-made global warming, can we all agree that the United States should convene its own objective, transparent Climate Truth Commission and stop outsourcing our climate science to the United Nations? It defies common sense that we allow the UN to serve as both judge and advocate (IPCC & Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen).
Posted by: Rmoen | December 18, 2009, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
Smells like sulfur.
Posted by: mick | December 18, 2009, 7:11 pm 7:11 pm
sulfur footprint?
Posted by: mjishernameo | December 18, 2009, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Please please please ask Gibbs about all this criticism aimed at Obama.
Of course we know what Gibbs is going to say, we just enjoy watching him squirm (sorry).
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
we should just follow the republican playbook, do nothing, bomb something/anything and hope for the best after you’re no longer in office while demanding accountability for your errors from someone else
Posted by: Yowsa | December 18, 2009, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
Yet here is another quote from Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International executive director
“the accord is “not fair, not ambitious and not legally binding.”"
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 8:11 pm 8:11 pm
Yowsa,
Democrats own Congress and the White House. Why do you people insist that the Republicans follow your lead?
Better yet, why do you even need them?
It seems it is your party that can’t get its act together.
The Dem party is so screwed up in the head you call Lieberman a traitor.
Funny, it was the Dems that threw him under a bus and it is why he has an (I) after his name.
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 8:14 pm 8:14 pm
“we should just follow the republican playbook, do nothing, bomb something/anything and hope for the best after you’re no longer in office while demanding accountability for your errors from someone else”
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Yeah, the Republicans in this Congress are either sitting on their thumbs, or sucking on them and whining.
Posted by: tierra | December 18, 2009, 8:26 pm 8:26 pm
This is the end of the climate change scam movement. Climategate was the final nail in it’s coffin. The climate change zealots just haven’t realized it yet. Everybody knows that this entire global warming movement is based on fraudulent science. It’s over.
Time to think up a new scam boys.
Posted by: Climategate | December 18, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
Did anyone think anything different would come out of this? Everyone is full of outraged talk about bankers’ bonuses, but no one bats an eye at all the government money (citizens’ tax money) spent on this luxury sham.
Posted by: Chiara | December 18, 2009, 9:05 pm 9:05 pm
I’m glad a fair representation of reaction was covered. The truth is that there was no way that President Obama could offer something and make a deal that would have satisfied groups like GreenPeace and Friends of the Earth. And these groups should keep pushing, MUST keep pushing, because if the science is correct– and I’m on the side of the science– then Nicole Granacki is correct when she says *“The job of world leaders is not done. Today they failed to avert catastrophic climate change.*
On the other hand, I’m all for baby steps versus no steps, for moving forward rather than remaining stagnant, kicking the can down the road to our kids when its too darned late or backsliding.
Carter Roberts is right: “The next step is to take these announcements and give them life, by passing climate legislation at home, and do so with the urgency that this crisis demands.”
Despite what some have posted, most Americans do agree.
Some additional reax, via Mother Jones: “Environmental Defense Fund head Fred Krupp and League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski high-fived each other in a Bella Center hallway. “Obama has delivered the clear breakthrough we needed on climate change,” exclaimed Jeremy Symons, a senior vice president of National Wildlife Federation. By rounding up China and India, Obama has improved the prospects for the climate change legislation pending in the Senate—where foes of the bill have used these nations’ absence from previous accords as a justification for opposition. And until a bill passes, Obama can’t make good on his modest proposed reductions.”
Posted by: Elsa Marie | December 18, 2009, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
think up a new scam boys.
Posted by: Climategate | Dec 18, 2009 8:56:36 PM
It’s not a scam. I used to find it so odd and bewildering that people would think so. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Its very illogical. But–
I love Mother Jones, and read an interesting piece about George Monbiot, a Guardian columnist and global warming author. At a panel in Copenhagen he noted, “”In the past year, there has been a massive upsurge in climate change denial in the United States, even as the science gets stronger.” But what’s interesting is that per Monbiot, while that seems crazy, the explanation goes to the heart of the word “denial.” The more dire the science gets, the less willing some are to face it. Monbiot also noted that the science of climate is so complex—and climate policy is even more so—that some prefer a “charming, simple lie,”—that global warming is bogus—to a hard and discomforting truth.
I also think the fact that oil billionaires and conglomerates are funding denier front groups certainly doesn’t hurt. Our citizens are often duped by special interests. (See healthcare).
Posted by: Elsa Marie | December 18, 2009, 9:45 pm 9:45 pm
Elsa Marie,
I think it is obvious Obama blew it big time. Few people (except Imhofe and other Republicans) are really high-fiving each other.
Instead of ‘Change’ we are stuck with ‘Status quo’
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 9:54 pm 9:54 pm
Left leaning UK Guardian declares Copenhagen “Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-deal
Isn’t it time to stop being an Obama apologist?
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 9:57 pm 9:57 pm
Obama wins peace prize for what ‘he will accomplish’.
So far he has under his belt: Chicago Olympic disaster, a do-nothing Asian trip, COP 15 meaningless agreement.
All he did was escalate the war in Afghanistan and explain it while receiving the Peace Prize.
Some days I look in the mirror and wonder if I am on the wrong side of the glass.
Posted by: Denbo | December 18, 2009, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
I think it is obvious Obama blew it big time.
___
Don’t know how one can pin this on Obama unless one is the type to blame all the country’s and world’s ills on Obama, or on the United States and its leadership (like Chavez and Ahmadinejad in regards to the latter.)
I understand that people are disappointed and I am too– but, per the Copenhagen twitter feed, the mysterious ways of the US Senate were mentioned in press conferences with people from outside the US and there was some blame involved. IMHO, any reasonable person has to admit that Inhofe’s circus and the panel of Republican reps who talked today made it clear we have a bunch of backwards folks representing us– and those backwards folks don’t include the president.
Anyway, I don’t agree that we’re stuck with the status quo. Baby steps are important. Politics requires both passion and perspective– as well as a steadfastness of heart and purpose.
What I admire about the President is that he’s willing to take the heat for baby steps on several fronts while keeping his eye steadfastly on the distance,the long range.
Posted by: Elsa Marie | December 18, 2009, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
I am on the wrong side of the glass.
Posted by: Denbo | Dec 18, 2009 10:03:19 PM
Maybe you’re just on the wrong side :^)
Posted by: Elsa Marie | December 18, 2009, 10:26 pm 10:26 pm
I agree with Rmoen. But the problem is that there is a hidden agenda in Climategate. I believe that BO and his associates know that the IPCC science is faulty. For whatever reason, there will never be a transparent “Climate Truth Commission”; they can not let that happen.
Posted by: Betts W | December 18, 2009, 11:12 pm 11:12 pm
What I admire about the President is that he’s willing to take the heat for baby steps on several fronts while keeping his eye steadfastly on the distance,the long range.
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Exactly.
Posted by: tierra | December 18, 2009, 11:39 pm 11:39 pm
Chicago Olympic disaster
Posted by: Denbo
disaster ?
I must have missed that one….
if you’re commenting on the fact that the olympics will not be held in Chicago, that’s certainly true enough, but..
• New Orleans left to drown was a disaster..
• Americans dying by the thousands every day for lack of healthcare, is a disaster
• Iraq was/is a disaster
Posted by: get a life for once | December 18, 2009, 11:39 pm 11:39 pm
But the problem is that there is a hidden agenda in Climategate
Posted by: Betts W
let me guess, a communist conspiracy
Posted by: IT | December 18, 2009, 11:45 pm 11:45 pm
Here’s some more of what Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director, had to say:
“President Obama and the rest of the world paid a steep price here in Copenhagen because of obstructionism in the United States Senate. That a deal was reached at all is testament to President Obama’s leadership–all the more remarkable because of the very weak hand he was dealt because of the Senate’s failure to pass domestic clean energy and climate legislation. Now that the rest of the world–including countries like China and India–has made clear that it is willing to take action, the Senate must pass domestic legislation as soon as possible. America and the world can no longer be held hostage to petty politics and obstructionism.
“What was clear over the past two weeks is that there is no argument over the science of global warming or the urgency with which we must act. “
Posted by: progressivemama | December 18, 2009, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
it was the Dems that threw him under a bus and it is why he has an (I) after his name.
Posted by: Denbo
Leib lost the Democratic Party primary election but won re-election in the general election as a third party candidate , he ran as a sort of Indy to get republican votes.. in other words, Dems didn’t want to vote for him, you might recall that process is called an election.
not unexpectedly, campaigning for a republican presidential ticket that included Palin didn’t endear him to the Dem base
Posted by: Yowsa | December 18, 2009, 11:52 pm 11:52 pm
Everybody knows
Posted by: Climategate
those people in the ‘know’, are they the same crowd who ‘knew’ where the WMD’s were?
Posted by: Ratso Rizzo | December 18, 2009, 11:57 pm 11:57 pm
Granacki states “We cannot change that science, so instead we will have to change the politics – and we may well have to change the politicians.”
Yes. We need to get right-wing denier Republicans out of Congress so that leaders like Obama aren’t held back by domestic politics. But Granacki’s quote sounds like it’s aimed at Obama himself, and if it is, it is stunningly naive.
Posted by: David Scott | December 19, 2009, 7:08 am 7:08 am
Follow the money…….Maurice Strong.
Posted by: Randy the AC guy | December 19, 2009, 7:45 am 7:45 am
What I admire about the President is that he’s willing to take the heat for baby steps on several fronts while keeping his eye steadfastly on the distance,the long range.
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Exactly.
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Pull up a rocking chair, you are going to be waiting for a long, long, time for that change we were told we could believe in. Yea, right.
Posted by: guest0987 | December 19, 2009, 5:59 pm 5:59 pm
Pull up a rocking chair, you are going to be waiting for a long, long, time for that change we were told we could believe in. Yea, right.
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There has been such a huge array of stuff accomplished in only the first year.
Have you checked out the “Race To The Top” initiative. Do you even remember it?
Posted by: tierra | December 20, 2009, 11:14 pm 11:14 pm
global warning is a serious threat for envoiroment but on that summet many politicans used this subject as a part of their political games…
Posted by: ilona@israel | December 29, 2009, 4:24 am 4:24 am