Copenhagen Brings Interest From Opposite Sides

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Domestic Issues

(AP Photo )

An international conference in a European country involving complicated science and nearly 200 oft-competing agendas doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would generate a ton of eyeballs on U.S. news sites. But the two week U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen kicking off today seems to be garnering serious attention, at least for a story that doesn't involve a certain allegedly adulterous golfer: The words "Copenhagen" and "Climategate" both appeared in Google's "hot topics" this morning, right alongside Tiger, bowl games, Saturday Night Live and Facebook.

The interest is coming, it's fair to assume, primarily from two groups: Those who believe climate change is man-made and real – and are interested in whether international leaders make progress on addressing the issue – and those who believe that, in the words of Homer Simpson, "it's all a load of crap."

The former camp includes the vast majority of climate scientists as well as the residents of low-lying nations like the Maldives, where government ministers recently held a cabinet meeting underwater to stress the possibility that, due to rising water levels brought on by global warming, their country could soon disappear into the sea.

The latter, meanwhile, includes skeptics, most of them conservative, who have seized on the recent so-called "Climategate" story to defend their position that global warming is a myth grounded in a conspiracy being perpetrated by scientists and activists around the world.

Former vice president and climate activist Al Gore – a charter member of the first camp – is meeting today with President Obama to discuss climate change at the White House. In an example of just how polarized the issue has become, two conservative members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are reportedly calling for the Oscar Gore won for the environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" to be rescinded in the wake of the Climategate e-mails.

Those e-mails are not expected to have a tremendous impact on the participants in Copenhagen, who overwhelmingly accept the scientific consensus about global warming. And while the e-mails themselves "don't provide proof that human-caused climate change is a lie or a swindle," as the Washington Post reports, they do cast scientists in a political light and give fodder to those who argue against global warming.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that the percentage of Americans who believe global warming is happening fell eight points last month to 72 percent; growing public opposition to addressing the issue could undermine efforts in Congress to pass climate change legislation. Just 54 percent of Republicans now say global warming is taking place, and just 25 percent of adults think most scientists agree on the issue, despite the consensus in the scientific community.

For a good primer on the issues at play in Copenhagen, check out this New York Times story that lays out the various battles going on at the conference – between rich and poor nations, developed and developing nations and others. (Here's a similar piece from Politico.) And if you want a better sense of the contentious nature of the battle between the believers and the skeptics, check out the top story on CBSNews.com, a blog post from Charles Cooper – which features an exchange between opponants that ends with the words, "what an asshole."

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by nocatnowaco December 7, 2009 10:07 PM EST: if the movie "an inconvenient truth" was based on the cooked scientific data, can the people who have bought this movie return for a refund? it is really, really, and really "inconvenient".; Reply to this comment


by nowhiningallowed December 7, 2009 7:58 PM EST: What should have been banned was the summit and instead held via video conferencing. The idiot foreign ministry is more concerned about potentially offending a minority faction attending the summit who presumably aren't Christian and therefore don't believe in Christmas. Hey dolts, the tree isn't a religious symbol. Geez, maybe they should have dismantled any visible church steeples. I guess offending the majority viewpoint who identify a decorated tree with Christmas can just turn the other cheek since it's more fashionable for the potentially offended few to offend the many and somehow that's perfectly acceptable. Now, if Copenhagen were full of Nativity Scenes and Menorahs, both of which are religious symbols, then perhaps, just perhaps....but then again, banning them would be offensive to those who identify and believe in them.

Better to have banned the thousand or so gas guzzling limos and private jets carting around those attending the summit. So much for focusing on the presumed climate issues of global warming, while the summit contributes greatly to carbon emissions.

Laughable.; Reply to this comment


by ubrew12 December 7, 2009 7:03 PM EST: The CRU email hack was done by Russia's secret service division, through a Siberian university (in Tomsk) that's been used by Russia's secret service before (to shut down dissident websites, etc).

As damaging as the CRU emails are, we should try to understand why Russia's Secret Service would be working to undermine the goings-on in Copenhagen. As we investigate, we might want to consider that Russia is one of the world's leading producers of oil and natural gas, that Russia has warned the participants at Copenhagen of its objection to GW remediation efforts, that 'Russia Today' (the state media outlet) is probably the worlds LEADING disseminator of GW denier beliefs, that Russia has already laid claim to HALF of the Arctic's oil and natural gas reserves,

and that Russia has been pointing over a thousand nuclear missiles at Americans for over 50 years.

so I think the question is: whose side are you ON, GW deniers?; Reply to this comment

by cleric60 December 7, 2009 5:44 PM EST

The use of evergreens during the Winter Solace pre-dates Christian traditions in Denmark. Maybe CBS should report this event also.

Participants at the Copenhagen global climate summit opened talks Monday at the start of the holiday season, but they won't be surrounded by festive Christmas decor, according to Denmark's Foreign Ministry.

Since Christmas is a religious holiday, it has no place at a United Nations event, said officials planning the event.

A sponsor providing fir trees for the conference's Christmas trees learned this the hard way when it was turned away by planners of the international event, the Copenhagen Post reported.

The trees, commonly used as Christmas trees in Denmark, were originally to be placed outside the Bella Center, where the 11-day conference will be held from Dec. 7 ? Dec. 18.

Reply to this comment


by ubrew12 December 7, 2009 7:02 PM EST: I'll admit, if true, that is really sad. There's nothing about an evergreen that insists on the literalism of Christs birth. There IS something about an evergreen to remind us of what is at stake if we get GW wrong much longer.


by jimmyc1955 December 7, 2009 5:25 PM EST: CNN just ran an article that stated that only 45% of people believe warming is caused by humans while 33% believe it is from natural causes.

What is interesting is that Europe is seeing the same change and it began BEFORE the email leaks.

I think that people are starting to ask more difficult questions and the news of the leaked emails and the arrogance they demonstrate will only accelerate that movement.; Reply to this comment


by jimc52 December 7, 2009 4:42 PM EST: I am FOR being pro-active and doing our share to curb emissions, because no one on the planet is immune to climate change and the potential disasters that will happen. What I do want to mention is the "victim" attitude of countries like Bolivia. They say the US (and other "rich" industrial nations) caused these problems and so we should have to fund all their financial needs. I want to mention that desforestation has gone on in a lot of third world nations unhindered. Many of these nations dump raw sewage and toxic wastes into the oceans, lakes and streams they have...totally untreated. Nations like Japan and Russia fish all the fish out of the ocean for themselves (reducing and depleating and maybe even extincting, fish and other species). I am just mentioning a couple of things these so called innocent third world nations have been doing. But most of all, while we were manufacturing the goods sold on the world market, they were buying and using them in their countries, weren't they? And that means, they were consumers...and thus, part of this whole problem. Further, in some if not many of those nations, there is no middle class...there are a small group of ultra-wealthy families or individuals and a huge mass of people who live in utter poverty. What these kind of nations want is to preserve their wealthy class who have had to pay nothing and are nothing, but parasites on their own population and the world, by making us pay for what they should be paying for themselves. They were a part of the problem too, and remain a part of the problem now...and I don't call that victimization. So they think they see a big fat cow coming down the street called "Wealthy Nations," that is going to subsidize them, while their rich class pays nothing, the corruption typical in third world nations goes on, the poor remain poor (who are the true victims) and nothing of substance is achieved. My message is for third world countries - Your wealthy class is going to have to pay for a lot of it themselves. We aren't an endless, bottomless source of money you can just go out and blow on your corrupt government officials and rich people. You contributed to these problems yourselves and you are going to have to PAY your own fair share of the money to solve the world's problems. We will do our part, but you have to do yours. Don't think you can get away with a "victimization" strategy. You aren't victims any more than we are.
What we need to have, is a one-world effort where everyone is willing to contribute something to the solution according to their abilities.
We don't need a "victim and perpetrator" mentality because that is not going to do the job. So get busy, replanting your forests. Stop polluting your water and air. You've been doing environmental damage yourselves, allowing pesticides and herbicides to be used in your countries that are illegal in ours - ones that cause cancer and birth defects. You don't think we know about these things, but we do. Don't play dumb because we know - we all know. So get rid of the victim mentality and just come up front with it and work together with all the other nations to find a one-world solution.; Reply to this comment


by rexrox2 December 7, 2009 3:55 PM EST: Why is there no debate or discussion among opposing sides. "The time for debate has passed?", what a crock. Scientists don't say this, greedy power hungry snakes say this. Honor among thieves, you bet.

The world should have just stopped questioning things, when the Church had the Earth at the Center of the Universe, or when the CONSENSUS among scietists was that Global Cooling is upon us???Copenhagen is an absolute joke, what a con-job. How to steal a trillion from the rich?? Watch this farce in Denmark.; Reply to this comment

by rexrox2 December 7, 2009 3:41 PM EST

The opposition, composed of conservative.................? No mention of the tens of thousands of scientists who believe man is not contributing to global warming. What do ya know?? Not even the facade of balance.

It's time to give away a few 100 billion to India, China and the rest of the third world to help them start building green renewable energy sources?? It boggles the mind how corrupt this effort will no doubt be, all in the name of "DON'T LET A GOOD CRISIS GO TO WASTE", even if you have to make it up. The media will play along, not a problem. The transfer of wealth will be staggering,only matched by the corruption.

Reply to this comment


by Marc_1986 December 7, 2009 3:47 PM EST: @rexrox

Good point.

Let us not forget that while the US will end up spending billions developing green technology, only to have countries like India, China and Brazil reaping all the benefits after they 'steal' the technology without putting in their fair share of funding.


by bill0bob December 7, 2009 4:36 PM EST: "No mention of the tens of thousands of scientists who believe man is not contributing to global warming" -- rexrox2

The reason that statement was not included in this story is because THERE ARE NOT TENS OF THOUSANDS OF CLIMATE SCIENTISTS WHO BELIEVE MAN IS NOT CONTRIBUTING TO GLOBAL WARMING. There may be 10's of thousands of born-again-"Christian"-republican-morons who believe that, and some of them may be "scientists"-- perhaps some of the "soft" sciences, like sociology, etc., but their ignorant opinions don't mean much.

The truth is, the VAST MAJORITY of climate scientists in the world think that the existing evidence supports the theory that human activities, such as burning massive amounts of fossil fuels, DOES contribute to global warming. But there are ONE or TWO so-called climate scientists who disagree.

It's very sad that the ignorant few have the ability to deny reality, and force a delay until it will be too late to do anything to fix the situation. Most of you will be dead before it affects you directly. But your children and grand-children will pay a heavy price for your ignorance.


by lovenpeace1 December 7, 2009 2:59 PM EST: by infantryman1968 December 7, 2009 1:23 PM EST
Time to shake down the Americans for some more cash.

***************************

Folks,

Time to shake down the Obese Americans for some more Sacrifice.; Reply to this comment

by lovenpeace1 December 7, 2009 2:57 PM EST

Folks,

Everyone in Copenhagen is happy that Republican Ex-President GW Bush is nolonger in the White House.

Reply to this comment


by Marc_1986 December 7, 2009 3:45 PM EST: @lovenpeace

I'll bet they are. Now they'll be able to secure the billions in funding from the US via Barack Obama that GWB wouldn't give them.