COP16 Climate Talks Kick Off in Cancun, Mexico - So What?

by greenmedia

Cross-posted to Green Media News.

Representatives from countries around the world gathered today in Cancun, Mexico for the COP16 climate talks which will continue for the next 12 days. This is the first round of talks by the UNFCCC (United Nations Frameworks Conventions on Climate Change) since last year's COP15 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

COP15 last year failed to produce a world-wide agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which was expected by a large majority of the world's population. Therefore, expectations for COP16 this year are very low. Notably different this year is the stated intention of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cooperate with politicians and negotiators rather than play an adversarial role.

continued at Daily Kos....

Bjorn Lomborg Now Thinks We Should Fight Global Warming

by Dartagnan

After years of making a name for himself as the fossil fuel industry's favorite Climate Change Skeptic, Bjorn Lomborg has apparently now seen the folly of his ways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...

The world's most high-profile climate change sceptic is to declare that global warming is "undoubtedly one of the chief concerns facing the world today" and "a challenge humanity must confront", in an apparent U-turn that will give a huge boost to the embattled environmental lobby.

Bjørn Lomborg, the self-styled "sceptical environmentalist" once compared to Adolf Hitler by the UN's climate chief, is famous for attacking climate scientists, campaigners, the media and others for exaggerating the rate of global warming and its effects on humans, and the costly waste of policies to stop the problem.

Lomborg, once a critic of methods to reduce carbon emissions, now appears to have done a turnabout and now espouses the idea of a carbon tax.  

continued at Daily Kos....