I was going to write about the global warming conference in Bali but, like the world's climate, the plans changed. Besides, the conference did not provide much grist for the word mill. Like contestants on an international version of Survivor, delegates from around the world spent two weeks on an exotic island. They didn't even have to eat maggots or build fires, and none were in danger of being voted off the island.
And yet they still couldn't come up with a measly one-page binding agreement to address the most pressing issue of the 21st century. Even as U.N. secretary general Ban Ki-moon's plaintive, "Seize the moment, this moment for the good of all humanity" echoed in the Indonesian air, the final result was worth about as much these days as the U.S. Constitution, habeas corpus and toilet paper. Not even biodegradable toilet paper.
Sure, some jive "agreement" was signed—or rather "drafted" and then allowed to peter out—so that the media could spin the story that the Bush administration had made a "significant policy shift" (New York Times) and was becoming "more flexible" (ditto). Oh, come off it, will you? Please. Nearly seven years of this nonsense is enough. Just write the truth: Bush hijacked the Bali conference and took his ball and went home. The bar is set so low for the Codpiece Cowboy that if he doesn't start World War III by nuking Iran, he'll be hailed as "a man of peace."
The only highlight of the conference—for those in need of painful irony—was Al Gore's speech, in which he said that the U.S. was "principally responsible for obstructing progress." Your choice: seven years of Gore vs. seven years of Bush? To this day, Ralph Nader—who, I believe, threw the election to Bush—still insists that there was no difference between Gore and Bush. No difference. Meanwhile, Gore gets a Nobel Peace Prize.
The Bali climate conference was just another reminder that the world has been hijacked by the oil companies. The "agreement" that resulted was a bunch of words on paper. But words are window dressing for the real conversation going on now between guns, money and oil. The rest of us (the other 99% of humanity) don't get a word in edgewise. Thus the Bali agreement is as effective as the Congressional Democrats' Iraq war funding proposals. Without target dates or specific goals, it's just another yodel into the abyss of collective wankery.
So the less said about the Bali conference the better.
The larger story is that Homo sapiens as a species is/are collectively at the end of our rope. Six billion people are paralyzed by the power conferred on one man, arguably the least evolved Homo sapiens of all. Why are we kidding ourselves? Until Bush is gone, Homo sapiens is under a curse. Four hundred days remain of his pretense at "leadership." We, every single person who was not at the climate conference in Bali, are contestants in a giant version of Can We Survive Bush?
Gore understands that this is the bottom line, the "take away" from the Bali conference. Indeed, he urged delegates to broker a deal that could be modified and improved once Bush is gone. As he put it—to loud applause—"Over the next two years the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that."
Is there anyone out there who is not counting down the days?
