Stop worrying about Copenhagen, start worrying...

Madrid, Spain (CNN) -- A new international treaty to combat climate change will not be ready when 40 world leaders meet next month in Copenhagen but may be finished next year, a top United Nations official said Friday in Barcelona.

"What we will need after Copenhagen is a little time," said Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations climate change secretariat. "I don't know how much time to turn that operational language into a treaty, if that is what governments decide."

De Boer told a news conference the Copenhagen meeting could still be a "turning point" in the worldwide fight to reduce emissions that contribute to harmful global warming, but that governments must make their "commitments clear." He added there's no "time to waste".

Translation:

Stop worrying about losing all your economic and financial freedoms and privileges to a world government. The United Nations has no authority other than the authority that various nations willingly cede to it, and they are willing to cede, well, nothing at all.

No black helicopters loaded with troops from Angola or Latvia or Iceland are heading to your town. No giving up your access to massive quantities of fossil fuels to heat your home, propel your 4000 lb. SUV, manufacture the plastics that pervade your existence. No scrapping the US Constitution and replacing it with the UN Charter. The deadlines on dealing with climate change are all being missed, and why not? After all, the pain is tomorrow, and we voters want to keep all our money today. And that's the nations where you actually can vote- the ones where you can't vote are even less interested in working today on tomorrow's disasters.

On the other hand, get used to climate change. It's going to be the new normal. Climate change will pervade the existence of your grandkids. They will live in a world without debate on climate change: is it real, is it driven by humans, is it harmful. They will be pretty clear on the word "Yes" being the answer to all the questions. But the Yes will not matter anymore, because grandpa and grandma did not do anything about it, and it will be too late for them to do anything about it. I hope I am not sounding bitter, I am going for matter-of-fact.

Comments: 4

Dorothy H. Nov 8, 2009, 6:54am EST

Well, look at the bright side. The new taxes brought about by this treaty will be much smaller as our way of life degrades. 2% of GDP paid to developing worlds by the developed world.

Treaties for taxes to pay that bypass ratification by our congress.

Treaties that do nothing to reduce emmissions but does tax the emmissions. That's a plan, but has nothing to with reducing the effects of climate change. It's a power grab only.

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Larry M. Nov 8, 2009, 8:43am EST

So long as we don't change the nature of our money we cannot successfully fight climate change. There is too much money to be made dumping greenhouse gasses into the air. The same pattern of environmental destruction has been followed in many societies around the world. There is always a profit to be made by destroying the last of the resource. As the supply of the resource goes down the price goes up which encourages more people to exploit the resource. That's the nature of the free market with our current money. Please think about it.

You may also be interested in how a different money is possible at www.nopom.info.

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