Non Event

Remember when the COP meeting was a big deal? Even prior to the last one in Glasgow there was a big hype about "saving the planet", the true believers all marching and carrying signs demanding this or that from the "negotiators". But judging by the mainstream media, nobody really cares that they are meeting again next week in Egypt. I'm sure Amy Goodman will be covering it. All the emphasis has shifted from negotiators to The Market. It is market forces which will save us, not agreements. Here is some Democrat from Hawaii: “Nobody’s waiting to see whether the announcements at COP come out exactly as the diplomats hope,” Mr. Schatz said. “Everybody is starting to understand that there is an extraordinary amount of money to be made saving the planet, and it’s not a smart bet for the future to bet against what the markets are saying and what the United States has committed to.” The Market has always known that poor people will suffer and the already rich will grow wealthier because capitalism. "Everybody knows" as the song goes. I just heard some NGO climate expert type guy say he at times feels like a "serial masochist" for continually showing up for COPs. Greta Thunberg is doubling down on "blah blah blah" by calling COP "an opportunity for big polluters to greenwash" and blaming the profit system for inaction. The dominant narrative is that we need to rely on gas because of the "intermittancy" of renewables. They want to turn gas into hydrogen using tons of energy, storing the CO2 underground and selling us the electricity for lots of money. Meanwhile Ukraine is demonstrating how one deals with intermittancy. Lots of people around the globe are happy to get any electricity, intermittant or not.