Lashing out at the growing skepticism that global warming is real, Barack Obama last week blasted as agenda-driven “[t]he naysayers” who “pretend that this is not an issue.” According to Obama, “From China to India, from Japan to Germany, nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways to produce and use energy.” But the issue may not be important enough, even to the president. It seems he will skip the much-touted Copenhagen climate conference and instead drop by Oslo to accept his Nobel Peace Prize.
Could this be because “racing” China and India came to a screeching halt last Thursday when they nixed mandatory carbon emissions constraints, effectively pulling out of any Copenhagen treaty? These two nations recognize what Obama denies and what Wang Jin wrote in China’s Science Times journal: “The real intention is not for the global temperature increase, but for the restriction of the economic development of the developing countries.”
Meanwhile, two professors from New Zealand have actually suggested ditching cats and dogs in favor of edible pets — and, no, we’re not talking animal crackers. In their book, “Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living,” Brenda and Robert Vale contend that when you account for food production and carbon emissions, a cat is about as a bad for the environment as a Volkswagen Golf, a medium-size dog is twice as destructive as a Toyota Land Cruiser, and two hamsters are equivalent to a plasma TV. The authors write, “There is certainly some truth in the fact that if we have edible pets like chickens for their eggs and meat, and rabbits and pigs, we will be compensating for the impact of other things on our environment.”
What to do with the surplus of Rovers and Fluffies? Perhaps they should be served à la carte at Copenhagen. Given such consistently outlandish arguments from the global warming crowd, we don’t expect any waiting lines at Copenhagen diners.
