Scrutable

40,000 people are attending, it's got an opening ceremony, China and Russia aren't bothering to attend, there will be collectively years of grandstanding from professional conference attendees, it's vitally important - it's all a load of aching b.llsh.t, right? What are we going to actually get out of all this?

plodder wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:38 pm

What are we going to actually get out of all this?

A lot of meaningless promises that no-one will actually keep.

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:40 pm

plodder wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:38 pm

What are we going to actually get out of all this?

A lot of meaningless promises that no-one will actually keep.

I think so too.

I know someone in Glasgow.

Moved out of his apartment and rented it on Airbnb to attendees.

Getting £1,800.

Not £1,800 in total. £1,800 a night.

So it's not the case nobody's going to actually get anything out of all this.

Ooh they’re getting a personalised message from David Attenburgh! That costs a fortune if you have to go on one of those info-cruises with the lectures and beauty spots. Hope he doesn’t miss his helicopter to Glyndebourne.

Given my general sense of existential dread wrt climate change, and almost dogged refusal to engage with the steady onslaught of news about how the world is dying, can I just say how much I resent the prospect of having climate doom shoved in my face over the next few days. It's already going to be sh.t, there's just an added molehill of hope which will be squashed by the lawn roller of reality.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:23 pm

Given my general sense of existential dread wrt climate change, and almost dogged refusal to engage with the steady onslaught of news about how the world is dying, can I just say how much I resent the prospect of having climate doom shoved in my face over the next few days. It's already going to be sh.t, there's just an added molehill of hope which will be squashed by the lawn roller of reality.

Just wanted to say how beautifully evocative that metaphor is

plodder wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:19 pm

Ooh they’re getting a personalised message from David Attenburgh! That costs a fortune if you have to go on one of those info-cruises with the lectures and beauty spots. Hope he doesn’t miss his helicopter to Glyndebourne.

They’re applauding themselves already! Well done, delegates, jolly well done! And well done Sky News for your insightful reporting! It all sounds dreadfully exciting.

https://mobile.twitter.com/BethRigby/st ... 9643398155

Given the transport strike has been called off I have vague plans to go over to Glasgow on the 6th for the March thingy, with a couple of friends. I've also signed up to do a day of legal observing which I'm pretty nervous about tbh and I seriously hope it's uneventful. Not that this has anything to do with cop26 itself but I've got that feeling that if I do *nothing* I will regret it. Of course this is all also dependent on me getting over this cold/sore throat that has dogged me for 2 weeks that I'm having real trouble shaking off.

Anyway I expect the press coverage to be painfully shallow and pointless so that's good.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:23 pm

...there's just an added molehill of hope which will be squashed by the lawn roller of reality.

My bet is that Senator Joe Manchin will be pushing it.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:03 pm

Anyway I expect the press coverage to be painfully shallow and pointless so that's good.

Painfully shallow and pointless is still better than no coverage - most people will only engage at the shallow level anyway. And it's a jumping off point for those that want to to find better sources, and for people to provide better sources and discussion.

dyqik wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:46 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:03 pm

Anyway I expect the press coverage to be painfully shallow and pointless so that's good.

Painfully shallow and pointless is still better than no coverage - most people will only engage at the shallow level anyway. And it's a jumping off point for those that want to to find better sources, and for people to provide better sources and discussion.

True, but I'm waiting for the 'so and so activist got a flight from the US to demonstrate, what a hypocrite' type coverage as well, which is actively counterproductive imo. And if certain UK journalists do little other than quote their 'sources' *cough* Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston*cough* then it will be a bit of a whitewash.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:50 pm

And if certain UK journalists do little other than quote their 'sources' *cough* Laura Kuenssberg and Robert Peston*cough* then it will be a bit of a whitewash.

gets em access, gets em promoted

Can't decide if I'm gonna go for head-in-sand or doomcrolling nerd, but probably the latter. I know quite a few folk there for various side events.

I think writing it off before it's started is counterproductive, even if tempting. The economics are changing fast, plus it's a domestic political priority in quite a few middle-clout countries, and a lot of poor ones. There's loads of sensible people working very hard, and I genuinely don't think it's a foregone conclusion that the relative handful of high-profile shitcunts will manage to derail every conceivable avenue for progress.

I'm not optimistic about 1.5 or even 2°C, but I'm still clutching at the "every reduction counts" straw like a life-raft in a climate flood.

Must get a vasectomy.

https://thegreenfix.substack.com/p/cop26-list

Literally just a massive list of ways you can support climate action during COP26

This one is a shoutout to all the men who have told me, confidently, nonchalantly, that it’s too late to make a difference.

‘We’re all screwed,’ they usually say. Often with a shrug afterwards. As if it’s so straightforward. As if we naïve people still trying just haven’t got the message yet.

"The anger and the impatience of the world will be uncontainable unless we make this... the moment when we get real about climate change."

That is acknowledgement, or even approval, from the very top that serious grassroots action will follow if COP fails again. I can see that and similar speeches being used in quite a few trials of protesters in the near future.

"The anger and the impatience of the world will be uncontainable" would look good engraved on an AK.

If you really want to make yourself feel ill, you could read the first chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future. Which is what I have just done.

Israel's Energy Minister was unable to attend today because the transport offered to get to the venue was not wheelchair accessible. According to a tweet by a Jerusalem Post reporter,

The hall in which leaders spoke at #COP26 was not handicap accessible, and @KElharrar could not find a way in. She was led from one entrance to another for two hours, and then was asked to get on a shuttle that wasn’t accessible for her, either, and she missed the speech.

Liam O'Dell, a Deaf journalist, also reports that there's no sign language interpreter on stage.

The National Federation of the Blind of the UK is asking world leaders to put accessibility at the heart of their policies.

I really can't understand how you can put on such a gigantic conference and not consider the fact that some of the delegates may be disabled.

plodder wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:38 pm

40,000 people are attending, it's got an opening ceremony, China and Russia aren't bothering to attend, there will be collectively years of grandstanding from professional conference attendees, it's vitally important - it's all a load of aching b.llsh.t, right? What are we going to actually get out of all this?

Western developed nations will commit to continue shifting the burden of taxation from wealth to consumption. We will regulate more of our heavy industry to the East, and there will be subsidies for landowners. Bill Gates, Prince Charles and Carrie Johnson will approve. This is a sales convention, and it's working.

Eta none of the billionaires espousing this stuff will give up private jet travel, and none of them appear to believe what they say enough to stop buying coastal real estate.

plodder wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:38 pm

What are we going to actually get out of all this?

Well, the delegates will get plenty of airmiles. Maybe they could be persuaded to share.

monkey wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:40 pm

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:23 pm

...there's just an added molehill of hope which will be squashed by the lawn roller of reality.

My bet is that Senator Joe Manchin will be pushing it.

Did he get it from Four Seasons Total Landscaping?

Millennie Al wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 02, 2021 1:17 am

monkey wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 2:40 pm

El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 1:23 pm

...there's just an added molehill of hope which will be squashed by the lawn roller of reality.

My bet is that Senator Joe Manchin will be pushing it.

Did he get it from Four Seasons Total Landscaping?

It was certainly paid for by the fossil fuel industry.

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:20 pm

Israel's Energy Minister was unable to attend today because the transport offered to get to the venue was not wheelchair accessible. According to a tweet by a Jerusalem Post reporter,

The hall in which leaders spoke at #COP26 was not handicap accessible, and @KElharrar could not find a way in. She was led from one entrance to another for two hours, and then was asked to get on a shuttle that wasn’t accessible for her, either, and she missed the speech.

Liam O'Dell, a Deaf journalist, also reports that there's no sign language interpreter on stage.

The National Federation of the Blind of the UK is asking world leaders to put accessibility at the heart of their policies.

I really can't understand how you can put on such a gigantic conference and not consider the fact that some of the delegates may be disabled.

The BBC is reporting that UK's Environment Secretary George Eustice is blaming the Israeli delegation for the lack of accessible transport/entrances:

What would normally happen in this situation is that Israel would have communicated that they had that particular need for their minister.

"There was obviously something that went wrong in this instance and they weren't aware of that so they hadn't made the right provisions at that particular entrance she was coming too.

Or, you know, you could just make sure your venue is accessible to wheelchair users from the start, regardless of which entrance they're using.

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 02, 2021 2:25 pm

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 01, 2021 9:20 pm

Israel's Energy Minister was unable to attend today because the transport offered to get to the venue was not wheelchair accessible. According to a tweet by a Jerusalem Post reporter,

The hall in which leaders spoke at #COP26 was not handicap accessible, and @KElharrar could not find a way in. She was led from one entrance to another for two hours, and then was asked to get on a shuttle that wasn’t accessible for her, either, and she missed the speech.

Liam O'Dell, a Deaf journalist, also reports that there's no sign language interpreter on stage.

The National Federation of the Blind of the UK is asking world leaders to put accessibility at the heart of their policies.

I really can't understand how you can put on such a gigantic conference and not consider the fact that some of the delegates may be disabled.

The BBC is reporting that UK's Environment Secretary George Eustice is blaming the Israeli delegation for the lack of accessible transport/entrances:

What would normally happen in this situation is that Israel would have communicated that they had that particular need for their minister.

"There was obviously something that went wrong in this instance and they weren't aware of that so they hadn't made the right provisions at that particular entrance she was coming too.

Or, you know, you could just make sure your venue is accessible to wheelchair users from the start, regardless of which entrance they're using.

That's sh.t.

I suspect that its worse. I'll be amazed if the SEC isn't normally accessible to people using wheelchairs. There are standards for new public buildings. Its not some medieval castle with access via stone staircases.

So what may have happened is that the event organizers took an accessible building and made it inaccessible through adding security checks etc.