The Observation Deck

Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges

Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough.

Denmark's warm and 'fuzzy facts'
By CHARLES HURT
Last Updated: 1:50 PM, December 7, 2009
Posted: 4:14 AM, December 7, 2009

COPENHAGEN -- Shakespeare's Marcellus was right. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

In this hotbed of homogeneity, where global warming is a sacred assumption for the faithful, 15,000 people will come together from 192 countries to pray for two weeks over what can be done to save the Earth from certain doom. Few places are better suited to handle the throngs of unquestioning believers who will journey from around the globe.

Dissent is not tolerated, and diversity -- in any form other than biodiversity -- is not welcome here.

But it turns out that Denmark's big claim to greenery isn't quite so impressive when you find out that they do not include one of their biggest and dirtiest industries -- shipping -- in calculating their annual carbon footprint.

That's because the last great world climate treaty, Kyoto, does not make them include their nasty shipping business in the calculation. No wonder the Danes liked that so much.

Even if President Obama gives away the farm when he arrives next week and signs some drastic pledge, it will be a treaty that must be ratified by the Senate.

His Democratic majority dwindles to basically nothing without members from coal states, heavy-industry states and other states where people generally would like to find a job.

But this crowd gathering here is far worse than just a bunch of hand-wringing Hamlets dithering in Denmark.

Some 40,000 tons of carbon will be spewed getting this crowd together and keeping them in comfort.

That is the daily amount of carbon dioxide produced by 30 of the world's smaller countries, according to UN statistics.