Polar Bears

Quotes from Copenhagen this morning:

"We've come a long way but we have much further to go"

"We have made a start"

"The draft text asks Africa to sign a suicide pact - an incineration pact!"

"Copenhagen has been an abject failure"

Is this an exercise in spinning positive a failure, or a bunch of drama queens over-egging the bad news?

Two years ago the world agreed that Copenhagen would be the summit to agree the "new carbon order". On this basis it is a failure no matter how Gordon or Barack spin it.

There has been some agreements though - gazillions of extra funding for developing nations but this just simply the smoker saving up for a new lung rather than quitting smoking.

Will we be seeing Africans burning, or Maldivian people developing artificial gills in the near future? Judging from the current weather conditions I don't think so but regardless of your stand on the climate issue this has to be a perfect example of looking after No1.

I shudder to think what will happen when there is a meteor threat, Alien invasion or something else catastrophic requiring global agreement.

Spin, no matter how good will seem a little hollow as we are being vapourised, eaten or lazer-beamed out of existence.

Putting the leaders of 193 nations into a room and asking them to thrash out an agreement on anything is an exercise in futility. Even if you believe the future of the world is at risk. Asking anyone to consider 3 generations ahead is a stretch, ask a politician to consider anything beyond their next election is a waste of time.

So why did anyone think that this would work?

Thousands of children drowning in Bangladesh is not enough of a call to action, New Orleans was, frankly, the wrong city. It will only take a disaster of these proportions hitting a city like London, New York or Tokyo to force an agreement by which time it will probably be too late.

The BBC news dropped the discussions in Copenhagen to third spot behind the BA strike and the unusually cold weather.

Am I the only one to see the irony here?