Copenhagen Negotiators Walk Out (Surprise!)

The Copenhagen climate conference is being rendered down into an argument more easily understood than all that verbose sciency stuff. When allowed to simmer for a whole week as speaker after speaker announced with clarity that the world is doomed if change isn't initiated immediately despite whatever shell game the CRU has been engaged in, the world's most impoverished countries have pulled out of negotiations because not enough money is changing hands.

There are basically three groups of countries present in Copenhagen (okay, for simplicity's sake I'm simplifying,) first there are relatively wealthy countries that have historically agreed to handcuff their economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, relatively wealthy countries whose leaders agree in principle with handcuffing their economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but who have thus far been unable to get authority to sign their country onto the dotted line, and poorer third world countries who love the idea of having rich countries shift manufacturing to their poor lands.

Third world countries love this because they want as much consequence free investment in their countries as they can possibly get.

Should a rich country, such as the United States, agree to this insanity, in order to supply its consumers with products that require energy in manufacturing (which is everything) they would be forced to shift more and more of their production to countries who offer them a more economical (read much cheaper) option. (Can you say China?)

In addition to that, with crippling emissions standards being proposed that will be impossible to meet even after a great deal of manufacturing is shifted to third world countries, heavy taxation would also need to be applied to American businesses by the minions of Al Gore. After tacking on a substantial handling fee, this money can then be given to poor countries in an international equivalent of the Food Stamp program; the monies to be expended on cleaner manufacturing technology, bureaucracy, waste, paying off cronies, greasing the wheels, back scratching, propaganda efforts, presidential palaces, training of government supported militia, the crushing of dissent, and travel for future climate councils.

Is it any surprise then that third world countries have walked out of negotiations because the pot isn't yet sweet enough?

If rich countries want to handcuff themselves with the adoption of these rules so be it, but it is disingenuous to present this as anything other than what it is--a shakedown.