[Former UN chief Kofi Annan again tries to sell the greatest scientific fraud of all time]

In his opening remarks to the Global Humanitarian Forum, Annan said the clock was ticking for the world to avert extreme storms, floods and droughts that will intensify with global warming.

"Every year we delay, the greater the damage, the more extensive the human misery," he told an audience at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, also warning of "cost, pain and disruption of inevitable action later".

Mining Debate On Hold

Former NASA Climate Scientist Doctor James Hansen and Massey Energy Chair Don Blankenship have agreed to meet to talk about global warming, coal mining and its impact on West Virginia's economy this week.

Apparently, though, there is some disagreement about where the two will meet.

Blankenship says he wants a televised debate that will air on West Virginia Media stations on Thursday night at 7 p.m..

"This televised debate will enable the most West Virginians to participate in the discussion involving these important issues for the state," Blankenship said in a statement.

Hansen, for scheduling reasons, agreed to be part of a 1 p.m. event Wednesday at Mountain State University. West Virginia Public Broadcasting will moderate that discussion.

I'd have called it "GreatestScientificFraudOfAllTime-enhagen": Copenhagen climate change treaty backed by 'Hopenhagen' campaign | Media | guardian.co.uk

The United Nations and an international coalition of advertising agencies today launched a global marketing campaign for the climate change treaty to be ratified in Copenhagen later this year.

Launched under the umbrella strapline "Hopenhagen", the campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of the UN meeting in Denmark in December. The meeting aims to secure a new global climate change treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol.

UN representatives unveiled the campaign, in conjunction with the International Advertising Association, at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival today.

The aim of the campaign is to try and get the public to move from "coping" with climate change to one of "hope" that action can be taken to tackle the issue.

"Hopenhagan" aims to be an "open source" campaign using a central website, hopenhagen.org, to drive the debate and awareness and allow users to send messages to the 192 UN delegates attending the meeting.

Jan '08: Reflections on the U.N. climate change negotiations in Bali

The IPCC, which is mandated to be policy-neutral, cannot make policy recommendations.