Lateline - 07/12/2009: [Extended interview with James Hansen]

TONY JONES: There's been a huge debate in Australia over emissions trading. Are you saying that even with the best will in the world an emissions trading scheme in Australia will be ineffectual.

JAMES HANSEN: Absolutely. These cap and trade trading schemes are a terrible idea. You can see what they do. They are a way to continue business as usual because they include these offsets, for example. They're not attacking the fundamental problem. Who they're good for is the big banks. In the United States it's going to be Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, the trading companies.

They have trading groups within their bank who are very skilled and they're going to make money, and where does the money come from? It comes from the public. There will be increased energy prices, big banks will make money, but the problem will not be solved.

There will be little reduction in emissions.
...
JAMES HANSEN: You know, if you look at this global temperature curve and smooth it over a few years you'll see that it's continued to increase over the last decade. And in fact, it's not true that 1998 was the warmest year. 2005 was the warmest year.

Cartoon: Would Being More Eco-Responsible Matter If Climate Change Were a Hoax?

Even IF global warming and climate change were a hoax, would the Copenhagen Climate Conference and other environmental negotiations still be worth it?

As far as we're concerned...oh yeah! [the cartoon suggests that the greatest scientific fraud in history will make your children healthier!!]

Climate science Q&A: warmest decade on record? | The SPPI Blog

...If the Climategate conspirators had been less politicized and less dishonest, they would have been having conversations of this kind, rather than working out ways of bending the data so as to blame more than half of the warming from 1975-1998 on CO2. – Monckton of Brenchley

[Does this mean that CO2 will kill all of our grandchildren?]: Health Care to Keep Democrats From Copenhagen Conference - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told colleagues on Saturday that Democrats could not send a delegation to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen.

“It doesn’t look like we’re going -– not as a delegation,” Mr. Kerry told colleagues as a he left the Senate chamber after a vote on a package of spending measures. “Harry needs the people here on health care.”