First Green President won't bother to show up at planet-saving Cancun conference; however, he *could* go as far as phoning it in

United Nations climate talks in limbo - POLITICO.com Print View

For eight years, the world waited for a U.S. president to help stop global warming and save the planet.

So far, Barack Obama hasn't lived up to the job.
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Obama won't be going to Mexico for the conference that starts Nov. 29, and neither will Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or many of the other members of Congress who went to ice-cold Copenhagen for last year's U.N. negotiations.
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Much of Washington seems oblivious to Cancun. Several top Democrats who normally are in the middle of the international climate debate were unprepared last week for questions about the next stage of the U.N. process, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman.
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Obama is expected to address the Cancun negotiations before the talks begin and several observers say he could hit the phones with other world leaders during the negotiations if the situation warrants, much like Bill Clinton did in the closing hours of the 1997 Kyoto summit.
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Consensus seems to be emerging that the talks will continue beyond the end-of-the-year 2011 summit scheduled for South Africa. Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, suggested the U.N. climate process itself is on "probation."