Fast-start finance key to Cancun talks: Ramesh-Dateline India

Mr Ramesh laid out the three elements that form the basis of India’s approach at Cancun. India’s approach would be determined by the need to protect its economic interests, enhance its domestic environmental agenda and use climate change as a tool of global diplomacy to reposition New Delhi.  [Where's the part about saving my grandchildren from fiery floods?]

“There are clouds on an already cloudy Cancun horizon” Mr Ramesh said in reference to the European Union’s inclusion of loans in its contribution of fast start finance and the US’s meagre contribution of $1.8 billion which includes $400 million in export credits.

“I am deeply deeply disappointed”, he said that as per the bargain in Copenhagen the industrialised countries had to put up $10 billion in the first year, that 2010. “That target is far from being met. The fast start finance is neither fast, nor has it started, nor is it finance.” Mr Ramesh was also critical of the “heavy dependence” on carbon markets for finance, saying that this was not the understanding at Copenhagen.

Hottest year ever update:  Today's Cancun forecast high of 73 is only 7 degrees cooler than average

[Average high for this date: 80 degrees F]

The WikiLeaks Climate Cables

RUSH: Hey, Snerdley, can you remember the first time I said on this program that environmentalism had nothing to do with the climate? When was the first time that I said militant environmentalism was the new home for displaced communists? It had to be back during the fall of the Berlin Wall. It had to be around 1990 or '91. So we'll figure 20 years ago. Now, this is what being on the cutting edge -- (interruption) What? Well, that's right, '90, '91, the Berlin Wall came down right after Gorbachev -- when I said that militant environmentalism has nothing to do with the climate, has nothing to do with green trees and all this clean water garbage, it's the new home of displaced communists, right? Well, there's a website out there called Watts Up With That? Watts Up With That, more on the WikiLeaks climate cables. It turns out that there are a bunch of cables that have to do with climate change in the WikiLeaks dump, and a number of them prove my point.

Apathy grows regarding alleged worldwide climate change - Green - Catholic Online

Worldwide climate change is claimed to have the potential to affect every living thing on planet Earth. It's surprising to learn how the subject has been dismissed by some in industrialized nations. A recent survey by GlobeScan, an international research consultancy, shows a sharp fall in the level of public concern worldwide about the issue.

After Cancún: Shifting Climate Gears / ISN

Again, to argue for a halting or reduction in economic growth at a time when people are already under severe pressure from a downturn carries little persuasive power. But reversing the usual line of questioning - not what can the economy do to save the climate, but what action on climate change can do to save (and boost) the economy - might do.