Climate Change and the Talks Commencing in Poland

I wish a fond welcome to those participating in the talks on climate change now commencing in Poland – a land I once visited on a business trip.  I especially admire that the Poles’ reverence for Frederic Chopin is obvious at every turn, and extremely well placed. Warsaw has a huge statue of Chopin (pictured here) in its main park, even though he was born out in the countryside and moved to Vienna (then to Paris) when he was only 20 years old.  Not to digress further, but here’s what I believe to be the greatest piece of music ever written, his ballade #1 in G minor.

OK, back to the subject at hand. Here’s an article lamenting that the climate talks can have only “moderate” impact.  Actually, that’s not too bad, given the realities in the world today; those of us who tuned into to the previous three or four will be more than a bit impressed if they have any impact whatsoever.

At issue, of course, is the bizarre combination of economics and politics that form the power in our complicated global scene. The issue of overwhelming impact is the trajectory of India and China vis-à-vis the consumption of coal.  This seems fairly cut and dried: we either can or cannot do something about this. Personally, I’m moved to believe that we can.

But in either case, the squabblings of 200 different sovereign countries in Warsaw doesn’t really mean too much, regardless of how beautiful the music the region once produced.