DAVID BLACKMON: COP 30 Preparations Embody All That is Wrong With Climate Alarmism

In case you’ve missed it amid the Trump White House’s decision to ban U.S. participation, this year’s U.N.-sponsored COP 30 conference is being hosted by Belem, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Para. Suffice it to say that, as is always the case with these annual gatherings of globalist elites, preparations for this year’s event have been filled with a series of pitfalls, emergencies, and the usual stories of rank hypocrisy.

A great example came Tuesday, when Bloomberg ran a story with the alarming headline, “Nations Rethink Plans for Brazil Climate Summit as Costs Soar.” Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Yeah, that’s probably the point.

It turns out that prices for hotel rooms and other accommodations are soaring (unexpectedly!) in advance of the conference, which should actually surprise no one given that these events are regularly attended by tens of thousands of conferees armed with virtually unlimited expense accounts. The profit motive remains alive and well in the midst of the Amazon jungle despite the best efforts of Brazil’s socialist government to kill it off. Go figure.

Bloomberg’s writers first imply that the high costs of attendance are falling mainly on the shoulders of developing nations, saying, “representatives of developing and at-risk countries say they’re considering scaling back their presence at this year’s event, which would reduce their visibility and negotiating power.” Countries must have a big delegation present to ensure they get their entitled slices of every one of the myriad climate alarm initiatives, schemes, and scams that will be rolled out at this year’s conference, you know.

The piece singles out Tanzania’s Richard Muyungi, who chairs the African Group of Negotiators, as claiming that “African national delegations typically range from about 60 to 100 people.” After all, it’s a two-week event, so countries feel the need to be able to sub-in backups for exhausted participants like an NFL defensive coordinator rotates tackles and linebackers.

Later in the story, though, Bloomberg admits that some developed countries are also scaling back their planned delegations from previous years. Dutch official Sophie Hermans says her country is also scaling down its own delegation, saying, “we also have to think about the costs because, well, for the public support in the Netherlands and worldwide, being aware of costs and who is going to pay for it is pretty important.” Well yes, it is.

Improving the city’s and region’s infrastructure has also presented a major challenge to Belem officials, leading to some stunning displays of rank hypocrisy and lack of concern about the same carbon emissions that attendees all claim are destroying the planet. One perfect example is the fact that the city of 1.5 million’s smallish airport had to be massively expanded to be able to accommodate the flood of hundreds of private jets which so many globalist elites use to fly into these COP events each year. After all, as John Kerry famously said, they can’t be expected to fly commercial, can they?

In July, Brazil’s aviation authority warned that last-minute expansion efforts were falling behind schedule because, well, it turns out it gets really hot in the Amazon during the summertime. Who could have seen that one coming, after all?

The most massive display of rank hypocrisy, though, came not from the airport expansion itself, but from the brand new shiny four-lane expressway which had to be constructed right through the heart of the CO2-trapping rain forest to accommodate all the limos and high-end sedans those globalist elites will ride from the airport into the city.

That project involves the bulldozing of thousands of trees in a part of the rain forest that was supposed to be a protected area by heavy equipment powered by – gasp! – the same “fossil fuels” and emitting mass quantities of the very same plant food that the conferees deride as poisonous pollution. Worse, the highway is paved in asphalt, a substance which is derived from – you guessed it – oil.

Readers who still wonder why President Donald Trump laid out such a negative view of those who preach the climate alarm religion during his recent speech at the U.N.’s Climate Week conference need look no further than what is happening in Belem today. This isn’t complicated.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

 The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

(Featured Image Media Credit: ben britten via Flickr)

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].