Categories: Need to know

Not on the list

Harper not invited as Obama meets with world leaders

by macleans.ca on Friday, December 18, 2009 12:32pm - 58 Comments

Upon arriving in Copenhagen this morning, U.S. President Barack Obama convened a meeting of 19 other world leaders. The meeting included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but not Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper’s office says it was the Danes who were responsible for compiling the guest list.

Tags: Canada

http://intensedebate.com/people/craigola craigola

"Sorry Stephen, we looked everywhere for you. Were you in the can again?"
Clarke

"We're only looking for people that are willing to give THEIR speech THEMSELVES"
Bill Simpson

This is a gift from the gods for the Canadian msm! Of course, it may actually turn out to be a gift for Harper, since he can now avoid any blame for the fiasco that will certainly follow from this meeting.
Anon Liberal

No worries. Obama's in charge of the Canadian climate change file.

wilson

yah, that's why Canada staked out our position months ago, long before Obama.
Just like PMSH took criticism for setting a withdrawal date of 2011 many many months before Obama took the same position,
that must be Harper following the O too, eh.

And then there was Harper's position on the coalition of losers,
it took ignatieff only 6 months to come to the same conclusion.

That Harper, he's such a follower, eh.

Anon Liberal

"yah, that's why Canada staked out our position months ago, long before Obama."
————————-

Yes and that position was we'll do whatever the Americans decide to do. Stirring leadership.

Oh and I see "PMSH" has returned. May I suggested switching to GLSH in your future comments.

Andre

After finishing his talking points, Prime Minister Rudd sat down and waved his hands in modesty. Then, Prime Minister Harper rose up and said: "What he said… and what Obama is going to say. *pause* Sooooooo…where's the bathroom?"

http://intensedebate.com/people/PolJunkie PolJunkie

Would be really funny if it wasn't so pathetic.

4Liberty

So Harper wqsn't invited to meet with a bunch of appeasers. Maybe THEY were concerned he would snub THEM.

I'm surprised they didn't convene the meeting in Munich just so the symbolism would be correct.

Good for Canada. Long live the investors and workers in Alberta's oilsands. May they continue to keep the rest of the world warm.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

"I'm surprised they didn't convene the meeting in Munich just so the symbolism would be correct."

Well we are playing the role of Vichy France…

4Liberty

Nah, Pétain is already there being played by Sarkozy.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

I like the cut of your jib because you expressed exactly what I was thinking.

Harper wasn't asked to join a rogue's gallery of lefties who want to pay danegeld to third world countries so they can continue polluting? Whatever shall we do next!

http://intensedebate.com/people/frenchie101 frenchie101

Obama is a one term president in the US, he is without money, & will have to print even more.Go Harper, and give them that finger!
Gary

Harper was not asked to attend because a climate change denier despite all the empirical evidence would impede any progress this meeting may achieve. Personally I am pleased he was not invited, thereby saving us the embarrassment of revealing how little he knows about the subject . Canada's reputation has been damaged by this buffoon .

wilson

Chretien was a world leader at Kyoto,
with Canada's 2% ghg contribution,
Chretien played chicken with Gore and Clinton.
They were smart enough to fold with a vote of 95-0.
blueberry

Don't worry, we were #20 on the list but the restaurant could only hold parties of 19…
Harvey Mushman

If not being on the list means not having to pony up several billion dollars more in wealth transfer to "have not" nations…it's a good thing. I'm quite content to have Canada sit out that scam.

http://intensedebate.com/people/frenchie101 frenchie101

as am I!

Big Bad

Who really cares? This whole conference was a sham based on fraudulent science and uncertain data. Sending money to third world countries to cure human-caused carbon emissions is a stupid idea. Think of it this way: Would any sane person be willing to send money to Robert Mugabe or his government? No? End of argument

Anon

Albertan?

http://intensedebate.com/people/SirJohn_Eh SirJohn_Eh

I am curious as to what AGW deniers believes happens to CO2 released into our atmosphere? Something crazy like 70 mil tonnes per day. I know in a lab you can easily show/prove the greenhouse affect in our atmosphere. Or is that science somehow a sham as well? Please enlighten me, what exactly negates the affect of all that CO2 once its up there – a few emails dont do it for me.

4Liberty

Greenhouse effect? Did someone leave the greenhouse door open in Copenhagen, where delegates are currently freezing their pelotas off?

Didn't you choose to dump the greenhouse effect when you changed marketing strategy from global warming to climate change?
LC Bennett

It is not CO2 itself that is predicted to rapidly increased warming because it has absorbed as much infrared radiation as it possibly can. The 'runaway warming' is dependent on positive feedback mechanisms like water vapor. There is controversy on whether or not the feedback is, in fact, positive. For example, the computer model predicted 'fingerprint' of the positive feedback like warming in the tropic troposphere has not appeared.

The greenhouse effect in the lab is a simplistic model of the effect of CO2 and not a true model of the many and complex variables in nature. It it were that easy to prove, then billions would not have been spent on climate change research.

http://intensedebate.com/people/SirJohn_Eh SirJohn_Eh

In lay terms, CO2 and greenhouse effect will suffice to get my point across. Are you suggesting that the Earth is dealing with it just fine by itself? Definitely possible, is there research available to show this – or just a hunch that we will only confirm if the catastrophic changes dont occur? I know there is research to show a "positive" feedback due to increased forest fires, melting of permaforst, heat absorption in areas that have lost ice etc. etc.
http://intensedebate.com/people/canucklehead canucklehead

This is what I keep hearing, that the wavelengths affected by CO2 are already saturated. If that's true then whether or not there is positive or negative feedback at the temperature we are at it seems like reducing CO2 down below the "saturation levels" has to be the least effective response for the cost and we should be going after methane, water vapour and other geoengineering tacks than turning the dial on the CO2 knob.

That is assuming we are on an otherwise irreversible trend man-made or not and should be concerned about warming in the first place. Seemed to suit the dinosaurs, after all – and I like the idea better than the growing scientific consensus about man-made global cooling of the 70's.

peter

Mostly it utilized by plants and they grow bigger, faster and healthier. In fact CO2 levels today are less than at some times in the past and more than at others. That our climate is reverting to what it was like when I was kid in the 60s on the prairies (long cold winters) should come as no surprise as the climate has never been stable.

AGW is bait and switch, sure the climate is changing. WHY it is changing is refuted by the AGW alarmists own data. This where and when, if you really care, you need to ask some hard questions about the NYSE's Euronext subsidiary joint venturing with Caisse Depot, backed by the World Bank to "monetize carbon trading (Bluenext carbon exchange)". In english that means (from my point of view) the same plutocrats who have been screwing us for generations failed to conduct their "capital market crimes" in a sustainable fashion and have perverted every world currency with their toxic brew of tax and spend and need a new playground.
Bill Simpson

Well, one of things that happens is that plants grow more, converting that additional CO2 into useful matter, much like enhanced concentrations of oxygen are good for us and other breathing creatures.

Most of theories that would take the correlation between the current warming and increased CO2 emissions and turn it into cause and effect are still being worked through.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

"one of things that happens is that plants grow more, converting that additional CO2 into useful matter"

Good point. I have lost count of times that people look at me with disbelief when I said that CO2 is not a pollutant.
http://intensedebate.com/people/SirJohn_Eh SirJohn_Eh

Ahh yes, plants definitely use up CO2 during photosynthesis. Wonderful things, however I keep hearing about CO2 levels in the atmosphere. The level in the atmosphere is rising – therefore the CO2 in plants is not being considered. I suspect that if calculated, the CO2 generated yearly (monthly, daily whatever) does not linearly correspond to the increase in atmospheric levels. The plants are surely using up CO2 and ramping up growth according to sciences accepted description of that process. Doesnt that just mean that we are puuting up so much, so fast that not even plants can keep up and mitigate the affect on the atmosphere. Hence changing temperatures that cant (well not so far) be attributed to anything other than our man-made CO2 contruibutions.

Bill Simpson

There are a number of other potential causes for the current warming, including sunspot activity, for which there is considerable correlation. Since there have been many previous warming periods and cooling periods without any human contribution, there is no reason to only consider our CO2 emissions.
peter

Yeah soon CO2 levels will be where they WERE many times in the past. I'm not advocating pollution here, but for God's sake I have no desire to saddle my children with a future of poverty and repression based on the self-interested bottom feeders promoting AGW (Gore, Soros et al). You must understand that monetizing carbon trading is the dodge the good folks who brought us the finacial meltdown need to save their sorry asses.

I would consevatively estimate the "trusts" of the past generations of finacial rapists now contain trillions. Rather than screwing my family lets VOTE on screwing theirs. Let's confiscate the trusts to fight globl warming…as soon as that cry goes up all of a sudden the self assertions of truth from the trusts who have funded this nonsense will find a different reason for "climate change" and we can all go back to productive work and our families.

Dakota

Hide the decline!

Thankfully Harper hasn't been suckered into the world's greatest scam.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

I thought the world's greatest scam was Euro Disney.

Maureen

Who cares – this whole conference is a farce – I would have preferred that Harper and other Canadian officials had not even gone – waste of time and money.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

The conference goers would have preferred if we didn't go either, if that makes you feel better.
http://intensedebate.com/people/frenchie101 frenchie101

same here, what a sham!

peter

To paraphrase Kate at SDA, "when the fascists meet with the communists you're supposed to pray for a comet strike, not a compromise."

Thank God our PM is not hobnobbing with those dweebs, maybe he can call Vaclav Klaus and they can catch a great Euro-beer and and some schnitzle.

4Liberty

A few Czech beers with Vaclav sounds good. All those wonderful CO2 bubbles making things hazy but no greenhouse effect …
kcm

So most of the worlds leaders are coms or fascists or was it only a tasteless figure of speech? Says more about Kate than Copenhagen i'd say.

http://intensedebate.com/people/canucklehead canucklehead

nah, I remember that post, it was about a literal meeting of a nazi and commie group confronting them in a protest march in Calgary.

Spenc BC

Good for Harper! Why should he participate in thi fiasco. The further he stays away, the less sh1t when it all hits the fan, any moment now.
Spenc BC

sorry "this"
http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

What would the meeting have been for, pray tell?

If it's about hammering out a global solution to climate change (whatever "solution" might mean, at this point), then Harper reaps what he sows.

If it's a "hello, how are you, my name is Barack and this is what I intend to do here today" then really, Harper doesn't need to hear that speech again.
http://intensedebate.com/people/frenchie101 frenchie101

However, he did meet alone with Obama over lunch..I think before this sham, they already knew where each other stood.I will watch as the US prints more money, and their economy sinks.It wont be pretty- not for a one term president.
4Liberty

Hopenhage agreement. Harper yields nothing.
Good for the PM. Zilch for Greenpeace, Suzuki, May and the hooligans on the street.
4Liberty

The circus is over. The clowns are going home because Copenhagen is in a deep freeze. Someone left the greenhous door open …

Farcical …
4Liberty

Taliban Jack has just said he's disappointed, so Harper should be happy.
wilson

What!!!
Our insignificant 2% contirbution to Global Warming was treated as insignificant……oh what a crushing slight, how will we ever overcome such a slap in the face!

The Canadian delegation went to Copenhagen with their bottom line, and haven't budged.
PMSH has been saying for 4 years, developing nations must enter into binding agreements.
and now Obama agrees.
Obama picks up the Nobel , Harper picks up the Collosal Fossil.

At least Harper earned his award.

YSP

Harper: more an antique fossil than a Dane.
Craig O

"Our insignificant 2% contirbution to Global Warming was treated as insignificant…"

Yet, that 2% puts us at eighth in the world. There were representatives from at least 12 countries who produce fewer emissions than us at that meeting, so we certainly weren't excluded because of our overall contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions.

No, we were excluded because of the growing perception that Canada's representatives have nothing of value to contribute, or may even be detrimental to the process. Regardless of the subject, that should be a real concern to all Canadians – it's a clear signal that our stock is falling on the world stage.

http://intensedebate.com/people/canucklehead canucklehead

I'm a little confused that Harper doesn't just play along. The Libs signed the treaty and did nothing. The Europeans tell China behind closed doors "we didn't live up to the commitments, deal with it". Harper takes some steps but seems to be choosing an odd issue to be honest on.

wayne moores

I just watched the chief CBC propagandist(reporter) standing out in front of the giantic hall were the fraudsters pigged out for two weeks(look out at the head of the buttet line here comes Lizzie May), standing in the freezing cold, hardly able to hold a mike as her fingers froze, telling the world that we are all doomed because of gobal warming….what a joke. Happy holidays ..gonna enjoy friends and family, have a roaring fire, eat far to much turkey, drink too much and then when Chistmas is over go long distance running on the trails around the Shubie Canal system and enjoy nature and help out maintaining this marv green space and know I did on any given day to preserve nature than Big Al did in his entire useless life. Cheers.
scissorpaws

For Himself's next musical rendition he might consider "We're Bad" by Michael Jackson.
scissorpaws

Actually, it's kind of pathetic. Harper confirming that he's the "governor" of Canada, who won't bother showing the initiative to show up in Copenhagen unless he knows the boss is going to be there, and then comes basically like an obedient puppy. He won't move on climate change until he finds out if it's alright with the boss. No, now that I think of it I realize it's extremely pathetic. What do we need Harper for, or any of his gang of incompetents? Just phone Washington to find out our next move.