This Is The Ice Age

The Copenhagen Climate Conference ended with one of those inoffensive "accords" that activists like to point to as a "big step" towards the next multi-national conference. But, it's looks like the Chinese and Indians aren't even willing to go along with that in the wake of - you guessed it - the Scott Brown election. India, China Won't Sign Copenhagen Accord

The Indian and Chinese governments have had a rethink on signing the Copenhagen Accord, officials said on Saturday, and the UN has also indefinitely postponed its Jan 31 deadline for countries to accede to the document.

An Indian official said that though the government had been thinking of signing the accord because it “did not have any legal teeth and would be good diplomatically”; it felt irked because of repeated messages from both UN officials and developed countries to accede to it.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seeking a number of clarifications on the implications of the accord that India -- with five other countries -- had negotiated in the last moments of the Copenhagen climate summit in December, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“That letter, and the defeat of the Democrats in the Massachusetts bypoll, has forced the UN to postpone the deadline indefinitely,” an official said. “With the Democrats losing in one of their strongholds, the chances of the climate bill going through the US senate have receded dramatically.

“So if the US is not going to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent, which was a very weak target anyway, why should we make any commitment even if it does not have any legal teeth?” the official said.

China also appears in no mood to sign the accord.

“With the deadline postponed, we are not going to sign now,” said a Chinese official now here to take part in the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) meeting to chalk out a climate strategy.

If I were a leftist, the last few weeks would have left me believing in conspiracy theories. The Climate Change Crisis was exposed as a fraud, or at least a scientifically dubious enterprise, by the hacking of damning emails just weeks before a climate change conference that looked set to establish serious emissions rules and wealth redistribution from the west. The prospects for passing Obamacare, which seemed set in stone after Ben Nelson "agreed" (cough, cough) to vote for cloture, were utterly derailed by the election of a Republican whose electoral prospects were dim just 3 weeks before the election. And campaign finance reform - a liberal-led effort to make it as difficult as possible for candidates to raise money and challenge incumbents - was eviserated after McCain/Feingold's restrictions on corporate speech were declared unconstitutional.

Me? I believe in divine providence.