Haves and have Nots: Due Process at COP15

The African Theatre group last night told a story of a reindeer migrating to Africa because of the changing climate. Along the way, women are encountered, who manage the world very well despite difficulties, inc the difficulty of men who appear as gullible buffoons when offered money by slick corporations.

As I listen to the conference of parties (COP) negotiating about projects that will be jointly supported, I am thinking about a question Suzanne asked me a couple nights ago: how do they decide and negotiate? As I write, they are discussing how to protect forests and that hinges on the definition of forests. I had answered that it was a combination of human relationship, mandates from thier countries, rules and the mood of political opinion. There is no question in my mond that this group is being affected in it's procedures by the latter. The tenor of the conversations ahve changed since the morning. There seems a more conciliatory tone. Presumably it is no accident that delegates haven't yet returned at 5:PM.

Now, the first observer representative is addressing the conference. It is a business group representing, oil, gas, etc. They are asking for representation equivalent to nations. That was something predicted about ten years ago: that corporations would demand and take power equivalent to nations, which covertly, obviously, they already have. So maybe this is about "making (that power) things transparent." One of the interesting side political positioning stories is how various entities are using COP15 to extend individual agendas that have no direct bearing on the rule or issue under consideration but will ultimately have enormous impacts on global warming mitigation.