Copenhagen Climate Accord - Because Obama's Different

Climate Police?

The U.K. publisher The Guardian has an interesting article on some of the events leading up to the Copenhagen Climate Accord.  One of the interesting outcroppings of the WikiLeaks scandal, is the apparent manipulation and behind the scenes arm twisting that went on to get other nations on board for the accord.

While I'm certainly not a fan of WikiLeaks' political agenda under the supposed guise of transparency, this is an interesting twist;

Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyber warfare are used to seek out leverage.

The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009....

Seeking negotiating chips, the US state department sent a secret cable on 31 July 2009 seeking human intelligence from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. The request originated with the CIA. As well as countries' negotiating positions for Copenhagen, diplomats were asked to provide evidence of UN environmental "treaty circumvention" and deals between nations.

Now, these tactics are definitely specific to this administration, and not just because of the emphasis added text. The tactics come from the State Department and because, if you recall, President Bush was 'all about Big Oil', his administration wouldn't have been wasting those sort of arm-twisting tactics on a climate accord.

It's just a little snapshot into the mindset of liberal thinking - the ends justify any means necessary. As John Lennon once wrote, how do you sleep at night?