In the wake of COP15, I think it’s important to draw a little attention away from the political ramifications for Obama and the stubbornness of China. The real issue, as Klein frames the argument, is the results for the least developed and most vulnerable countries: namely the countries of Africa.

A global increase in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius equates to a 3-3.5 degree increase for the African continent. Increases that substantial in a country just beginning to take steps toward modernization could prove disastrous. Millions may be displaced. Agricultural industries, already struggling because of mismanagement in places like Kenya and Zimbabwe, may collapse completely.

African leaders adopted a very strong tone before the meeting, but fell flat when it came to standing up in Copenhagen. The walk-out was a bust. The leader of the African climate negotiating group started making concessions as soon as he arrived. They simply did not take a hard enough stand, considering the grave dangers facing them. All of the attention was sucked away from them because of in-fighting amongst the richer countries.

The story of COP15 is one of American hubris, Chinese defiance, and European marginalization. Africa got $100 billion for the next ten years to shut up, and they fucking took it. Not all of them. Some are still trying to speak up like Archbishop Tutu, but there doesn’t seem to be any indication that the content is going to turn around any time soon.

I’m not sure if it was naivety or if Zenawi got bought off, but the 10 billion dollars a year for the next decade looks to me like a slap in the face. The worst part of it is the domestic price the US will pay for it. I’ve already heard some very pointed criticism from the right of Obama for giving the Africans money at all. The frame of the debate has already been set as “Should we help the Africans (through aid) improve their standard of living at a cost to ourselves or not?” This completely misses the point. The whole point of COP15 was to try our damnedest to reverse the problems that may befall us all on climate change. We shouldn’t be setting up a Help Hundreds of Millions of People with Peanuts Fund. We should be fully investing ourselves in making this a non-issue. Making a climate change dichotomy between the African charity drive and the struggle to wrestle China into doing anything we ask destroys any chance at solving the problem.

All week Obama has said he’d rather come home with something crude and nascent than come home with nothing, but for Africa Desmond Tutu puts it best. “It’s better to have no deal than to have a bad deal.” This climate deal is awful. It makes climate change an even hotter button issue, politicizes common sense measures to preserve our future, and sells Africa down the stream.

My prediction: This is not the end of attempts at global cooperation, but it is the last time China or the US will have any shred of credibility in the discussions. Their clash may draw some media attention, but within the decade, Brazil and India and the strongest voices for change in Europe will have to carry much more of the burden to get anything legitimate done. I don’t think we can rely on the two top producers or their victims to lead the charge on anything soon.

Lieberman is a scumbag.

Wagon Wheel - Old Crow Medicine Show

Once finals are over, I swear I’ll get back to posts with actual substance. In the meantime, enjoy Old Crow Medicine Show. They’re not the best bluegrass act of the last 10 years, but they’re certainly awesome if you’re just getting into it. They have a broader appeal than Lonesome River Band or Ricky Skaggs or any of the other more traditional modern acts.

Stuck With You- Huey Lewis and the News

I need to break from all of the depressing songs on here.

I’m a little late to this story. I’ve been away from Politico for about a month now, and it appears that was not the best decision. In Mitt Romney’s latest opinion piece, he lays down some very heavy criticism of President Obama. And, no, we’re not talking about charges of socialism or a secret religious history. Romney sets out a couple of key points that I’ve been frustrated with myself for this second half of Obama’s first year in office.

First, Obama has thrown too much of his attention to politically murky and unnecessary projects of reform. energy policy and health care reform are tremendous issues that effect a lot of people, but they most certainly should not take top priority when our country is both

• occupying the two countries of Iraq and Afghanistan
• in the midst of the greatest financial pitfall since the 30s

I may not agree with Romney’s proposed solutions to these two problems, but I certainly cannot disagree with him about their importance.

Second, Obama’s careful consideration of the situation in Afghanistan before last night’s announcement of troop deployment, appears to me to be incredibly indecisive. I understand that there are pressures from all sides, but military decisions aren’t the kind of thing you can go on a whirlwind town hall tour about. You have to sit down with all of the information at your disposal, and figure out the best use of American resources. Romney would argue the troop deployment has been a long time coming. I personally feel Afghanistan lost all legitimacy when the most recent election was riddled with fraud, clearly revealing the domestic rejection of their own government. But I think we would both agree that taking this long to come to a decision is disheartening.

It may be too early to begin considering the 2012 Republican Party nominee, but I think Mitt Romney may have learned a lesson or two from 2008. He’s shaping up to be a real voice of reason outside of the petty fights in the Capitol.

“This is one long mix of poetry designed to guide you through all the different perspectives and ideas behind a poetic theme. I thought it would be apt then to chose the most famous, biggest and often contrived theme of them all; Love.”

This is how a friend of mine, Rembrandt Clarke, describes his new assembly of modern love poetry. It features a good many of my favorite writers and a few I’d never heard before. It’s free! There is absolutely no reason not to go download this right now. It’s a guarantee that you’ll get to spend an hour living in some of the greatest minds of the twentieth century. I won’t gush any further. Go download this.

A quick note on the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed controversy.

I’m not going to pretend to have any extensive knowledge of Lashkar, but this article helped to fill me in on the details of the tragedy that befell India just over a year ago. It’s definitely worth the read.

Sprout and the Bean- Joanna Newsom.

This was going to be a song from Jeff Buckley’s Grace, but all of those files are too big. But hell, who doesn’t love Joanna Newsom.