The heads of 28 countries sit around a table; an aide comes forward and whispers in the ear of one – a cool, clean hero type; he immediately pushes back his chair and without uttering a word bounds out of the room.
Scene 2: another equally uninspiring room nearby. Another table. This time just four people sit around it. The door bursts open. In marches a small blond haired woman in pant suit and our cool, clean hero.
Startled, all heads turn to look at them. “I don’t want you negotiating in secret” he says, scowling.
Uninvited he sits down and begins speaking.
Scene 3: 45 minutes later: He enters the first room and presents a document to the 27, telling them it’s a matter of “take it or leave it”.
Some try to make changes – but fail. Our cool, clean hero, says ‘cherrio’ and jets off on Airforce One.
He is of course US President Barak Obama, and before boarding his plane he holds a secret press briefing for US journalists – many of them came and will be returning to Washington with him.
Scene 4: 30 minutes later. The press centre, the world’s media gather around the monitors relaying President Obama’s message: It’s a wrap. It’s not perfect. But it’s a step in the right direction, he says.
Asked about monitoring other country’s emission reductions he adds to the sci-fi feel by saying they can do that by satellite if necessary.
And what about the guys who have created most of the trouble by insisting on targets that will cost lots of money? “We’ll have comparable goals in 2025 – 30, but we can’t do it now because Europe has had a head start over the past few years”, he says without a trace of irony. The head start came from Europe signing up to Kyoto and the US didn’t.
But, hey, he adds, “We won’t be legally bound by anything that takes place here today. We will have reaffirmed out commitment to meet those targets, not just because the science demands it, but because it offers us enormous economic opportunities down the road”.
Scene 5: Airforce One makes good progress across the Atlantic. It’s just two hours from home and the scene switches back to an enormous room where delegates from 190 nations are gathered at about 3 am.
One after another they shout at the chair. Just an hour before they received the document Mr Obama had long ago declared a deal. Many are shocked. The Venezualean delegate holds up a bleeding hand. “Do I have to spill blood to be allowed to speak?” she shouts. They are all sovereign nations with equal rights under the UN rules, but they were not consulted about the Copenhagen Accord.
Scene 6: A hotel bedroom where a man lies sleeping. There is a phone call. He hurridly gets up, dresses and leaves in a waiting car. He is Ed Balls, the British environment secretary.
He rushes into the convention hall where the delegates are in uproar. He arrives in time for one furious man from Sudan – the country whose leadership of the G77 had been usurped – warns that the deal means Africans will fry as global warming will destroy their environment, and likens it to Hitler’s gas ovens.
Mr Balls quickly quietens the crowds with his warning that this is going too far.
Final scene: Perhaps like the recently released ‘2012’, the world’s billionaires will board arks and when mother nature gets over her tantrum, they will land safely in a paradise-like South Africa.
Stirring stuff.
Comments
Posted On
Dec 21, 2009Posted By
Simon HicksThanks Ann, for a great piece. It seems that too many of us are either bedazzled by events around us or else quietly wooed by the mind-numbing Hollywoodness that has become usual practice in most newspapers and media these days. Very refreshing read something from a journalist that still has their eyes wide open.
Posted On
Dec 21, 2009Posted By
John CollinsThanks for this piece that got me thinking. Maybe Hollywood is now copying politics.
Posted On
Dec 25, 2009Posted By
Miriam CahillGosh, that does leave you stunned.
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