Aussie Enviro

The hipocrisy is there, but theres few other ways to change the minds of the world. With the amount of carbon and pollution Australia and the world creates daily, COP is a drop in the bucket. It should bloody lead by example though.

Bans won't work, i'm sure you know that, they're impractical, unilateral bans done by some countries won't work until China and the USA decide they want to. Even then some intransigent geopolitical actors might ignore their dictats for funsies, even individuals within countries might alcohol prohibition didn't work by any sense in a uniform way, (even if some wanted it to).

Climate Action is a Problem Similar to Smoking

Criminalising smoking wasn't how we reduced smoking rates, and criminalising vapes, and black market tobacco sales won't be how we continue making progress in reducing smoking rates. Behavioural economics, in the form of higher excise on each pack sold; long term education and advertising campaigns about its negative effects; plain packaging laws; and the slow, procedural reductions in acceptable smoking spaces are devices employed. These and more came together to increase the costs to smoking, and made the activity more unpallatable as the years went on.

Smoking has had a resurgence in recent years, this challenge must be met with the same multi-faceted, sometimes experimental (plain packaging laws effects were by no means pre-determined), and often procedural ratcheting. Increasing monetary, reputational, ease of life and comfort costs to the smoker themselves forces the far reaching consequences of smoking into the personal lives of the smokers. In a world where the effects of one person's actions are felt by more than that individual, we have to use ulterior avenues to redirect the costs back to them.

This is the only course for climate action, except the challenge is far greater, due to the aware and unaware opposing forces, as well as the sheer momentum of a world geared towards the exploitation of such a narrow set of resources. The people adding the most to the problem never feel the costs to them peraonally, if they even witness it or ever become aware of the costs. So COP is useful to climate action as a single arm in the ongoing and multi-faceted approach to dealing with climate change, and its just like reducing smoking rates but on a much grander scale.

COP acts as the largest advertising and education event for climate problems each year. So its a bit like the mix of No smoking ad campaigns and promotional events you see. Even with all the lobbyists there the point can be driven home sometimes better than if they were excluded, not to mention these fuckheads also need to be dissuaded from their most foolish impulses and interacting outside of your regular sphere of influence can have that effect, maybe not change minds, but can temper their impulse to be raging lunatics.

A second is due to the global nature of the problem, it needs some widely recognised driving body for the issue, enter the UN. Theres really no other country or organisation that could hope to shepherd the billions of people, plus those millions who are inordinately wealthy along a path so complex, and nobody responds to shame like the wealthy, look at Gina Rhineharts reaction to that ugly portrait of her for evidence of a wealthy person's sensitivity to shame, so a climate summit where the failure of the wealthy elites, as they proudly like to be called, to lead the world to a brighter future is shaming. For many others, including rich-cunts, there is a true need for clear understanding and periodic re-stating of the issues. Ontop of that, then, a certain level of imagination to extrapollate the dire meaning is also required. There are many other uses for COP i'm sure, these uses are just what i can think of first.

So i think COP is fairly important, its not the ducksnuts and it won't solve shit on its own. With each host country its hypocritical nature is exposed in new and demoralising ways, but the people behind it were right to set it in train and its up to us (all) to continue to exploit the event for its uses in securing action on the climate and environment catastrophe of our time.