Author and columnist at The Guardian, UK, George Monbiot spoke against the COP15 at the Klimaforum09 talks "Fossil fuels: The blessing that became a curse" Tuesday the 15th of December, 2009. From the programme...

"Fossil fuels have allowed humanity to escape the constraints of the organic economy as well as those of geography. They have powered the entire global economy, destabilized the climate, and brought material wealth to a minority of the world’s population while poverty prevails in a growing majority. In this perspective, we’ll discuss the prospects of oil and gas depletion and the transition to the post-fossil fuel era."

Monbiot didn't entirely agree with the other panel members: he's much more pessimist and thinks the fossil fuel industries will find many more resources before we hit peak oil. He's mentioning three scientific publications from 2009, two of these I have summarized here at TH!NK already! See Limiting warming to 2°C: How much more can we drill, baby? and Predictions of irreversible, unavoidable climate changes.

George Monbiot at Klimaforum09 from Benno Hansen on Vimeo.

"I do not believe that any of the delegates - with the possible exception of the government of the Maldives - [...] meeting at the Bella Centre at the moment are serious about tackling climate change. [...] All of them [...] those in a position to do so have two policies on fossil fuels. The first policy is to encourage their people and to strike a global deal to minimize global demand for fossil fuels. [...] At the same time all those nations [...] are seeking simultaneously to maximize the supply of fossil fuels."

"If governments were serious about climate change [...] they would be putting proposals here at Copenhagen this week to determine which parts of carbon reserves would be left in the ground. [...] they would also be proposing a total global moratorium on all prospecting for new reserves of coal, oil and gas."

Fossil fuels = slavery?

In the Ode article "Do the right thing" abolishment of fossil fuels is compared to the emancipation of slaves. The slave owners were terrified of a future without their free source of energy, the slaves, just like some of us are now afraid of a future without oil. But...

"ultimately, the abolition of slavery triggered one of the most successful economic eras in history: the Industrial Revolution [...] Fear for the loss of economic gain should never stand in the way of doing the right thing, because the creativity of humankind will always lead to new opportunities and new solutions. [...] we should perceive the challenge of global warming as another historic opportunity to unleash an era of unprecedented economic innovation and prosperity"

I know of certain bloggers here at TH!NK who will just love this - yet another - extreme analogy for our debate. I don't like the various "Hitler-arguments" but I love this one. The postulate is strongly supported by simple facts about renewable energy (see Pick up the November issue of Scientific American).

More is on the way. I'll upload another video from this talk later (when Vimeo behaves) and add it to the Fossil fuels: The blessing that became a curse album.