live Gore

I just saw Al Gore do a speech to the delegates here in Bali. He sure is a good speaker! Even though I already believe that climate change is a serious concern, he makes the problem seem very real and urgent. Among other things that you may hear or read about on the news from his speech was that he directly pointed the finger at the United States for stalling action towards mitigating climate change. Canada isn't lagging far behind at the moment, but as a super power the United States is in a whole other position (Gore only mentioned the US).

I think that my favorite part of his speech was a reference to a quote from Bobby Hull. In response to questions about why he was such a good passer, Hull said "I don't pass to where my teammates are, I pass to where they are going to be". It is the perfect analogy for the negotiations going on here in Bali. The politicians are not negotiating new emissions targets or other technical details about responding to impacts from climate change here in Bali, they are deciding upon terms for such negotiations that will take place over the next 2 years (and hopefully conclude at the COP meeting in Copenhagen 2 years from now). At the end of his speech he went on to say that political will is a renewable resource and that in two years time we can hope that a new American government (as well as other countries who are lagging behind) will be in place to seal a meaningful deal to address climate change. Hence, it is critical that diplomats here in Bali agree on appropriate terms and set the stage for agreements that will be finalized two years down the road, effectively passing the puck to where world leaders will be at that time.

Gore also described climate change as a moral imperative, rather than a political issue. That's another whole theme, though, so I won't get into that.

In other news, I am feeling healthy again. As of yesterday my appetite came back and I am not so tired. I think that I told you that I moved to another hotel. I am at the Aston Resort now. Did I ever write about the first place that I was staying at? If not, you guys are sure in for some good stuff. It was nothing short of a palace. Completely excessive. The president of Indonesia visited the hotel multiple times this week. There were at least 5 restaurants. When we arrived on the first evening they banged a gong for us and my two female traveling companions had flowers thrown at them! It took about 5 minutes to walk to our room from the front foyer and another ten to walk to the beach (and the hotel/resort was on the beach). I often felt like I was in the kingdom of Zamunda. Hello Babar.

I think that's enough writing for tonight. The Canadian youth delegation is meeting with Stephan Dion soon but it looks like I won't be able to attend. Too bad. I met Sven Robinson last night and he was very nice. I also saw John Baird and heard him speak this morning. The Canadian delegation is starting to respond to the negative attention they have been getting and Baird's speech this morning was very benign.