November 27, 2023

Where is the courage? Where is the leadership?

"President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s schedule, did not give a reason...."


I'm seeing this immediately after blogging a NYT article about how young people are not supporting Biden. That article didn't even mention climate change. It guessed that maybe young people are more likely to worry about Biden's advanced age or disapprove of his support for Israel. But what about climate change? Don't young people (and other people) want to see Biden take a strong stand on climate? And here he is opting out of an event with Pope Francis and King Charles and many other leaders. 

And he's not even saying why. Is he afraid of looking frail and confused within that group or is worried — are his people worried — about needing to commit to anything at all?

The NYT gives us a quote from John Kerry. Did you remember he's Biden’s special envoy for climate change? Kerry, ever eloquent, said: "They’ve got the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on."

I'd like to see Biden say he's not going because of the absurd carbon footprint — all these leaders flying to Dubai or wherever every damned year to say the same damned thing, that we need to reduce our carbon footprint. But he's just hunkering down, as usual. Where is the courage? Where is the leadership?

66 comments:

narciso said...

Youre soaking in the scam

Leland said...

Why I’d love anybody in leadership to point out the climate change “leadership” hypocrisy; Biden would never do it. Trump would, and probably Vivek and RFK Jr. Otherwise, the whole game is an excuse to go skiing in Davos, gambling (and catch the final F1 race) in Dubai, and attract young people for donors and diplomats to exploit. They don’t give a damn about the issue beyond it giving them an excuse and power to abuse.

Enigma said...

Saint Greta of Thunberg came out as a hard supporter of Palestine, and now favors Nazi symbolism (blue octopus). She's perhaps naïve about how the world works and how all cultures lack moral purity, and she inadvertently revealed deeper ideological troubles in the climate activist ranks. China supporters? Cast the Uyghurs aside? Free pass on burning coal?

The blind anti-Trump left painted itself into a corner with contradictory moral authorities, so something must break.

Skeptical Voter said...

So he's not going to go to a useless talking shop. When Slow Joe flew out to California for a meeting with the Chinese President, it took some 30 C-17 cargo ship flights to get all of the Presidential clobber to San Francisco. That's a lot of jet exhaust. And there will be a lot of verbal exhaust in Dubai. No reason to add more to it.

So that's one reason not to go, and I'll applaud Joe for allowing his handlers to make the decision. Of course the other reason is that the old geezer isn't up to making the trip, so there is that.

Dave Begley said...

In my forthcoming slide at the Omaha Public Power District Board meeting, I will point out that right now carbon dioxide is 0.045% of the atmosphere and that, of that tiny amount, only 0.05% is produced by humans.

There is no climate crisis. CAGW is the biggest scam in the history of the world.

The Pope, in particular, is a complete disgrace. What's Catholic Church attendance in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Ireland? He should do his job and re-convert Europe.

The Vatican is just another corrupt leftwing institution.

rehajm said...

Even the Biden administration has abandoned RCP 6.5 which is ‘faulty’ science to be generous. These euro creeps still rely on it. Frankly the no show from Biden is leadership in a sense…

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Where is the courage? Where is the leadership?

NOT in our present White House or its occupants. Why are we paying John Kerry to impersonate a Cabinet level official? All he does is emit carbon and nonsense. How 'bout "defund the climate idiots" for a change?

I'll tell you just noncourageous old slow Joe is. He privately apologized to the leaders of American Muslim organizations two weeks ago. For what, you may wonder. For "questioning Hamas's death totals in Gaza." Yes the same Gaza that claimed Israeli airstrikes killed two hostages that Hamas subsequently released alive to their families.

That's how "courageous" our puppet in chief is.

Ice Nine said...

Biden's courage is found exclusively in his absurd tough guy posturing.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Frankly the no show from Biden is leadership in a sense…

One might say "leading from behind" or in absentia.

Mr Wibble said...

And he's not even saying why. Is he afraid of looking frail and confused within that group or is worried — are his people worried — about needing to commit to anything at all?

Embrace the healing power of "and."

He will look obviously weak and confused, and there's a risk that Biden will shoot his mouth off and make promises that are politically unpleasant, while also requiring the US to walk back at some point.

narciso said...

Hes a qatari stooge the ones who enabled the kabul takeover and the simshah massacre

Wilbur said...

Maybe he dosen't want to be asked at a climate summit about that gas stove visible in Kamala's kitchen in her Thanksgiving message on Twitter.

How inconvenient.

narciso said...

https://www.dossier.today/p/biden-admin-wef-gates-officials-to

Wince said...

"President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit..."

Althouse said...
Where is the courage? Where is the leadership?

Paraphrasing Clara Peller, where's the tofu?

Ice Nine said...
Biden's courage is found exclusively in his absurd tough guy posturing.

Ditto that.

rcocean said...

Oh God, Climate change. The subject that makes "Infasturcture" seem exciting. I'm reading the bio of Romney, and it quotes Mitt's personal journal from November 2018. Mittens is all excitied to get into the Senate and work on IMPORTANT TOPICS and CHANGE THINGS. And what were those important topics to Mittens?

The deficit
Immigration Reform (aka Amnesty)
Fighting CLimate change
Compensation for College Athletes
Cutting Social Security and Medicare
Chinese Currency Manipulation.

Like John Kerry and AL gore, Mittens was massively butt hurt over Trump withdrawing from the Paris Accords.

robother said...

When you're afraid of being shown up by the likes of Good King Chuck and Bad Pope Frank, it really says something. I note that, despite whatever greenhouse gasses he's not emitting by refraining from Dubai, he is jetting off to exotic Pueblo and Denver CO this week.

Big Mike said...

Anthropogenic Global Warming is, and always has been, a mechanism for robbing from the poor and middle class to give to the already filthy rich.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Climate scam meeting you mean. We're told we're in a climate crisis. What's the crisis? Is it the melting Artic, Antarctic, and Greenland glaciers? Nope. The polar ice extent and coverage is within the historical range. Greenland is gaining ice volume, not melting away. How about the coming European inferno? Nope, try again. Europe has both warm and cold spells. That's called weather.

I know what it is! It's the accelerating sea level rise predictions! Wrong again. Sea level is rising at about 1-ft/century. These accelerating sea level rise predictions are using higher-order polynomial fits to predict the future. Any engineer can tell you such predictions are bogus unless the underlining data shows a strong nonlinearity and is backed up by theory. To take a weak nonlinearity and use that to predict the future is just misleading.

I'll believe it's a crisis when the climate doomsdayers start acting like it's a crisis. Virtual meetings instead of hundreds of private jets flying into a 5-star resort city. It's just party time for useless parasites of the world. That includes Joe "China owns me!" Biden.

rcocean said...

Genocide Joe has NEVER been a "Courageous leader" on anything. He's no more Courageous than Obama or John McCain or Romney. Every Position he takes is fully supported by the MSM and the big donors. Like Nancy, Mitch, and Chuck he'd die for Israel, and cries at the sight of Israeli flag (especially when there's a dollar bill attached to it).

He loves big corporations, globalization, cheap immigrant labor, and broke the Railroad workers strike, and only supported the UAW for Optics. He spent an hour on the picket line before jetting off to the house of Billionaire in Lake Tahoe.

WHatever happened to that Campaign rhetoric about jobs, income inequality, or National Health care? All gone.

He makes Obama look like a man of conviction. The emptiest of empty suits.

Paul said...

Trump in 2024.... Damn the mean tweets and full speed ahead. For Biden sinks to high heaven in so many ways. The USA just can't take another 4 years of that senile crook.

minnesota farm guy said...

Ann's questions are apt for all circumstances surrounding Biden. He shows no courage or leadership and look where that has led us. I am still convinced that, through some blunder, we will have troops in Ukraine.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Althouse answers perennial "Where is the outrage"?

or

Althouse tries outrage.

Roger Sweeny said...

@ Dave Begley -- if 0.05% of 0.045% of your body was arsenic, you would be dead. Small percentages can make a big difference.

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming may be a scam. Some warming is not going to be catastrophic. But it is really, really hard to deny that there has been significant warming (see e.g., the satellite records at https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/).

The question is what to do about it. Banning gas stoves is not going to be very helpful.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Climate scientist Judith Curry bravely says climate change isn't a “crisis.”

I believe it is a problem but not the existential crisis it is made out to be.

Dagwood said...

Seems like the world's elites are attending climate summits almost as often as they're declaring yet another month for the observance of one or more segments of the sexually confused.

Michael K said...

Maybe more and more people are figuring out that "Climate Change" is a hoax perpetrated by government funding of climate research.

Kevin said...

Althouse: Where is the courage? Where is the leadership?

Peppermint Patty: What kind of Thanksgiving dinner is this? Where's the turkey, Chuck? Don't you know anything about Thanksgiving dinners? Where's the mashed potatoes? Where's the cranberry sauce? Where's the pumpkin pie?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The American Conservative web site had a very clear answer to Althouse's query: "American troops are needlessly risking life and limb because of policy paralysis and lack of political courage," reads the sub-head of the article titled Our National Disgrace in Iraq and Syria. But really, throw in the country of Iran and the waters of the Persian Gulf along with the two countries named, because Joe's lack of action and spine is a disgrace everywhere.

jaydub said...

To paraphrase a famous professor emeritus: Doing nothing is a high bar. And I would add, particularly when it comes to global scams and doubly so when Joe is involved.

The Crack Emcee said...

Biden Support CRATERING as Youth Voters CONDEMN Israel Policy

Breezy said...

If Joe doesn’t go, and that’s courageous, then repealing the $400B slush fund for China and other thieves created in the Inflation Reduction Act would be super-courageous. Do it, Joe. Don’t be courageous by inaction. And fire John Kerry.

I’m so tired of being ripped off by these thugs.

pwa31953 said...

I cannot think of two more worthless world "leaders" than Francis and Charles.

n.n said...

really hard to deny that there has been significant warming (see e.g., the satellite records at https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/).

The question is what to do about it.


A fraction of a degree. The question is attribution, whether greening is good, whether the warming is bad, is it a progressive condition, and why the diverse conclusions of the "consensus" and model support have failed to materialize.

iowan2 said...

If I'm looking into chaotic scientific theory, I know I have to look in on the Pope and King Charles. Where are the real experts though? No teenage austic person to weigh in?
What has science come to?

Seriously.
Nations across the globe are backing away from a theory that collapses on itself under the weight of simple arithmetic.

When the light bringer himself is investing $100 million on sea side homes, I operate under the dictate, that I will think its an emergency when the people tell me its an emergency, back up their words with actions. Kerry jetting about the globe, working the Long Con, exposes the carnival like seriousness of all the climate lies.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

11/27/23, 10:34 AM
Blogger Roger Sweeny said...
@ Dave Begley -- if 0.05% of 0.045% of your body was arsenic, you would be dead. Small percentages can make a big difference.

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming may be a scam. Some warming is not going to be catastrophic. But it is really, really hard to deny that there has been significant warming (see e.g., the satellite records at https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/).

The question is what to do about it. Banning gas stoves is not going to be very helpful.

11/27/23, 10:41 AM

CO2 is not a pollutant, it's plant food and required for our health. Arsenic is a heavy metal and people die of heavy metal poisoning. The optimum level for plants is 1,000 ppmv; plants die when it falls below 150 ppmv. Current levels are about 420 ppmv.

The global warming scam was sold to the public beginning in 1988. It was sold as some kind of volume control for temperature. That theory died during the late 90s when the earth stopped warming. The volume controlled turned into a tweeter control.

More CO2 is supposed to vastly absorb more infrared radiation. Only problem with that theory is water vapor and CO2 absorbtion overlap and at current levels (420 ppmv), CO2 absorbtion of IR is already saturated. Doubling the CO2 concentration would cause about a 1% increase in IR absorbtion.

Climate models don't match reality. Temperatures have been increasing at about 0.13C/decade. The average of the models predict 0.35C/decade with a vast range of predicted rates. The models assume solar effects are not significant but past temperature records cannot be explained by CO2 alone. Ever here of the Little Ice Age during the Maunder sunspot minimum?

Banning gas stoves is nothing but an effort to restrict our choices of cooking methods. The same applies to banning gas/diesel cars. We have a name for that kind of mentality: fascism.

Dave Begley said...

Vivek says the reason people are attracted to climatism is because they have a "hole in their hearts" and fill it with this junk. Or TikTok. Or drugs.

The Pope should know that.

I get my theology from a Hindu who went to a Jesuit high school.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

But it is really, really hard to deny that there has been significant warming

LOL no it's not. I deny it all day long because without NOAA changing the historical record and including "phantom measurements" that they plainly say are "estimates" from weather stations that have been closed for years if not decades, there would be no "proof" at all for you to cite. Oceans are not warming. Ice caps come and go as before. Sea levels have not risen catastrophically. There has NOT been "significant warming," even using generous interpretations of significant. Moreover, the historical record as told through ice cores shows that CO2 is a lagging indicator of warming. That is, throughout our Earth's history CO2 levels have increased as a result of warming, not as a causal factor. Without fake stats and unreliable modeling, the warmist fanatics would have no evidence at all, which is why they are becoming ever more frantic in their screeching about emergencies.

They just want emergency POWER to do things to our economy that we would not stand for without a national panic. Too bad. The only ones panicking are the Chicken Littles of the Climate Apocalypse. Go find another hobby horse to ride. Or at least make John Kerry use one of those electric airplanes that takes 16 days to get from Vermont to Florida. You know, to set a good example for the rest of us for a change instead of "polluting" (using your definition) the planet more than the rest of us.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Perhaps people are tiring of the Climate change BS.

btw- all those ugly windmills visually polluting our environment?

the huge gear-boxes over-heat - and it's a huge problem.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"And he's not even saying why. Is he afraid of looking frail and confused within that group"

This. And it's only going to get worse.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Dave Begley said..."In my forthcoming slide at the Omaha Public Power District Board meeting, I will point out that right now carbon dioxide is 0.045% of the atmosphere and that, of that tiny amount, only 0.05% is produced by humans. "

Friendly word of advice from a scientist who does not believe global warming and climate change are anywhere near a crisis: this is not a strong argument, Dave. Especially the first part.

Whiskeybum said...

Figureheads King Charles and Pope Francis are in no way ‘leaders’ in the so-called Climate Crisis debate - they are only people privileged to have large bully pulpits from which to pronounce their mislead opinions on a subject neither have any real grasp of (see also Hollywood celebrities, journalists, Swedish teenagers, etc.)

Leland said...

the satellite records

Do you understand how the models that produce those records work? If you do, you still trust them?

n.n said...

Cast the Uyghurs aside? Free pass on burning coal?

Immigration reform in Tibet. Slavery and diversity in China. Environmental arbitrage is integral to the viability of the Green deal.

The "young" are backing Hamas's progress through murder, rape, torture, and diverse insurrections in a domestic Spring series a la SS BLM (not Babies), Antifa, Occupy, etc.

narciso said...

https://twitter.com/bhweingarten/status/1729198464620454136

n.n said...

Well, the "Greenhouse" effect is radiative, not thermal, and probabilistic, so concentration does affect its effectiveness to retard escape.

tim in vermont said...

Biden makes Reagan look like a liberal. Well, maybe that's because Reagan actually liked Americans, even his political opponents.

Skeptical Voter said...

I notice some of our commenters today are questioning Joe's "toughness". Well you are wrong. I have it on good authority (from Joe no less) that Corn Pop is still shivering in fear--he's worried about another beating by Joe. And Roger Staubach regrets taking Joe's position at quarterback at the Naval Academy. Joe would have stood up to the opponents pass rush better than Roger. And the guy who graduated #1 in Joe's class at Syracuse Law? He's glad that Joe backed off a bit on his academic effort. Joe overdid that--slipping to 76th out of 85--but he #1 guy appreciates Joe's efforts there.

tim in vermont said...

BTW, the "satellite record" started in the coldest decade of the past century, it was commonly accepted until the records began to be "adjusted" due to their disagreement with the models.

But let's play devil's advocate, and assume that the deeply flawed "Hockey Stick" is correct. Let's assume away the human caused warming said to have created the upward pointing "blade," and simply continue the curve on its centuries long downward trend, and keep in mind that we are living in a kind of period that over the past several million years, is a anomalous warm period, that usually only lasts a few thousand years, between brutal ice ages, the kind that would make a lot of North America and Europe completely unlivable. Our "interglacial" is actually getting kind of long in the tooth. Would you really want to live int the frozen world that was building before human caused warming reversed the trend?

You know what other species, well "kingdom" is more the term, mucks with CO2? That would be the plant kingdom, which has been sequestering CO2 for millions of years, since it evolved, and had it continued to sequester CO2, uninterrupted by the interventions of mankind, eventually the levels of CO2 would have gotten so low, that the plants would starve themselves, the same way yeast burns up all of the sugar in beer, killing itself. When this happens, the planet turns into a snowball.

Both the points I made above are logically unassailable, but you will simply shake your head and say to yourself, "I couldn't have been lied to, Tim must be wrong" even though you have no counterarguemtns but your faith in a media that lies to you about so much else, because, "dollars to donuts," as my dad used to say, you haven't read the "science," but rather have read the media, and reports put out by political organizations, re "climate.

narciso said...

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-deniability

JIM said...

Only 800 of the 1218 historical climate recording stations in the US(the largest network in the world) are still functioning, the temperature data for those roughly 400 stations not functioning are "estimated". And a majority of the still functioning temperature stations are in "heat islands". To say the "hottest year ever" propaganda is the biggest lie ever, is an understatement. Weather has always been unpredictable, chaotic, extreme, and uncontrollable.

Facts the lying climate hucksters don't want you to know.

Joe Smith said...

'And here he is opting out of an event with Pope Francis and King Charles and many other leaders.'

First, Charles is not a 'leader,' he's a figurehead.

Second, this is pretty amazing that Biden is staying home.

This is a meeting promoting core leftist bullshit, with everyone flying in on private jets with 10-20 car motorcades.

What's not to like?

They might even get a lecture from Greta, something that makes all leftists tingle IYKWIMAITYD...

Butkus51 said...

The piece that winds him up is broken.

Expect 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Real American said...

It's fitting for the Pope to attend such a high-profile religious event.

ga6 said...

Medical,,,the handlers don't think he can handle the flight and still stand up?

George said...

King Charles and Pope Francis are not leaders, they are figureheads and neither of them has a clue about science or the climate change scam

Big Mike said...

Figureheads King Charles and Pope Francis are in no way ‘leaders’ in the so-called Climate Crisis debate - they are only people privileged to have large bully pulpits from which to pronounce their mislead opinions on a subject neither have any real grasp of

@Whiskeybum, are you trying to imply that they are not financial beneficiaries of the AGW junk science?

Iman said...

“You’re soaking in the scam.”

narciso, Palmolive and Madge win the innernetz today!

gspencer said...

Real leadership would lead us/US out of the UN.

Iman said...

Biden couldn’t lead a panty raid. And that could be said about most of the Idiocrats’ “brain trust”.

Mutaman said...

Althouse

"or is worried — are his people worried — about needing to commit to anything at all?"

Typical Althouse space cadet comment.

n.n said...

The courage to hold a seance for science. Human rites, clinical Frankensteins, political congruence, medical mandates, fascism, female... feminine commodities, ... sure, why not.

Josephbleau said...

The greenhouse effect follows a logarithmic curve. So each new ton of CO2 makes a much smaller increase in temperature.

If you look in the fine print, the only way to get to a catastrophe is to exaggerate the side effects such as increased temp will create more hurricanes ad nausium, which Judith Curry tells us are not experimentally verified and theoretically difficult to justify.

You have to take Svante Arrhenius's CO2 theory of 1896 as a failed attempt to predict ice ages but it did provide wealth for politicians. His theory was dusted off to make a career for Michael E. Mann.

Josephbleau said...

"Typical Althouse space cadet comment. "

Mutate is a poltroon! Gauntlet is down. Blades at dawn. Remember, no one insults you accidentally.

walter said...

No ice cream. No sniffable girls.
No Joementia.

Brian said...

Banning gas stoves is nothing but an effort to restrict our choices of cooking methods.

Don't forget the profit motive in replacing old stoves.

As I always say driving through Illinois, someone owns the construction cone franchise for the state of Illinois. Must be a lucrative gig to have so many cones for miles and miles without any construction going on.