LET'S BE HONEST: COP26 WAS AN UTTER FAILURE!!!

                           From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732         1185        246       82

July    22     1205     7128         1293      1120     572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242        835     130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136       1168       82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571        703       85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620        518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748       1224       299      465

Jan     14       4142     15512        1151        189      712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

Mar     2        1989      9490        1726       110      194

April   6          906     11787         4211       631       37

May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 

June   1         287    10637         2346      3205       95

 July   7          251      8440        1595        817       411

Aug    4          656    10120        1118         532      423 

Sept   1        1480    10470          703        505      235

          8        1700      9836          250        339     253

        14        1934      9001          709        281      300

        22       2228      9326          839        279      124

        29        2190      8859         643        309     108

Oct    5        1811       7495          686        285     103

          6        2102       8255         543        315       59

        12        1819        7544          201        249       37 

        19        2005      7528         401        160        80 

        26        1451       7535         409        584       53

        27        1594       8671         433        734        62 

Nov   3        1436       7830        186        458        23

        10        1493      8366         264        362        48 

        16        1282      7548          140         301        15

Summary:  as always, let's see what those numbers look like tomorrow.

1. At the closing of COP26, delegates released a draft of the final agreement that highlights more key differences than common agreements; indeed, projected warming is 1.8C if each country keeps its promises, and 2.7C if nations stick with their policies currently in place. As projected by AES, the main disagreement is between SDG 7 and SDG 13. For instance, India was able to amend the final treaty to read "phase down" coal instead of "phase out."

Wordsmithing will dominate the headlines about the UN Climate Change Conference just held in Glasgow.  For example, NPR reported that at COP26, nations strike a climate deal with coal compromise.  The reality was that this was a seriously watered-down version of what it should have been.  But then, didn't the U.S. and China, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitters, reach a private agreement?  Words do not mean much.

The top-3 largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world: China United States Concrete

While indeed it was impressive that 197 countries sent representatives, leaders of Russia, China, Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Mexico found reasons to avoid the gathering.  Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he might not even want to send anyone because of pandemic restrictions and cost.  That actually seems warranted, but President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil chose not to go because he is more like Donald Trump, and has become an environmental offender.

Incidentally, of the 20,000 participants in Glasgow (plus another 20,000 involved virtually), more than 500 attendees were from the fossil fuel industry.  Of course well represented were the World Petroleum Council and the World Coal Council.  The nuclear industry also made a good showing and felt that the proceedings of COP26 went well.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said:  It is an important step but is not enough.  We must accelerate climate action.  Further, it is time to go into an emergency mode by ending fossil fuel subsidies, phase out coal, put a price on carbon and agree to a $100 billion commitment.  None of this occurred.  COP26 Alok Sharma had tears when the last-minute compromised coal pact used phase down, and not phase out, at the insistence of China and India.

Say catastrophic hurricanes and even more serious wildfires plague the world during the summer of 2022.  Will COP27 from November 7-18, 2022 take more meaningful steps?  I can't imagine so, for the location will be Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt.  This is a developing country with no environmental leadership.

Well, then, what about 2023 for COP28?  It was very recently announced that Dubai will host.  Prime Minister Sheikh Mohhammed bin Rashid al-Maktou, said:  We will put all our capabilities to make the conference a success.  The UAE will remain committed to global climate action to protect the planet.

Here are supposedly the 15 higher education institutions in the U.S. taking this environmental issue most seriously.  (click on each to see what they're doing) - University Spotlight - ​​​​​​ - The 15 most sustainable colleges and universities in the US:

College of the Atlantic Dickinson College UC Santa Cruz Chatham University Bates College

Emory University  Cornell University  Colorado State University SUNY — ESF UC Santa Barbara

Stanford University UC Berkeley University of San Diego Loyola Marymount University UC Merced

It has been 26 years since COP1 in Berlin. These global climate change representatives are the most traveled citizens of the world.  I belonged to several subject areas dealing with ocean resources and renewable energy, and really, we're all the same.  Somehow, most of us get grant money or organizations to subsidize these trips.  This is mostly why I'm heading for 3 million miles on Star Alliance.

I'll end with two elephant videos:

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