Fast words on warming; snail's pace on whales (BBC Earth Watch blog)

[eppur_se_muova]

On Monday, I trailed a couple of meetings taking place this week that I suggested might have a significant impact on environmental issues: the climate conference supported by the Danish government taking place in Copenhagen, and the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) meeting in Rome.

At the end of the week, I want to look back at both and try to distil some of the themes emerging and what they might mean. But to be honest, with the climate conference, I'm going to need your help.

I'll come to that in a moment - first, let me deal with the whaling meeting.

The context, as regular readers of this blog will know, is the "peace process" instigated more than a year ago by the IWC's chair, Bill Hogarth, which is attempting to find a "compromise package" of reforms that both pro- and anti-whaling countries could see as a step forward.

Dr Hogarth's original aim was to agree the package at the main IWC meeting in Madeira in June. A preliminary document was drafted earlier in the year, and the Rome gathering was a kind of "where are we up to now and what do people think of it so far?" kind of affair.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/richardblack/2009/03/at_the_beginning_of_the.html

[chrisjones198]

1. Narling

Imagine the damage that could happen with those 2 boat colliding. I don't that was the smartest move. People could have of easily been tipped over board, or the boat could have sunk.