With only four months to go before the most important meeting this year for the future of the world, dangerous new things are happening to our fragile planet. In various parts of the world, rain that brings livelihood, food and life to billions is coming too early, too late or not at all. And US scientists warned this week that the world faces record-breaking temperatures in the next few years as the sun's activity increases.
Staring into the face of global warming on a huge scale, the world's politicians have certainly begun to talk the talk - witness the promises by US President Barack Obama, timid actions by China, and a public spat in New Delhi between visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh.
But they have not begun to walk the walk, not even baby steps. In Copenhagen, in early December, environment ministers are supposed to agree on a successor deal to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The way things are going, they have as much chance as a snowman surviving a Saudi Arabian summer.
A study this week by researchers from the US Naval Research Laboratory and Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies suggests the earth has been enjoying a cool spring and that, in the next five years, temperatures will rise to 150 per cent of the rate predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Blame is going round faster than a game of pass the parcel with a bomb in it. China and India say that the already-rich industrialised countries caused the mess and they should pay more and do more. The rich countries say that China alone is pumping out greenhouse gases at such a furious rate that it could kill the planet before the end of the century. Europeans squabble among themselves, with special industrial interests pleading that they should be spared from sacrifice and job cuts even if the planet is doomed.
Here in Asia, Japan timidly proposes 8 per cent cuts. Growing prosperous, countries in Southeast Asia build sprawling gated communities that are several kilometres from the nearest public transport to town. India proudly unveils a people's car so that every family can have its own personal planet killer that pumps out gases while sitting in traffic jams because there aren't enough roads. Hong Kong does its pathetic best to play the game by passing a law on a 50-cent plastic bag levy.
Steven Chu, the US environment secretary, deserves a dishonourable mention for claiming it was politically impossible for the government to impose fuel taxes to make motorists pay the same prices Europeans do. Doesn't he understand that the days of US$5, maybe US$10, a gallon will surely come sooner rather than later as oil prices are driven up with every passing rumour of economic recovery?
