As ministers, representatives, and journalists from around the world gather in Copenhagen to discuss climate change, rental car firms are having difficulty providing enough limos to meet the demand:
The local airport is expecting so many private jets that there will be no room to park them; the jets will have to fly to Sweden or other regional sites and then return later for their passengers.
Link. Photo credit.
Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "We're having to drive them in hundreds of miles from Germany and Sweden."
And the total number of electric cars or hybrids among that number? "Five," says Ms Jorgensen.
The local airport is expecting so many private jets that there will be no room to park them; the jets will have to fly to Sweden or other regional sites and then return later for their passengers.
Link. Photo credit.
Apparently - It's Canada.
I guess Monty Python had it right all along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhw8DFSGzvg
the whole thing is great, but the relevant part starts at 2:38
this article inspired a thought experiment.
imagine a mysterious disease that strikes down every scientist, engingeer, and techinician that works on CPU design and production. The world would slip into chaos, economies would teeter on the brink, and it might take decades to recover from such an event as knowledgeable people from other people rushed in to try to fill the void.
Now, imagine every muckety muck "decision maker", politician, staffer, etc... was pureed by some mysterious force. There would be a brief hiccup in the operation of the world, but the void would fill in a relative instant with another set of people equally competent (or incompetent).
Again, I'm not defending these guys, but I think it might be a little more complicated than how this story portrays it. If you were in North or South America, and had to go to Copenhagen with a large group, how would YOU handle it?
Perhaps in the future these types of meetings could be done over video conferencing?
I'm sure they'll all go home and pay someone to plant a tree that will die in two years.
I'd take a group of them in my 20-person private jet, instead of flying in it alone. Or, use these strange things called 'commercial flights', rather than create a new flight with all of it's new pollution. Either way, I'd then take the same group from the airport in a chartered bus. There's no reason to take 20 private planes and twenty cars of any type when the same group of people can get from the same place to the same place in 1 plane and 1 wheeled vehicle. And yes, alot of people will end up on a similar route, at least in part. Most from the US, for example, end up in NY, and go from there to London, then to Copenhagen.
A big conference will cause more pollution than if the conference didn't take place, but there are very easy ways to minimize that pollution. If these anti-pollution, pro-environment people were that serious, they'd find a way to minimize, but many simply refuse. Many of them are green to look good, not help the Earth. Not all, of course, but far too many.
If a convicted killer tells you not to murder someone, his hypocrisy on the subject does not validate the murder, any more than a large carbon footprint at a climate change conference shows that global warming is a myth.
"The airport says it is expecting up to 140 extra private jets during the peak period alone, so far over its capacity that the planes will have to fly off to regional airports – or to Sweden – to park, returning to Copenhagen to pick up their VIP passengers."
If that happened, each of those jobs would be filled by limo drivers from India, and they would probably be just as competent then their predecessor. I'm also curious about what this "mysterious force" you're referring to could be.
@CM
I probably will have to agree with you on this one. Limousine can just mean a taxi service that charges a flat rate instead of a distance charge, and probably only so many of them being stretch ones. But even though, 1,200 is excessive.
@Zero
Great vid, thanx! I think the whole thing was pretty relevent concidering the comments and the topic.
I have to say this article was interesting though http://ketiva.com/Environment/so_what_is_the_climate_like_in_copenhagen.html