Australia awarded Fossil of the Day at UN Climate Talks for Trying to Reconvene Flat Earth Society
June 10 2014, Bonn – Germany: CAN bestows the first Fossil Award of the Bonn UNFCCC negotiation session to Australia in recognition of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's stupendously brazen denial of the catastrophic risks posed by climate change in his effort to form an alliance of "like minded" countries opposed to action on climate change, already dubbed by some as a new "flat earth society."
News accounts report that the Minister has enjoined Canada in his new coalition and is reaching out to other countries including the UK and India "aiming to dismantle global moves to introduce carbon pricing."
CAN salutes the Abbott's commitment and consistency in his willful blindness to the catastrophic economic costs incurred by climate change.
He has also recently announced his intention to keep climate change out of the upcoming G20 talks hosted by Australia arguing that climate change is inappropriate because such talks are primarily about economics.
Prime Minister Abbott must have missed the IPCC memo which spells out that climate change is the economic problem facing our age – it's already costing us, but it doesn't cost the earth to save the world.
He is clearly looking for recognition of his visionary approach to climate change, and CAN is proud to be among the first to step out and congratulate his dedication to the fossilized past. [In case you were wondering – no, this isn't a joke. Abbott has really done this. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.]
Notes to Editors:
About CAN: The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 900 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 100 working to promote government and individual action to limit human induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org
About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their 'best' to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.
About the rays: CAN, gives out the 'Ray of The Day' award to the countries who are a ray of hope over the past days of negotiations at the UN climate change conference