Too Little, Too Late and Too Brown

The executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change made a remarkable gaffe today, stating that global warming should be limited to half a degree below the target which the world is already on schedule to miss. Christiana Figueres claimed that she had the support of some small islands, Africans and so forth which are likely to disappear when sea levels rise and resources become more profitable. Hence, her remarks are "likely to cause consternation", and even more likely to cause a good bit of smirking and sniggering, among the more advanced economies, including the one now prospering under its greenest government ever. Not only is Figueres putting the interests of some little brown people above those of hard-working shareholders and their children; if she isn't careful she could be seen as giving credence to the findings of mere scientists, rather than market forces or Sarah Palin.