From Brendan McDonald.
I JUST can’t help thinking that there is an awful lot of hypocrisy surrounding the Climate Change Convention in Copenhagen.

According to the Irish Independent newspaper, whose correspondent was covering the convention, most of the 16,000 delegates travelled there by air, and he reported counting 25 private jets parked in a compound marked ‘delegates only’, which goes to show how much they care about their carbon footprint.

Then there was the farcical situation when the delegates agreed not to impose any sanctions on China and India, saying it would be unfair on developing countries, so they gave them a free rein to carry on increasing greenhouse emissions.

So what’s going on there? Are they having a laugh? Since when, I wonder, has China been a developing country?

According to that country’s own diplomats, they have one of the most progressive economies in the world. They are buying up most of the world’s coal and industrial machinery and their factory chimneys are pumping out poisonous fumes 24 hours a day.

Do the other delegates think that these clouds of rubbish stand still over China? Of course not – they drift around the world, polluting the rest of us.
Other disturbing aspects of this convention are the so-called green protesters whose only aim wherever they go is to smash up government buildings and bring chaos to the unfortunate citizens of whichever city they travel to on the pretext of saving the planet.

How many of these tree huggers and so-called environmentalists would have the courage to travel to China or India and smash up one of their cities? I thought the idea was to protest at pollution of our planet, not to put the fear of God into innocent citizens.

If the other countries have given China and India their blessing to carry on polluting, it would be like calling out the fire service when your house and your neighbour’s house are on fire and you tell the firemen not to bother about your house but save the one next door.

These ‘save the planet’ conventions are like our election hustings – they talk a lot and do nothing. So I ask our politicians to stop picking on us to do more to save the planet. We’re the good guys. No one is more caring about the environment than the citizens of our little Island.