I suppose this story qualifies as news, in the technical sense:
A legally binding accord to combat climate change "is not on the cards" at a December summit, because developing countries such as China, Brazil and India won't commit to it, according to U.S. negotiator Todd Stern.
What follows sounds more like fantasy:
With developing countries unlikely to commit to reducing greenhouse gases by set targets, the U.S. will push for non- binding agreements to slow global warming, which will eventually result in a comprehensive and binding deal, Stern, President Barack Obama's Special Envoy on Climate Change, told reporters in Johannesburg today.
Haven't we been on the "eventually" track for some time? (For more details of Stern's press briefing and actual quotes, see this Reuters dispatch.) And for those following the previous thread on climate journalism, just curious: is China, Brazil and India's intransigence a failure of communication, too? Oh, and on the inconvenient facts front, there's these latest "dirty" developments. Whose fault?
