December 8, 2009

Report From Copenhagen

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Kate Sheppard reports from the Copenhagen climate conference:

In the early days of the Copenhagen summit….ClimateGate seems to be the main topic of interest for many of the 5,000 journalists here. I’ve been quizzed about it on several television programs, and yesterday I spotted British climate change denier Lord Christopher Monckton dishing on the affair to a gaggle of avid journalists. Scientists and leaders at the summit are being bombarded with questions about the “controversy.”

Ugh.  The first few days of the conference are probably sort of boring, so I suppose it was almost inevitable that ClimateGate would get a lot of attention from bored reporters.  But maybe there’s a bright side to this.  After all, right now Copenhagen is ground zero for real live climate experts who can explain in extensive detail why ClimateGate is a nothingburger on the science front.  So at least it gives journalists a good chance to figure out what it’s really all about.  Plus it’s probably good to let them get this out of their system early so that they’re ready to concentrate on more serious stuff by the time the conference nears its climax.

There’s more on Copenhagen from Kate and David Corn, our reporters on the spot, over at our Blue Marble blog.  Check it out.  In addition to our own blogging, the right-hand column has a real-time feed of Copenhagen reporting from other sources that should keep you up to date on everything that’s going on.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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