Copenhagen’s Grand Finale

Image courtesy of Flickr user Greenpeace Finland

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Friday is the last day of the Copenhagen climate talks, and the success of the conference could all come down to one tiny number: half a degree Celsius. While 102 countries have called for a limit on temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the most powerful nations refuse to back down from a 2 degree target. But when a leaked document revealed that proposed emissions target weren’t even in the ballpark of limiting warming to 2 degrees, all that squabbling over half a degree seemed a little silly. So is it possible that Bill McKibben and his team over at 350.org were right all along?

Amidst all the fuss, noted climate change denialist James Inhofe graced the Bella Center with his presence on Thursday. The former chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committeee had previously planned to bring an entire “Truth Squad” of GOP lawmakers to the climate summit. But in the end all he brought was himself and a gaggle of press handlers who told each reporter in the room that the senator was in town and later delivered a printed copy of his talking points.

Follow the last crucial hours of the Copenhagen talks here.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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