Thursday, May 28, 2009

Did you ever wonder...

why there are so many climate conferences held all over the world? They tell us to start restricting and eliminating unnecessary travel- buy local produce that doesn't have to be trucked in, take public transportation or bike in to work- or better still, work from home via computer. And for God's sake, stop all that wasteful business travel- telecommute, video conference, twitter your customers! And yet, all the climate change brass hats jet all over the world non-stop, holding conferences in distant lands- why?

Politiken.DK provides the answer- the whole story is contained in the headlines: Climate conference sex boom
Copenhagen’s sex trade did brisk business during the recent business climate conference.


This suggests a new tactic for political activists, less expense than campaign contributions, and potentially far more effective: I call it "Lysistrata by proxy". All you have to do is target the conferences, seminars, and summit meetings of your special interest, arrive the day before they do, and pay all the prostitutes to stay home and watch TV during the summit meeting. Be it a climate conference or a G-20 meeting, I'm guessing they'll get bored by the second day, pass the agenda in a voice vote, and rush home to their regular mistresses... after resolving to video conference next time instead!

2 comments:

Diggitt said...

Oh, I am SO glad someone [else] said this. One of our noisiest local climate activists has been to Egypt, India, and Thailand for long stretches of time in the last three years (a trip a year). She rides a bike around the village, which is cool, and walks through the line of cars waiting at the train station excoriating the drivers for idling, which is not cool. She appears before the village board regularly ranting about our recycling program and coming this close to saying that the village manager is lying when he quotes our (reasonably) impressive stats.

There are times when someone's ignorance can be used as a teachable moment. A few years ago, the electricians' union cohosted a really good workshop about climate activism and they had all sorts of whole-grain-type snacks. Including apples from Washington state, when here we are a two-hour drive from New York state's apple industry. They never thought about that local food before -- but they will next time, you betcha.

Toonhead said...

Great post.