Blog & news round-up 12/4: Shakespeare on COP15, Byrd goes rogue on coal, "SwiftHack" and more

After a long weekend that allowed us to recharge our batteries, spend time with friends and relatives, and gorge on leftovers, we came back to another busy week on the climate front. The biggest news by far: Copenhagen. Climate activists around the world are anxious to find out it world leaders will summon the political will to agree on a strong climate treaty -- or at least a political agreement that will set the stage for one sooner rather than later. Grist has some excellent articles previewing the summit, but this one by Jonathan Hiskes grabbed my attention; it's not often that you see Shakespeare's name attached to climate:

Is indecisiveness the tragic flaw of our world leaders? Fiddling while Rome burns and all that? Shakespeare’s too rich for such a simplistic reading. It was a ghost who told Hamlet his uncle was a murderer, after all. Not the most reliable source. A single flaw doesn’t explain Hamlet, and I’m not sure it explains our climate predicament.

Speaking of Copenhagen, 1Sky campaign director Gillian Caldwell will attend the conference on our behalf -- and she'll be blogging, tweeting, and providing all kinds of updates from Denmark. Check our Copenhagen blog page next week for updates from Gillian and other guest bloggers.

Climate deniers and other assorted right-wing conspiracy theorists have been pushing the climate scientists email hacking story all week, trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. Thankfully, we're now seeing some much needed debunking. Huffington Post created one of its trademark slideshows that lets you vote for the six most dubious claims surrounding this sorry episode:

The verdict on global warming is in -- it's caused by humans and it is happening and nothing in the emails challenges that. However, with the internet abuzz about what has been labeled "ClimateGate," we thought we should set the record straight about the rumors, lies and insinuations about what the emails actually contain -- and what they "prove" about climate change. "ClimateGate" itself is a misnomer. Perhaps the nickname should be "SwiftHack" for the way people with political agendas have "swiftboated" the global warming reality.

Via Yale Environment 360, file this under the "man bites dog" category:

U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat and longtime supporter of coal mining, has delivered an unexpectedly strong message to the coal industry, chastising its leaders for ignoring the reality of climate change and rebuking what he called a strategy of “fear mongering, grandstanding and outrage” to protect the state’s mountaintop mining industry.

The ninety-two-year-old senator isn't exactly known as a champion of climate legislation, which makes the statement all the more surprising. You can listen to an MP3 of the piece that the Senator recorded; here are some excerpts:

To be part of any solution, one must first acknowledge a problem. To deny the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand and say “deal me out.” West Virginia would be much smarter to stay at the table.

Most people understand that America cannot meet its current energy needs without coal, but there is strong bi-partisan opposition in Congress to the mountaintop removal method of mining it. We have our work cut out for us in finding a prudent and profitable middle ground – but we will not reach it by using fear mongering, grandstanding and outrage as a strategy. As your United States Senator, I must represent the opinions and the best interests of the entire Mountain State, not just those of coal operators and southern coalfield residents who may be strident supporters of mountaintop removal mining.

On Wednesday, 150 youth climate leaders (including 1Sky's Jason Kowalski) were invited to the White House to participate in a Clean Energy Forum -- and according to climate activist Morgan Goodwin blogging at Daily Kos, the experience says a lot about how far the climate movement has come:

A little more than two years ago, a nervous and exuberant Energy Action Coalition gathered 5,000+ youth in DC for Powershift07.  Van Jones rallied us with, ‘remember, remember, the 5th of November...’ and we raised some eyebrows in DC.  But mostly, we sparked the feeling of a movement in a whole new circle of leaders: young people who went home with a sense of urgency and a sense of the plan.

Two years later, a huge youth election campaign, another Powershift, 100 coal plant permits denied and a lot of green jobs created, a small selection of an amazing movement of people were welcomed to the White House as partners in crafting the clean energy future WE want to see.

The nations most endangered by climate change continue to come up with creative ways to raise awareness of their endangerment to the rest of the world. First we had the government of the Maldives hold a cabinet meeting underwater, and now it's Nepal's turn:

Nepal's top politicians strapped on oxygen tanks Friday and held a Cabinet meeting amid Mount Everest's frigid, thin air to highlight the danger global warming poses to glaciers, ahead of next week's international climate change talks.

The government billed the stunt as the world's highest Cabinet meeting. The ministers, wearing yellow oxygen masks and purple sashes reading, "Save the Himalayas," sat at folding tables set up on a plateau with the snow-capped peak of Everest behind them.

Here's a video from Al Jazeera English about the climate plight Nepal is facing (including lots of Nepalese mountain eye candy):

Got any other must-read stories? Share them in the comments!