Friends, there is much ado in Copenhagen. The problems of global warming are being discussed by a variety of people.

On one side there are the scientists and the folk who want something done about greenhouse gases. On the other side of the equations are the vested interests who make mega-bucks out of selling fossil fuels. The latter group have lots of money. They pull lots of political strings. They are masters of duplicity. You don’t believe me?

Then let’s take the cigarette manufacturers. For years they knew the link between cancer of the throat and lungs, heart attacks, and smoking. Did they care? Of course not! They joined together and procrastinated, lied, spread red herrings, funded pro-smoking scientists, anything but admit that their products were death-dealing.

Eventually, because of urging by medical experts and because successful legal suits were brought against them by cancer afflicted folk, they began to admit that their products were not only habit forming but a danger to health. Did they stop making cigarettes? Of course not. Instead they brought out products that were supposed to be less harmful, had less nicotine. Did these products lessen the health risks? Of course not.

Then Governments, who are supposed to have a duty of care towards their citizens, reluctantly began to act to stop the advertising that glamorized smoking and made cigarette packets show health warnings. Did this deter the cigarette companies?

Of course not! They began marketing to teenagers and gave away free cigarettes. And they moved to overseas countries where the people, billions of them, weren’t educated and flogged their filthy products to their gullible citizens all the time knowing that their products are potential killers.

The result: WHO has just announced that 94% of the world’s people are not protected against the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. The WHO report found that tobacco control remains severely underfunded, with 173 times as many dollars collected worldwide in tobacco taxes each year than are spent trying to get people to stop smoking. So this is another problem: Governments collect huge amounts of tax from the sale of cigarettes even though they continue kill people. Where then is their incentive to stop people smoking?

Now you may ask: what has this got to do with Copenhagen? Well, Governments collects lots of taxes from corporations that use fossil fuels and from the sale of things like petroleum and automobiles. Do you think therefore that Governments will be keen to close down the fossil fuel industries who, like the cigarette companies, are selling legal products?

And do you think that the corporations that sell and promote the products that derive from fossil fuels are going to find a conscience and put their profits last and concern for the world’s environment and its people first? Fat chance!

Don’t be too hopeful about Copenhagen, friends. Don’t expect much to change.

Greed drives our world, not conscience!