And They're Off !

Today the 15th Conference Of Parties (COP15) Summit on Climate Change has begun in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the next twelve days scientific and political representatives from 192 countries will discuss all aspects of Climate Change from the the science that proves it is real and is happening right through to ways of making sure that solutions to the problem are put into action. Ahead of the Summit America, China, India and South Africa have all indicated that they are willing to make economically significant cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions. This gives COP15 a unique opportunity to take a historical step in tackling the clearest threat to life on earth.

By an amazing coincidence Iran's so-called "Green Revolutionaries" have chosen today to re-start the anti-government protests that sprang up in June. Although the BBC are reporting widespread demonstrations across the country the only one I have seen independently verified was at Tehran University. At dawn around 10,000 people, mostly students, tried to leave the university and march to Vali Asr Square. They were quickly contained by the police who used, tear gas, batons and stun grenades to break up the crowd in scenes that were almost identical to the scenes in Athens yesterday. There have been reports that Iran's Republican Guard have responded by firing live ammunition into the crowd but with no reports of causalities this is impossible to verify. To be honest I'm a bit surprised that by this pointthe Iranian authorities haven't lost patience and simply machine gunned the demonstrators as enemy combatants.

It appears that, at the time of writing, the protests have burnt themselves out without really getting started. Therefore I have to regretfully inform the COP15 delegates that the Green Revolution is over so they may as well just go home now.