After spending several hours last weekend reading through less-than-stellar reactions to the Copenhagen conference in the international press, I began to wonder if the media hadn’t gotten it wrong — if, perhaps, the very nature of complex negotiations and the rush to file their stories hadn’t led reporters to focus on what had not been accomplished rather than what had.
Time permitting, it’s an issue I hope to explore further between now and the New Year. Until then, Sam Hummel at grist.org has put together a must-read that explains what he sees are “Five Common Mistakes in the Coverage of the Copenhagen Accord.”
Hummel’s five fallacies are listed below as a shameless tease to encourage you to read his entire article.
- Fallacy: The “Copenhagen Accord” text preempted a better agreement from being adopted at COP15.
- Fallacy: The poor countries of the world rejected the Accord.
- Fallacy: The Accord came out of an undemocratic backroom deal that minimized the voice of developing nations.
- Fallacy: The Accord is a worthless “sham” and failure.
- Fallacy: Obama is to blame!
Hummel follows these up with what he sees as causes for hope. Sounds about right.
