I, too, see no reason to expect rapid, measurable, effective or binding changes. These things are anathema to the status quo, which must be maintained at any expense.

That expense includes forking out tens of billions of dollars to support the dirtiest power industry on the planet. No, not uranium-based, but black coal.

There is a lot of self interest to be conquored before the final battles to save our planet are joined.

No, you would far more likely to be approached in a Copenhagen alleyway by someone with his collar turned up, furtively offering things called “offsets”, and flashing a tatty photograph of a peasant planting a sapling between windrows of bulldozed forest. Only $1 million apiece, he says, and offers to run off as many more copies as you want. Very discreet, he promises, no one will ever question it.

If our leaders were serious about replacing carbon as our energy source, they would be using the word itself, replacing. Then the targets would be dates. Instead, all we ever hear is the word, reducing. The target is then of how much to reduce by, and as we have seen lately, such reductions can be made as small as small can be.

Bring on the poets. There are consciences to be roused.