Gov. Jan Brewer at the Western Governors Association – sound of crickets chirping

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Too funny! Great catch by Steve Benen. Jan Brewer struggles to draw a crowd:

Arizona
Gov. Jan Brewer hosted a meeting of the Western Governors Association
over the weekend, where she was scheduled to deliver a speech on energy
policy. Beforehand, the governor chatted with local TV station KTVK,
which asked whether Brewer believes in climate change.

"Everybody has an opinion on it, you know, and I, you know, I probably don't believe that it's man made," she said. "I believe that, you know, that weather elements are controlled maybe by different things."

Once the interview was over, Brewer asked the local reporter, "Where in the hell did that come from?"

Of course. Because nothing's more outlandish than asking a governor about climate change before a speech on energy policy.

And how did the speech go? Not well.

Although she was introduced as a political rock star Saturday, Gov. Jan Brewer wasn't a very big draw.

The Western Governors' Association held its annual winter meeting in
Paradise Valley. But of the 19 governors in the group, only two showed
up to see Brewer deliver a brief keynote speech. […]

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R)
were the two governors who attended the meeting. They are the current
vice chairman and chairman of the organization.

Brewer spoke for a grand total of three minutes before leaving the stage.

As I posted about yesterday, there were three climate change reports released last week in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Doha. Polar Ice Sheets Shrinking Worldwide, Study Confirms. I'm thinking the KTVK reporter assumed that Gov. Brewer might have picked up a newspaper last week and read about these reports or the UN Climate Change Conference in Doha. That is giving Jan Brewer way too much credit.

By the way, UN climate talks on Monday entered their final week amid rows over the
Kyoto Protocol and funding for poorer countries, despite fresh warnings
of the peril from greenhouse gases. Climate talks deadlocked in Doha:

After six days of wrangling, nearly 200 nations remained far apart on
issues vital for unlocking a global deal on climate change, said
delegates at the talks in Doha, Qatar's capital.

Poor countries were insisting Western nations sign up to deeper, more
urgent cuts in carbon emissions under Kyoto after the pact's first
round of pledges expires at year's end.

They were also demanding the rich world commit to a new funding
package from 2013 to help them cope with worsening drought, flood,
storms and rising seas.

Both questions are key to a new treaty that must be signed by 2015 and enter into force in 2020 to roll back global warming.

"What gives me frustration is that we are very far behind what
science tells us we should be doing," UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) chief Christiana Figueres told a press conference,
adding though that she retained "hope."

Some delegates began to voice fears of deadlock ahead of
ministerial-level talks, starting on Wednesday, to crown the annual
negotiations under the UN banner.

A new study warned Sunday that Earth could be on track for warming
above five degrees Celsius (nine degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 — at least
double the 2C (3.6 F) limit enshrined by the UN.

* * *

The head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Maria van der
Hoeven, warned on Monday that limiting warming to 2C (3.6 F) "is
becoming more difficult and more expensive with every passing year."

"Without concerted action soon, the world is on track for a much
warmer future with possibly dire consequences," she said in a press
release.

"Time is running out to prevent the loss of entire nations and other
calamities in our membership and around the world," added the Alliance
of Small Island States (AOSIS), gathering nations badly at risk from
warming-induced rising sea levels.

Despite the warnings, observers say the Doha talks have become stuck.

* * *

The Doha talks are meant to set a timeframe and country targets for the
second period of Kyoto, which binds about 40 rich nations and the EU to
curbing emissions but excludes the two biggest polluters — the US,
which refused to ratify it, and China.

People like Jan Brewer are the "boiling frog" in the metaphor: If a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump
out, but if it is placed in cold water that is gradually heated, it will
not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death. It is a metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.