>>Jayden Holmes is a student at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Global Voices Australian Youth Delegation to the UN negotiations in Durban this week.

>>Michael Mazengarb is a student at The Australian National University and a member of the Global Voices Australian Youth Delegation to the UN negotiations in Durban this week.

>>Chris Wright is a student at Macquarie University and a member of the Global Voices Australian Youth Delegation to the UN negotiations in Durban this week.

>>Heather Bruer is an Economics student at the University of Adelaide. She is currently the International Co-director at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

>>Clancy Moore is attending the U.N Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa form 28 November to 9 December 2011 as part of Oxfam's U.N. Climate Change Tracker Project.

All of this propaganda in one week. After that lot, I gave up.

Nobody can say Jo Coghlan and OLO are not doing their bit to promote this crap from "students" whose ideology is clear, but whose expertise is invisible.

No doubt Graeme will cut anybody who comments harshly on the lack of editorial integrity. OLO has become just another vehicle for leftist propaganda.

The hypocrisy of the 15,000 who flew to Durban to celebrate the junk science of carbon dioxide emissions is breath-taking.

“The intention of the Clean Development Mechanism was to provide flexibility in how nations go about achieving reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions. It allows developed countries, like Australia, to accumulate emissions offsets, created by the completion of infrastructure projects in developing nations. These offsets can be used as an alternative to domestic emissions reductions required under the Kyoto Protocol.”

I fear that Michael may not have grasped that the primary intention of CDM was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not to provide aid to poor countries.

Of course first world countries like Australia, who will struggle to meet their reduction commitments domestically, should purchase offsets from those most able to provide quantifiable and substantive reductions. And yes that often means China, India, Brazil and Mexico where the projects can be properly managed and monitored.

By all means encourage first world countries to provide aid to the third world countries but don’t compromise the CDM scheme to achieve it.

I too feel that the breathless urging of those going to Durban is a bit hard to take. Why couldn't the conference have taken place via video-conferencing and the internet? Did all of these students have to go? How are they offsetting their emissions? And so on.

But it is the emptiness of it all that really irritates me. Consider this:

'We need to deploy the essential support infrastructure, in the form of electricity networks, energy efficient manufacturing equipment and the ability to replace household fuel consumption with electric alternatives. Doing this in conjunction with the deployment of renewable technologies would make possible to ensure developing nations associate economic progress with sustainable development.'

Great. Where are the electric alternatives coming from? Does the writer realise that no country, anywhere, is displacing coal-powered baseload electricity. In our own capital city the first electric car re-charging points are being set up. On what will they rely? Coal-powered electricity.

Does the writer realise how insufficient, unreliable, unproven and expensive the 'alternative sources' of baseload power are?

Wouldn't it have been a good idea for these proselytisers to have done some serious homework before they increased their emissions?

Junk science of c02 emissions. No one knows about junk science, NASA says the c02 levels are at an all time high, and we are in a green house effected state. Which is effecting weather patterns. NASA.

Boy have these kids been suckered in...

BTW Here are some of the participants at Durban...

Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood,
Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation,
Quaker Earthcare Witness,
Indigenous Education Network of Turtle Island,
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts,
Inuit Circumpolar Conference,
The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University,
Bread for the World organisation,
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters,
Mediators Beyond Borders,
Carbon Markets and Investors Association,
Carbon War Room Corporation,
Citizens Alliance for Saving the Atmosphere and the Earth,
Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin,
Earth University,
Faith Association of the Rehabilitation of Street Children and Orphans,
GenderCC - Women for Climate Justice,
Nurses Across the Borders.

These people are deciding out future....