One hundred leaders to make 100 speeches!

The trouble with world summits involving, well, almost the whole world, it means every leader attending will want to make an opening speech. At the Glasgow climate-change summit that's 100 speeches for starters. And interpreters to interpret them. And then there are 25,000 delegates to discuss them and try to sort them into some sort of framework for action. Hopefully all 100 leaders will have the same message: "We must do something now before it is too late." If only it were that simple. There will be so many provisos and conditions and head-shaking and compromises and rejections that in the end the communique after 14 days will be a miracle of words and high-falutin phrases that may not mean that much. Glasgow is awash with foreign delegates. Biden alone has 45 vehicles to cart his lot around. The added pollution for the city will be enough to undo almost everything the leaders promise in the next few days. And think of all the stakes and beef and burgers that will be consumed to keep them happy and well-fed. Endless speeches, endless meals, endless convoys, all supposedly to save the planet from catastrophe. One can only feel extreme pessimism.