A None Too Happy Mermaid [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
Ahead of the COP15 [3] negotiations over a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol [4] on global warming, a coalition of groups have unveiled a short list of nominees for The Angry Mermaid Award [5] for the "company or lobby group is doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change." (A waterside statue [6] of a mermaid is a local Copenhagen landmark.) Groups short-listed include the U.S. coal industry front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity [7]; the International Air Transport Association [8], which has lobbied against climate legislation binding airlines to reduce emissions; Shell [9], which is investing in developing highly polluting tar sands [10]; and the South African company, Sasol [11], which is promoting Carbon Capture and Storage [12] as a "clean solution to the dirty business of producing liquid fuels from coal and gas." Voting [13] is open until Sunday December 13, 2009.