Copenhagen: the road to success.

• Author: Flavin, Christopher
• Position: EDITORIAL - Editorial

With the Copenhagen Climate Conference now approaching, there are plenty of reasons to be discouraged about the prospect of humanity's surmounting its greatest challenge.

While scientists report accelerated Arctic melting and warn that we are already perilously close to overshooting the maximum safe level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, climate negotiations are proceeding at a glacial pace. U.S. discussions with China and India have not yet moved beyond bland generalities, and even across the Atlantic, most of the deep sores opened with Europe during the Bush era have not yet been closed. Meanwhile, the odds of the U.S. Congress approving climate change legislation this fall are...