The organizers of COP21 or the 21st Conference of the Parties offered the world leaders in attendance 3 minutes for an opening statement. How long was President Obama’s speech?
The Climate Summit in Paris has opened. One hundred forty seven of the world’s leaders along with their entourages have now jetted into Paris, staying in the finest hotels, traveling around in motorcades filled with limousines, eating at the areas top restaurants presumably dining on meats harvested from methane producing animals and the livers of geese who were force fed corn through feeding tubes (foie gras).
The leaders have gathered to discuss ways to redistribute wealth, to talk about the weather, to find ways to combat the upcoming apocalypse caused by mortal man’s effect on climate change.
From this NBC News report titled “Obama Ignores ‘Wrap-It-Up’ Beeps, Talks and Talks at Climate Summit:”
“Obama was one of 147 world leaders given a three-minute slot at the COP21 conference to outline their vision for the future of the planet.”
And
More than eight and a half minutes into Obama’s address — and with no sign he was stopping soon — three beeps sounded across the auditorium, clearly audible to everyone present and watching on TV.
The President didn’t even flinch when the beeps were heard and continued on in his prepared speech:
“After 11 minutes, whoever was manning the “beep” button had clearly given up, and no more prompts were heard until Obama ended his epic discourse just shy of 14 minutes.”
The full speech can be seen below:
To be fair, as reported by this report in the South China Morning Post: “Paris climate talks: Loquacious leaders make for a long day at climate summit” President Obama wasn’t the only leader that exceeded the time limit however:
“Most speakers managed to keep themselves to no more than double their allotment, enough time to empathise with host France for the extremist attacks suffered this month; pledge to do their part to combat global warming; and call upon other countries to help them change the world.”
From the New York Daily News:
“A whopping 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be churned out during the two-week climate change summit that began Monday in Paris.”
markE watkins 