The much promoted Copenhagen Climate Change Conference seems to have blown over with little effect. For all the ballyhoo leading up to the December meeting, it is as if Olympics were held but no results were reported. Scanning worldwide newspapers, your author could find little information, good or bad of any perspective, on the conference.

If the objective was to come out of the conference with a clear and binding plan, the conference objectively has to be labeled a failure. There seems to be two reasons for this. First, we have to get the science right, and despite desperate climate change forces saying "leading scientists say it is irrefutable that global warming is occurring," large portions of the world's population don't believe it.

It is going to take better science and better evidence than what has been promulgated in the past to convince Joe and Suzy living in their "doublewide" in the Ozarks to believe it. The elite need to understand that unlike themselves, Joe and Suzy are not impressed by multiple PhDs behind one's name. In fact, such labels often make them skeptical. And this is important, for every society has millions of "Joes and Suzys" and the opinions of the general population can not be ignored, even in repressively governed countries.

Second, such an agreement as was sought in Copenhagen has an element of forfeiture of sovereign rights for each and every signatory country. Despite the worries espoused by those fearing a "one world" government, it is obvious most countries are not ready to shed any of their sovereignty just yet. For me, this brings hope. I am sure, if the facts can be presented in a conclusive way and a political mechanism can be crafted acceptable to at least the largest countries, something will be done. The proponents clearly have their homework to do -- let's just hope they do it honestly and openly so we, the great unwashed masses out in the weeds, can build some confidence in their conclusions.

As Geoffrey Lean, a writer for the London Telegraph said at the end of the conference: "If I ever see another singing, dancing, sloganising polar bear, I shall do my best to melt its ice-floe." Anecdotal pictures of polar bears floating on ice cubes may just not cut it any longer, regardless of the caption the New York Times pastes beneath them.