COP17 — the latest UN climate summit opens on Monday in Durban, South Africa, and what’s the action status to combat the way-greatest, quickly-coming threat to humanity?

“They’re on the edge of a mess,” one experienced delegate told BBC News, “and they may not be able to resolve this mess.”

The above-mentioned ‘mess‘ is a deep divide between the greedy and the near-dying, with the good-old US of A counted amongst the greedy.
Despite the obvious oncoming terror of climate change, this COP17 (the 17th Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) is another example of horrid political bias killing us all — those whining for longer time-frames for any kind of climate agreements are Russia and Japan, Brazil and India (Brazil claims the next few years should be a “reflection phase,” while India, a “technical/scientific period”).

And America:

The US remains the fly in the ointment and will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol or agree to legally binding cuts at this stage.
Not only have several attempts by President Barack Obama to push through the required national climate change legislation failed, but the presidential race for the next term of office has started in earnest — and some Republican candidates don’t even accept the reality of climate change.

WTF!
Time is of the essence for action, for most-sure, not a complete-dumb-ass ‘reflection phrase.’
And could the GOP might ultimately be blamed for destroying mankind — Whoa!

Climate change effects/affects everyone.
And even in the US, the fly in a toxic ointment.
A potentially-devastating environmental mystery is unfolding close to home here in northern California — last summer, just south of where I live, previously unknown blooms of toxic algae killed tens of thousands of abalone, sea urchins and other mollusks in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

An incident which sparked near-immediate action: A group of scientists led by led by UC Santa Cruz was formed to figure out what the shit’s happening, not only for California waters, but maybe along the US Gulf coast as well.

A toxic water bloom is even affecting Lake Erie fish — disastrous results off climate change are multi-faceted, from ocean acidification, to sea level rise, to “extreme weather events,” or to minor shit like worsening allergies, and leading even to mass extinctions, maybe including wise-ass humans.

(Illustration of Agardhiella tenera ‘red algae’ found here).

So an investigation into that toxic algae could help other concerned areas of climate change — the UC Santa Cruz research will employ not only the most-advanced technological ocean-measuring devices and equipment, but will also use robotic gliders.
The five-study is on a problem that’s both dangerous and disturbingly apparent.

From the San Francisco Chronicle this morning on the proliferation of this entity that’s toxic to both humans and marine mammals:

“It is a huge problem for wildlife,” said Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz and the lead scientist for the study, which began last week.
“We’ve seen a lot more of what we consider unusual events.
It’s not always the same organism, but new things keep cropping up.
The million-dollar question is: What exactly is the change in the environment that these things are linked to?”

Not only can this stuff kill marine life, but can put a hurt on a human: People can contract amnesic shellfish poisoning, which causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness and, in severe cases, disorientation, seizures, coma and even death.
And in the natural process nowadays, climate change way-most-likely plays a part:

“We can’t say for sure that it is tied to something like climate change,” Kudela said, “but it does seem to be spreading globally, so something is changing, and we are trying to find out what that is.”

Alarms going off anywhere?
Despite the fact this story deserves A1 attention, the online version notes it originally appeared on C1 of the Chronicle.

The US involvement in tomorrow’s start to COP17 — no one in authority is going, in fact, the conference is way down on the list of shit to do.
Via Climate Progress:

“It’s awful to say, but I haven’t focused on them at all because first of all we’ve hit a wall here for now on climate change,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), adding that Congress’ focus is now on debt and economic issues.
International climate issues are “basically happening through the administration now,” he said, “although I think Congress has to stay involved.”
Waxman, who sponsored a cap-and-trade bill that cleared the House in 2009, said he “hoped for the best” from Durban.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I haven’t thought about it.”
“It hasn’t been brought to my attention,” said Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Asked whether she planned to go, Boxer said she could not.
“I’m too busy here,” she said.

However, it might be a good thing Republicans aren’t going — keep the assholes from making bigger assholes of themselves.
Or make a much-bigger mess.