Planet better off if Copenhagen fails?

According to Jim Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the world would be better off if the climate talks in Copenhagen fail.

Hansen is fundamentally opposed to carbon trading. He stated that, "the whole approach is so fundamentally wrong that it is better to reassess the situation." Hansen went on to explain, "This is analogous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill," he said. "On those kind of issues you cannot compromise. You can't say let's reduce slavery, let's find a compromise and reduce it 50 percent or reduce it 40 percent."

What do you think? Is a globally binding agreement that focuses on a cap-and-trade system a half measure? Or, is it our best chance to begin the process of actually reducing emissions?

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