A recent video clip shown on the BBC demonstrated the fundamental foolishness and ignorance of the so-called environmental movement. Green activists unfurled a large banner on the side of a building in Warsaw asking "Who rules Poland: the coal industry or the people?" The false assumption is that there is a conflict between the coal industry and "the people" when in fact the only purpose the coal industry has is to provide the energy the people need to live comfortable and productive lives in an advanced European society. Poland is the world's eighth largest consumer of coal, just behind Germany and South Korea.

Poland cannot abandon coal without collapsing its economy. It is investing heavily in clean coal technology, but this effort is dismissed by the Greens, who want nothing less than the abolition of coal as an energy source despite its abundance and low cost. The World Coal Association is holding a conference in Poland to explain its position. Tasneem Essop of the World Wildlife Fund told BBC News that "For the coal industry to come to Warsaw at a time when we are dealing with these serious issues and to say they have a future and try to pretend they can make a contribution, is a bit provocative." She added, "The whole concept of clean coal is a myth." Ms. Essop hails from South Africa which is the world's fourth largest consumer of coal; so she has no more regard for the progress of her own country and the advancement of its people than she has for the Poles.

The UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) is entering the second week of its annual Conference of Parties (COP), this year held in Warsaw. It is the culmination of a year's worth of conferences held in major cities and resort areas around the world, all serving as forums to attack the affluence the delegates enjoy as they alternate between preaching and partying. It is a testament to the hypocrisy of the petty bureaucrats and NGO staffers who flock to these 5-star meetings that the foundation of the UNFCCC talks is the Bali Action Plan, drawn up in 2007 at one of the planet's most luxurious venues. And who can forget the problem at the 2009 Copenhagen COP caused by the massive number of private jets that needed to be parked around the region.

The real conflict is between the UN elite and "the people" whose standard of living the would-be global governors want to reduce.

In 2010, coal produced 41% of the world's electricity. It is expected to fall as a share of total resource use as natural gas and nuclear power continue to expand (sources the Greens also oppose), but in absolute output coal will remain a major energy provider as economic growth picks up in Asia and Africa and recovers in America and Europe. According to Euracoal, "Over the last decade, from 2000 to 2010, coal use has grown more strongly than any other primary energy source ( 28%)..... For power generation, coal plays a major role in both developed and developing countries." In 2012, coal provided 37% of U.S. electricity, with natural gas second at 30% followed by nuclear at 19%. The U.S. is the world's second largest user of coal behind China, which uses three times as much. Japan is third and has had to increase its use of coal in the wake of the Fukushima reactor incident which has closed down its entire nuclear power industry. India is also expected to increase its coal use due to its domestic abundance. Thus, the "war on coal" is a war on global economic progress, not just on prosperity in the United States.

Fortunately, not much is expected to come out of the Warsaw Climate Conference. It is, however, a step towards the next big push for a "legally binding" treaty that will force signatory nations to cut back energy use. Such a treaty was supposed to be drawn up in 2009 but failed because of the demand by developing countries that they not be required to do anything. Only the developed countries (Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America) would be forced to cut back, to make room in the ecosphere for the rest of the world to advance.

In UNFCCC terminology, this is the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities." All must show concern, but only the evil Western powers that had the audacity to develop first must pay. It was the platform that the UNFCCC was based on when founded in 1992. It was incorporated in the Kyoto Protocol adopted in 1997 and continued in the Bali Action Plan. The U.S. has rejected this principle even under President Barack Obama, with Japan, Australia, and Canada in support. Unfortunately, the EU accepted a continuation of this principle in 2011 at the Durban, South Africa COP.

2015 is the target for the "legally binding" UN treaty. The Green campaign can be expected to increase in intensity and demagoguery as the UN process unfolds. But no one should believe for an instant the Warsaw banner proclaiming that the Greens represent "the people." The people of the world are the targets which the Greens want to reduce to subsistence if not extermination. The "science" of climate change is largely irrelevant. The world changes on its own terms and those who live here will adapt accordingly. The danger comes from an ideology which hates human life (starting in the womb) and rejects all that civilization has achieved. Its desire to transform the world and its population threats a catastrophe far beyond even the most alarmist "global warming" predictions. It is a political movement and must be defeated as such.