Political Will is a Renewable Resource- Al Gore in Bali

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Bali talks headed for a compromise on Saturday to launch negotiations on a global pact to fight climate change after the European Union toned down a key demand for sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The Dec 3-14 talks had been bogged down by a row between the United States, which opposes a reference to non-binding goals for rich countries to curb emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020, and the European Union, which wanted a clear numerical target.

"This is a compromise. We can live with this. It's in a footnote," German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said, referring to the 25 to 40 percent range for cuts.

The United States, the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, also said it was satisfied.

"We can live with the preamble," U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters of the introductory text of the talks draft that had been one of the main source of controversy for Washington because of its inclusion of a target range.

The Rise of Mr Splashy Pants

Fourteen days ago, the following message appeared on The Internet,

"Greenpeace are having a vote to name a whale they have 'adopted'. All the options are the names of ancient gods of the sea. And then there's 'Mister Splashy Pants'. Please vote 'Mister Splashy Pants'."

Yesterday, GP confirmed it, "Out of 11,000 submissions in our competition to name the humpback whales we were tracking on their migration to the Southern Ocean, we narrowed it down to the final 30. Over 150,000 people then voted for their favourite name." The ultimate winner? Mister Splashy Pants - with a huge 119,367 votes (over 78 percent of the vote).

Brian Fitzgerald, who judged Omar Zayed's original entry for MSP, describes how the internet went into full meme.

"We saw traffic double in one day to the voting page. Our referrals showed a big spike in traffic from Reddit (1) in particular, which was driving 18% of our referral traffic. And there, lo and behold, was Vote for Mister Splashy Pants, third link from the top. Within 24 hours, Reddit would bestow upon MSP the ultimate honor of being its “What’s Hot” Icon upper left of the page...

Ivan Krigin thought this was all very funny, and dropped a line to everyone’s favourite über-blog BoingBoing (2). BoingBoing editor (and former Greenpeace canvasser) Cory Doctorow picked it up... But at this point, we didn’t need stats to see things were getting out of hand. Blogs from (insert many many blog names here) and many more were cranking up the Vote for Mister Splashy Pants campaign...

It was then I threw a search into Facebook and found the “Vote for Mister Splashy Pants” group, which had been created by none other than Omar of the UK — the original source of the suggestion."

The idea faced internal censorship at Greenpeace and derision on some enviroblogs- for being silly, for being supported by people who "didn't really care about the environment" and for being an "internet fad". But the ability of Web 2.0 technology to mobilize leagues of people around something funny was far too strong, and the "come-to-think-about-it" people realised that as an anthropomorphous tool MSP was perfect. Simply put, "Mummy, why do the Japanese want to kill Mr Splashy Pants?". GP have now integrated the trend into their "you named him, now save him" campaign, calling for signatures on a petition to the Japanese Fisheries Agency.

(1)- Reddit is a popular social bookmarking site, where members add, prioritise and comment on new content. A democratic internet aesthetic without the idiocy of Youtube comments.

(2)- BoingBoing is one of the most popular blogs, focusing largely on gadgets, creativity, the unique, it is self-described as "a directory of wonderful things". Updated multiple times daily.

(3)- Mr Splashy Pants is a humpback whale in the Southern Ocean. Rarely Online.