PARIS (AP) — The latest news related to the U.N. climate conference in Paris, which runs through Dec. 11. All times local:
3:15 p.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he conferred with UN chief Ban ki-Moon on the state of global climate change talks Tuesday.
Kerry is in Paris to attend U.N. climate talks aimed at producing an agreement by the end of the week to fight global warming.
Speaking after his meeting with Ban, Kerry said they “talked about where we are in the negotiations and the steps we need to take to be successful.”
Ban “made some suggestions on things we are already focused on and trying to resolve,” Kerry said.
___
10:25 a.m.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is mocking climate change doubters who downplay the effect of rising sea levels.
Speaking to a U.N. Foundation meeting in Paris on the health of the world’s oceans, Kerry took his criticism a step further Tuesday, saying the refusal to recognize the threat is “insane” and “insulting to everything we learned in high school about science.”
“We have people who still deny this: Members of the flat earth society who seem to believe that the ocean rise won’t be a problem because the water will just spill over the edge,” Kerry said to appreciative laughter from the audience that included U.N. Foundation founder Ted Turner.
Kerry is in Paris to attend U.N. climate talks aimed at producing an agreement by the end of the week to fight global warming.
While most scientists say man-made emissions are warming the planet and causing increasingly extreme weather, many Republicans in the U.S. Congress doubt climate change is a serious problem, and worry that cutting emissions would hurt U.S. industry and jobs.
___
9:15 a.m.
The Vatican is lending itself to environmentalism with a special public art installation timed to coincide with the final stretch of climate negotiations in Paris.
On Tuesday night, the facade of St. Peter’s Basilica will be turned into a massive backdrop for a photo light show about nature organized by several humanitarian organizations.
The initiative, featuring images by National Geographic and well-known photographers including Sebastiao Salgado, is similar to ones that used the U.N. headquarters and the Empire State Building in New York as backdrops.
Pope Francis has strongly backed the environmental cause, issuing a landmark encyclical in which he blasted the fossil-fuel-based economy for impoverishing much of humanity and destroying the planet.
Organizers offered the installation as a gift to Francis to mark his Holy Year of Mercy, which began Tuesday.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.