I hope your recent holiday gatherings were free of family drama like table flipping and throwing mac and cheese at your uncle, who assures you the earth is flat and climate change is a hoax. Word on the street is these holiday soap operas are real. Me? I’m just an outsider looking in, blissfully free from the abrasive Thanksgiving family dynamics and cheesy projectiles. In other words, I’m single and have no family.

But I am more than ready to bring on the feel-good vibes of the holiday season! I want the festive cheer, twinkling lights, gifts galore, and – let’s not forget – the all-important morning beverages with a kick. I’m even giving a free pass to “Live, Laugh, Love” signs for a limited time.

It’s the season of forgiveness, right?

But I’m not ready to forgive everyone just yet.

Power, money, and religion are doing their usual boogie on the geopolitical dancefloor. Take the United Arab Emirates, hosts of this year’s United Nations Climate Conference, COP28. Rather than helping solve the world’s climate problems, the UAE is going to use the event to make oil and gas deals, according to various news reports. It’s kind of like watching someone sell drugs at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

This week in The Meltdown, we’re diving into these accusations against the UAE. Then, to lighten the mood, we’ve got a lineup of cozy, feel-good movies perfect for those long, chilly nights.

Before you read on, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And share this newsletter with your friends if you think they’ll enjoy it.

Drizzle

Firstly, the COP28 climate summit president in Dubai, Sultan al-Jaber, has denied claims the UAE is using the event for oil and gas deals.

“Do you think the UAE or myself will need the COP or the COP presidency to go and establish business deals or commercial relationships?” said al-Jaber during a press conference in Dubai. “This country over the past 50 years has been built around its ability to build bridges and to create relationships and partnerships.”

His denial follows a BBC report about leaked documents suggesting the UAE planned fossil fuel discussions with various nations. Al-Jaber, the CEO of UAE’s state oil company Adnoc, labeled the allegations false. Of course, he did. The documents, obtained by the BBC and other media groups, detailed potential dialogues with at least 27 countries, including China and Colombia, about fossil fuel projects.

International climate groups have called for al-Jaber’s resignation over conflict-of-interest concerns.COP28 is supposed to help limit the long-term rise of global temperature to 1.5C (2.7F), which the UN’s climate science body says is crucial to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Achieving that will require drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, specifically, a 43% reduction by 2030 from 2019 levels.

The UAE, as it happens, is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers. It also has the world’s largest natural gas field and has ambitions to compete with Russia and Iran.

Struggling to see the issue? Imagine if Pablo Escobar hosted a drug rehabilitation conference at his home. Not all bad if you like hippos.

Touch Grass

Anyway, enough of the hypocrisy. 😉

If you’ve ever seen Moonstruck, starring Cher and Nicholas Cage, you’ll know that sometimes you just have to “snap out of it,” as Loretta Castorini says after Cage’s character professes his love for her. It’s an all-time feel-good movie perfect for a little dopamine boost to forget the world is being run by (insert expletive of your choice).

Here’s a list of suggestions from some Facebook friends.

The Goonies (Me)

Dear Frankie (Holly Parker Murphy)

Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Greg Morcroft)

Amelie (Amanda Gibson)

Sweet Home Alabama (Katie Johnston)

The Hundred-Foot Journey (Katie Johnston)

Moonstruck (Always late Sheridan Hinton)

When Harry Met Sally (Becky Pomrenke)

Casablanca (Me)

About Time (Christienne Gibson)

Love Jones (Ryan Nave – Editors choice)

Compost Dump

Ever heard of the Gaia Hypothesis?

It suggests that living organisms interact intricately with their surroundings to form a complex, synergistic system that helps maintain conditions conducive to life. In other words, imagine the Earth is like a big, living creature, like a giant space turtle. Just like a turtle has a shell, legs, a head, and a tail that all work together to keep it healthy and moving, our Earth has air, water, land, and all kinds of living things that work together in a special way.

Sort of like a big team. This team ensures our planet stays nice and cozy for all living things. It’s like the Earth is taking care of itself, ensuring it’s not too hot or cold and has clean air and water.

The Gaia Hypothesis is a way of saying that our Earth is smart and knows how to keep everything balanced, just like our bodies know how to keep us healthy. However, this is not an automatic process. We still need to actively take care of our bodies, like we also need to take care of our Earth.

I’ll update you about the COP28 conference as it progresses. But right now, the UAE’s alleged behavior makes me want to throw mac and cheese at them real bad.

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See you next week.