As we watch the climate talks in Copenhagen continue toward their conclusion, many of us are left wondering if there is any legitimate potential for a real solution to the global climate crisis (or any global crisis for that matter) to be found in the process of international deal-making. Political debate and international diplomacy are, by their very natures, focused on the establishment of positions and the art of compromise, and as one of the more popular protest signs carried in the Copenhagen crowd so poignantly reminded us: “Nature Does Not Compromise”. As in, perhaps we’ll find a workable political solution for greenhouse gas emissions standards that all the nations of the world can happily agree to and we may establish a sizeable global fund for mitigating the damage to “at risk” societies and financing the implementation of new environmental technologies in developing nations; we might even get the whole of human civilization to give itself one giant collective hug. And yet the planet may not find our cuddly compromises the least bit convincing, and may in fact drop a hurricane on our heads or unleash a drought on our crops and a famine on our families and be done with us altogether.