The Top 10 Everything of 2009

Climate insiders call it the COP, or Conference of the Parties, but the climate-change summit in Copenhagen isn't likely to be anyone's idea of a fiesta. It was meant to be the culmination of two years of hard negotiations toward a new, effective global-climate treaty that would supplant the expiring Kyoto Protocol. But expectations for Copenhagen have been tamped down, as developed nations and developing countries continue to disagree over who should bear the bulk of the responsibility for cutting carbon. That doesn't mean Copenhagen will be a total failure, though. Sleep-deprived negotiators were still planning to address issues like deforestation, and they might even construct the basic architecture of a legally binding deal. But fleshing out the deal will require ... [see next]