There was not much talk at my running club this week about the climate summit being hosted by US President Joe Biden.
We were concentrating on who would be getting in the next round and discussing the many ailments that runners tend to prattle on about.
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg would not be entirely wrong saying our preoccupation with our below average athleticism at the expense of the United States reasserting its role as climate change leader after ex President Donald Trump reneged on the 2015 Paris Climate Change Accord is a sad reflection of a generation that does not care.
Actually as long as one is talking about reducing carbon emissions it is hard to be wrong.
President Biden told the dozens of world leaders remotely gathered for the two-day summit that the US will reduce these emissions by 52% by 2030. This will be measured against the peak level of 2005.
Canada and Japan also promised to reduce carbon emission levels by more than they pledged in Paris.
All this is leading up the summit in Scotland later this year where 200 countries will have report whether or not they have me their Paris commitments.
I have spent much of my more than half century in journalism covering such lofty multilateral gatherings ranging from nuclear disarmament, to destroying apartheid to saving the environment.
They get an enormous amount of ink, airwave and television time.
The delegates comfortably ensconced in the host nation’s best hotels battle through a maze of rhetoric until they infallibly work through the final night of the conference to reach a triumphal agreement.
It is all words though.
Back to my running club.
We speak every week about ratcheting up the training miles and pushing the chairs away from the table earlier to achieve leaner and faster physiques.
These promises and resolutions are remarkably similar to what the Washington climate summit delivered.
They sound brave and promising.
But until they are accompanied by legislation and implementation on climate change and diet and exercise by my fellow runners, they don’t even get off the start line.