logo of U.N. climate talks in Bali

The Bali U.N. climate talks have an elaborate logo hanging around the conference halls…so when delegates make long speeches and get bogged down in details it’s tempting to try to work out what it all means.

In essence, the picture is of a brown and a white hand clasped against a background of melting Arctic ice with shapes behind symbolising an elaborate Balinese stone gate.

But it’s odd that the Arctic ice, looking like a mammoth melting ice cream, reaches as far south as India and one giant dribble is threatening the mid-Pacific. That makes it look as if the problem might be about global cooling, not warming.

And the hands are obviously meant to be rich and poor joined in cooperation in the fight against climate change.

But the firm upwards grasp makes me wonder: surely they’re arm wrestling? Might that be the real message from talks at which rich and poor countries are split about how to share out the burden of curbs in greenhouse gases?