Filed under: News, Activism, Climate Change

The two week long carnival in Copenhagen, which featured dramatic politics and inventive activism, mixed in with a genuine desire to address climate change, wrapped up hours past the planned deadline, with a whimper that disappointed many.

Even before COP15 started, it was clear that a binding international agreement was a long shot. The first week was marred by disagreements over process and responsibilities -- particularly over who was going to foot the inevitable bill -- and the split between developed and developing countries got worse as week two progressed.

In the end, the US, China, India and Brazil announced a non-binding statement of intent, and almost all of the countries participating in COP15 indicated that they would "take note" of the so-called Copenhagen Accord.

It's a good news/bad news result -- good that something was agreed upon after two weeks of debate, but bad that it's non-binding, and even more bad that it falls short (far short) of requiring nations to take action that will meaningfully address climate change.

I'm left unsure about what to think about it. Was it the giant failure that strict environmentalists are moaning about? Or is the agreement that came out of Copenhagen the first step on a journey of a thousand steps, small but necessary to get us started?

It's the job of environmentalists to keep the pressure on politicians, and all of us. So I'm glad that they're continuing to push for bigger, better action to save the planet. However, I most appreciated reading Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope's more measured reaction on the Huffington Post.

Pope acknowledged that the conference was difficult, the process disappointing, and the result less than what many hoped to achieve. But he also explained some of the important progress that was made. For instance, China and India agreed to an international plan, putting to rest "the core argument that has held back Congressional action on U.S. clean-energy legislation."

This will make it easier (well, perhaps just a bit less difficult, but we'll take what we can get) for Obama to get meaningful climate bills passed. The inability of the U.S. to show this leadership has been a major stumbling block for a global agreement.

Another positive note that Pope sounded was the fact that many countries, like South Africa, India and Indonesia made "historic reversals" by agreeing that changes have to be made at all!

Reading that, I was struck by what I think we'll one day see as the success of Copenhagen, the shift from asking, "Should we do something?" to "What are we going to do?" That feels like an international turning point, one that had to be crossed before major change could occur.

As much as everyone loves a happy ending, we're going to be addressing climate change for the next several decades. Yes, urgent action is needed, but nothing will fix this overnight. So stay tuned for more bits of progress in Bonn, Germany, and then in Mexico at the end in 2010, and start hoping that the sum of these small steps are greater than their parts.

Post COP15 - Now What? originally appeared on Green Daily on Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:11:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: Activism, Climate Change, Plants and Wildlife

If you keep up with Climate Change gossip, then by now you've heard about the emails that were hacked from the computers of some leading climate scientists, and leaked to the world press by a group we can most easily refer to as "The Deniers".

The Deniers maintain that climate change is an elaborate hoax, or bad science, or a combination of the two. They are gleefully clapping and pointing at the substantial lack of professionalism (and in some cases outright jerkiness) in the email exchanges, which they consider "proof" that climate change is fake. Or at least less serious than the climate scientists "want" us to believe, in their apparent bid for the riches, power and willing women for which a career in climate science is so well known.

Because everyone agrees, being a climate scientist is like being James Bond with mystery, intrigue and dreamy locations like East Anglia, England.
Sarcasm aside, here's the deal: the polar ice is melting -- it's just not there any more, look at the satellite maps! -- and polar bears are cannibalizing their young because the rotten ice floating around in the rising oceans won't support their weight, so they can't hunt seals.

How dramatic is this melting polar ice? There is talk of opening shipping lanes for the first time ever through an Arctic Ocean.

It's not just happening in the Arctic. In November, Australia experienced record high and low temperatures, and a month's worth of rain fell in six hours in Ondoy in the Philippines.

And if you want to consider some of the more alarming predictions, a recent study estimated that ice melting in the Antarctic could cause the ocean levels to rise four and a half feet by the end of the century.

You don't have to like or respect the scientists doing the research -- they seem like a typical bunch of smug smart dudes who think they know more than the rest of us. Probably because they do. But you do have to admit that bad things, potentially life-threatening things, are happening to our planet.

You can denigrate the messenger, but you can't fight the facts.

Bryan Appleyard of the Times of London beautifully explains his transition from a climate skeptic to a believer in an article titled simply, "Global Warming is Real." In it he calmly refutes the most incendiary of The Deniers' claims, and separates the science from the politics.

There is a huge task at hand, one that requires the cooperation of the whole world. In the absence of a malevolent alien invader who will convince us to put aside our differences and work together to save the planet, perhaps we could take a page from Mr. Appleyard's book.

Ignore the office politics of academic publishing, mute the negative distraction of The Deniers, and focus on the facts: there is more carbon dioxide in the air than ever before, there are massive climate changes happening all over the world, and we need a global plan for survival.

The only smart course of action is to put resources and support behind research to confirm why this is happening, in an effor to to find a way to solve, fix or cope with the realities.

Good thing we have all of the leaders of the world meeting at the Climate Conference in Copenhagen next week. This will definitely give them something to talk about!

Climate Change is Here: No Ice, No Bears, No Doubt originally appeared on Green Daily on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Filed under: Polit-eco, Climate Change

Over the weekend, President Obama and other world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum in Singapore, announced that they will not be able to reach a binding agreement on stopping global warming during the the Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15) in December.

Instead, Obama and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said that COP15 should focus on accomplishing political cohesion as the first part of a two step process. They want to use the conference to agree on a basic framework for an agreement, including how to finance carbon-reducing activity, and wait to try to create a binding commitment to global carbon caps at a later date.

So ... they want to agree to agree that they will put off doing the work until later. Which would be fine if we could put climate change on hold. Since doesn't seem to be an option, I think a lot of activists are going to be really upset that global leaders, led by Obama, are watering down the goals of the conference.

Realistically, it will be impressive if all 191 participating countries are able to agree at COP15 on how the world should split the bill, and I suppose we should be delighted that they're even committing to do that much in December. It's just frustrating to read that the second step, a legally binding treaty, could take a year, or even longer, to negotiate.

Part of the problem is that President Obama has yet to agree to even attend COP15, despite the adorable exhortations of the kids of WWF staffers. Also, the Senate won't be able to pass Climate Change legislation before the conference, and the other major industrialized countries are waiting to see what we commit to in terms of carbon caps before they'll commit.

It's a climate impasse, and that's just the tip of the melting (yes, really, I went there) iceberg.

Other issues include the growing disconnect between wealthy carbon-emitting countries (like us) who don't want to commit to reducing emissions out of fear that it will hurt our floundering economies, and developing nation countries that have low carbon emissions, but are first in line to bear the brunt of climate change like rising ocean levels.

Rather than being a major milestone in addressing the climate change issue, COP15 is running the risk of being yet another in a series of meetings where leaders only talk about action. Let's hope that's not the case.

Obama and World Leaders Hedge on Copenhagen Agreement originally appeared on Green Daily on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:03:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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