Stop and take solace in the fact that there even is a summit to discuss climate change. The time of submitting inquiries and demanding evidence is over, and now those who have the power to make a change are talking about doing just that.
And that’s all they’ll be doing.
There were big plans involving big numbers to be put in motion at the Copenhagen climate talks December 7. Deadlines and carbon cuts were being thrown into the ring, giving hope to the staggering statistics that have piled up against us.
Richer nations are now faced with not only lowering their own emissions by large chunks (25-40 percent), but financially backing the poorer countries to do so as well. Getting the Earth back to its state in 1990 regarding climate change and the amount of pollution in the air was the name of the game. Denmark, where 20 percent of the power comes from wind, would be the perfect setting for such a cause.
Seeing as how we had no other option, there didn’t seem to be a way that leaders were going to walk out of the summit without a concrete plan.
US Obstacle
Some countries don’t see themselves as responsible for the damage as others. Some simply have bigger problems right now. Brazil’s got those forests, and China’s got that coal; both of which could provide money and jobs to legions of populations in want, both of which will mean a spike of burning fossil fuels and a drop in air quality.
Brazil, China, and Japan promise a 40-45 percent drop in carbon emissions, while the U.S. stands nearby, nodding its head, wondering why everyone is staring daggers in our direction.
It is because, though we (along with Australia) have determined some innovative ways to monitor the damage we’re doing and in effect, keep score once the promised carbon cuts are legitimized with an international treaty, our climate bill is sitting on the Senate floor, twiddling its thumbs.
Leaders, including President Obama, determined that the hurdles facing the committee’s run for a more hospitable planet are too high to surpass in the time that remains. The U.S. plans to set carbon emission caps during the interim, in an attempt to have a much more manageable goal for our cuts by 2020.
Therefore, Copenhagen will be a meeting about — you guessed it — more meetings. Any plans and official documents will have to wait until a summit in Mexico next year to force themselves into fruition.
"The Copenhagen agreement should finally mandate continued legal negotiations and set a deadline for their conclusion,” reported Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
In other words, world leaders went to make dinner, and realized all their dishes were dirty.
But now, we’re “legally negotiating” for our lives. To think of the dwindling time we have to act on global environmental issues being spent on meeting after meeting is frustrating beyond measure. Estimates have put a five year limit on current carbon emissions before they rise by 2o C.
For that reason, it would be all too easy to fill the air with complaints about how President Obama, Prime Minister Rasmussen, and the rest of the gang are going to sit around a conference table until we’re all too busy choking to death on exhaust fumes to really care about what they’ve come up with.
Start Solving
Diane McFadzien of the Worldwide Fund for Nature summed it up: "Heads of state must go beyond simply discussing the problems. They have to start solving them."
However, there is no country in the world of which Diane McFadzien is the leader.
Consider the scale of an issue that affects not only the leaders of 20 countries, but every single citizen of the nations they represent (and probably most of the ones they don’t).
A recent study by Susan Solomon of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Chemical Sciences Division, concluded that even if carbon emissions were to cease entirely today, some effects are already irreversible. In fact, Solomon reports that it will be 1000 years before we see a drop in the effects of global warming.
The changes these leaders are fighting for has zero chance of being evident in their own lifetimes. It’s like fixing a car and test-driving it blindfolded.
And while it is monumentally frustrating to see our hopes for a lessened amount of carbon emissions be pushed back, again, you’ve got to keep in mind just what kind of solution these politicians are faced with. They are weaving together a solution for a problem that has to take into account billions of people, millions of issues, and the single planet holding them all together; a multi-faceted, self-aware plan of action, that not only slows the current damage, but tries to do away with what has already been done.
It will be too late soon enough. Further delays on a yearly basis, while understandable, are no longer an option. The pressure to put any pissing contests on hold has hit a fever pitch, and if we’re recognizing the desperation of the situation, so are those who will gather in Denmark’s capital next month.
Clearly, there are critical conversations to be had … we are talking about the fate of a planet. In a way, it is almost better that the talks have been downgraded, but only because President Obama will still be showing up. We need to salvage what progress we can from the summit, and with Obama’s presence, he is telling the world that the U.S. isn’t a chain-smoking, smog-spewing smoke stack, pumping out toxins and ignorance at equal levels; at the very least, we cared enough to show up.
It’s a small step forward, but we’re living in a world of giant steps backward.
"Let me tell you, I believe everyone is seeking, right now, to put their best foot forward," said Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister of Australia.
“It's going to be tough as all hell.”
