Climate Change: A blog to inspire action on Climate Change

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Pictures do say a thousand words – The Himalayan Glaciers are melting – this spells trouble for millions of people. See this image, which compares a 1921 image of the Himalayan Mountains showing Mount Everest to a 2009 image.  The changes are startling.  Feeder glaciers have disappeared.  Loss of 340 0 400 vertical feet of ice mass is shown.   The increased heat absorbing surfaces of exposed rock is easy to see.

Images cut through rhetoric.  We need the leadership of world leaders at Copenhagen to make the commitments to:

1. Reduce CO2 emissions  (Which means Canada has to agree to cut its carbon emissions, and right now, Canada is trying to make this contingent on other developing countries setting ambitious targets.  This is nonsense.  Playing political games with our planet is not what we have elected our politicians to do.  They are accountable to our future generations.)
2. Limit global temperature increase to 2ºCelsius in developed and developing countries.
3. Assist financially those countries that need assistance to deal with climate change mitigation and adaptation issues.
4. Put into place an international global governance approach to manage financial resources that reflect the political realities of today.

The impacts of climate change will be widespread across the globe. In order to understand more about what the human impact of high-end climate change might be, and therefore what would happen if a successful agreement cannot be reached at Copenhagen, the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre produced an interactive map outlining some of the impacts, based on the latest peer-reviewed science.  Click on the map below to learn more.

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Today, I viewed a straight-forward message from the children to President Obama telling him to lead the US at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December. I would like to send a similar message to our Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The most important reasons for Canada to participate in the UN Climate Talks is to demonstrate our capacity for leadership, action, contribution financially, and commitment as a developed country (that has one of the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gases in the world) and share a commitment to reducing CO2 emissions to 350ppm and dropping global temperatures by 2º Celsius.

Will our grand-children say…”Sorry, our prime minister was too busy making a political announcement at another Tim Horton’s donut shop to give a damn about climate change?” Come on Mr. Prime Minister, listen to what the American kids are saying to their President.

What will you say to your children and grand-children about how instrumental you were in “making a difference” as a Canadian leader to reducing our emissions and global temperature in December of 2009 when over 190 countries in the world will make agreements about how we act together to solve this problem? This is not about individual beliefs; it’s about global partnership and unity in the face of the most important economic and environmental issue our planet has ever faced.

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World Leaders cut up cheques in Barcelona (Oxfam Int’l)

Barcelona is the last official round of negotiations before a UN deal is signed in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

A widely accepted target for financial aid calls on the countries which created the climate crisis, to provide at least $150 billion per year to help poor countries reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate.  Poor countries fear that carbon-emitting countries will try to substitute funds required for Climate Change adaptation as part of the 0.7 per cent of national income already requested/committed to overseas aid.

The European Union announced an agreement to provide up to €100 billion a year to fund climate efforts in developing countries, but failed to commit the EU to any specific sums, delaying their decision until after December’s UN conference in Copenhagen.  In short, the EU is waiting to hear commitments from North America and other countries that will influence their final contribution to poor countries.

Millions of poor people around the world are already struggling to cope with the effects of climate change and delay in negotiating the financing of Climate Change is catching up to carbon emitting nations whose responsibility it will ultimately be to pay the financial cost of mitigation and adaptation to climate change conditions.

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Canada was shamed once again with the #1 Fossil of the Day Award at the UN Climate talks in Barcelona for their efforts ‘to drag down the climate talks’ and for being un-constructive in the climate negotiations.

What Canadian delegation said:

At an informal briefing on mitigation of climate impacts Canada suggested that losses or damages due to climate change should not be addressed as part of the objectives on adaptation.

“would not envisage loss and damage [due to climate change impacts] being addressed as part of the objectives on adaptation”

Perhaps it would be better if Canada and other major emitters waited for a world court to find us at fault for knowingly contributing to damage and destruction around the world for doing so little to combat climate change.

With the African nations walking out of negotiations and G77 supporting them there has been an effort to ratchet up negotiations and move the Cop15 process forward.

Will Canada shine its shoes and start offering real solutions or continue to stall the process?

“A Copenhagen Agreement that does not recognize that such impacts exist and that does not include resolute provisions to address these impacts would mean that the world’s most vulnerable people, namely those for which adaptation funding is not available, would be left out of the agreement,” said Antonio Hill from Oxfam International.

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The TckTckTck campaign woke up delegates as they arrived to the conference centre in Barcelona for the last 5 days of negotiations before Copenhagen.  At 8:30 this morning more than 200 people from several TckTckTck partners, and local partner Depana, set off over 1000 alarm clocks to remind leaders that time is running out for a fair, ambitious and binding deal.

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Well imagine that, Canadian campaign by Moms Against Climate Change includes a provocative video (below) that makes a bold appeal for action on global warming.

“If our children knew the facts we do, they’d take action. Shouldn’t you?”

Canadian environmental groups Environmental Defence and ForestEthics are behind the bold campaign that encourages parents to upload photos of their kids to encourage Stephen Harper to think of their needs in considering COP-15, the necessary treaty in Copenhagen.

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In North Bay Ontario (October 24, 2009) we walked in the rain, while around the world hundreds of thousands of people attending over 5200 events made their voices heard in the largest ever action to encourage governments to take Climate Change seriously and resolve to come to a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen this December.

See Video from around the world:

Have a gander at the photos from around the world.

http://www.350.org

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