What a farce! All talk and no action as usual. The UN talks on Climate Change have achieved little so far from what I read, and by the looks of it they will do little to prepare for the real talks next year in Copenhagen, which is supposed to cement in binding targets to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. Even when the worlds climate change/environment ministers arrive next week, everyone is holding their breath to see what President-elect Barack Obama does early next year.
All the developed nations are dragging their heals, like we have all the time in the world to stop runaway climate change. Even my own countries politicians have broken a recent promise of setting short term emission targets before the talks in Poznan. Instead, they are waiting until after the talks, and it is believed the Australian Government will probably set a weak target so that the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) starts off slowly, and not with a bang. I expect massive pandering to vested interest groups, like coal, oil and mining. Short term gain for very long term pain! Strong targets will give everyone hope, and if weak ones are set, we might as well give up now!
The real problem is that the science indicates that we all must set between 25-40 percent reductions by 2020. Otherwise, as the majority of the science community suggests, we will reach and average of 2 degree of global warming, and will past the tipping point of runaway climate change. This means that once we drop over that point, it doesn’t really matter how much we reduce global emissions, because the damage is already done and there is no turning back! There are already indications that the IPCC recommendations were far too conservative, and that climate change is already accelerating quicker than the science initially predicted. Say goodbye to the Arctic icecap if this inaction keeps up. I reckon it will be gone soon anyway, and all we will get are the countries, that border the Arctic Ocean, squabbling about potential resource exploitation of the very stuff like oil that got us into this mess.
I hope our elected officials get serious real quick. I am really getting sick of these delaying tactics very quickly. For more info on the political circus that is the Poznan talks have a look at the article below. Very depressing indeed.
"Stop talking and start doing."
To hell with waiting for governments to actually do something about the issue. Lets just keep getting down to business by reducing our own carbon footprint a little each and every day. Our small actions speak much louder than their big words ever will. Here’s to people power!
Gav I really believe the last paragraph you wrote is the answer if we all do soemthing and encourage one other person to do something and they do the same then pretty soon there will be so many peiople doin g soemthing that politicians will simply ahve to take notice and respond.
All revolutions begin in the mind of one person….
sometimes they begin the minds of several people in the one era…this is when they grown and become change.
daisymum
I feel like leaving it to individuals to solve the problem lets big business and government off the hook – they have the power to make it easy for individuals to do the right thing, but they’re hoping we won’t demand it from them.
It’s a puzzler, for sure!
The way I see it is that they are all sitting on their hands waiting for the next guy to do something I dont think that they know what to do anyway Ellie