Mahallas

The fight for climate justice continues

2009-12-22T01:19:00.000+02:00

The advance unedited version of the Copenhagen Accord can be found here.
The fight continues until the next UN CLIMATE AGREEMENT (jan 2013)

Copenhagen: my understanding overview

2009-12-20T20:17:00.016+02:00

The Cop summit is now over. 14 days of negotiations with the last couple of days being dramatic. The whole process in my opinion was totally confusing and difficult to follow. The result more or less the same. Some state that this is a meaningful deal, others that there was no deal at all.

What I get from all this is summarised below :

THE MOMENTUM:

14 days
60 000 people pushing for the best possible deal (activists) outside and inside the negotiation center
some maths: 2300 years people time just in Copenhagen.

"Wasted!"

"Politicians did not manage to get the so long waited result."

THE UP SIDE:

collaboration and team effort between different activism organisations
new contacts and connections
new movement building bringing people from around the world together

"This should help the ongoing effort until the final deal."

"It should keep the pressure going."

DO WE HAVE A DEAL?

We have the so called: "The Copenhagen Accord"
We do NOT have an adopted deal.
What we have is a paper really which the countries who wish to can sign to it!
It should be signed by all.

"Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba: some of the countries that will probably NOT sign."

"Very weak deal "

RESULT:

Does not solve the problem
Gives an impression that:
- countries are gonna cooperate
- the two degrees target is set.
- some money to be thrown some time soon
A deal made up for fulfilling the politicians domestic purposes that has no real effect on meeting the target.

"Worst than No-Deal because it gives an impression that progress has been made"

"Heading towards no resolution within the next couple of years"

"Chance on stopping the temperature rise before the extra 2 degrees: between coin-flip and suicide"

FOE (Friends Of Earth) Cyprus calls to support their representatives in Copenghagen

2009-12-16T16:58:00.003+02:00

Dear Friends,

Friends of the Earth International have been banned from the Bella Centre, where the official negotiations are taking place. This has happened in a week where the UNFCCC have been clamping down on NGO and civil society access to the climate talks.

It looks like standing up for justice has upset those rich nations pushing for a weak and unfair deal. Delegates from Friends of the Earth International turned up this morning to find that their passess had been barred without their knowledge.

Our organisations represent millions of people around the world and provide a critical voice on behalf of climate justice inside the UN. "Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth International Chair"

We need you to tell Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, that this is a disgrace. Civil society and NGO's have every right to attend these talks and seek a fair deal for all.

Email Yvo de Boer to make every possible effort to reinstate Friends of the Earth International, and other NGO and civil society passes by clicking here:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/friends_earth_banned_22338.html

Thanks,
FOE(Cyprus)
http://www.foecyprus.weebly.com/

The Stupid Show

2009-12-16T00:09:00.002+02:00

If you are confused about what's going on in Copenhagen at the moment, watch The Stupid Show, a guerrilla production hosted by Franny Armstrong, the director of drama-documentary-animation film about climate change, The Age of Stupid. It's meant to make sense out of what is going on at the Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference, for those of us who want the whole thing made simple, silly and interactive.

Check out their website http://www.ageofstupid.net to watch the show and download the movie.

There's three days left so tune in for a piece of on-site action, dudes!

Thoughts on The Wave, 5th December by Wabandydoo

2009-12-15T22:56:00.011+02:00

While humanity awaited for the Copenhagen summit to start, the biggest climate march in the UK took place, organised by various groups such as the “Stop Climate Chaos coalition”, with over 40 000 people protesting in favour of this planet.

People in blue outfits joined together to contribute perhaps to the biggest challenge facing humanity at this stage. The march began from Grosvenor’s Square finishing at the Parliament Square where the protesters demanded a fair deal to save the planet and protect the world’s poor.

As a researcher there I was fortunate enough to encounter various perspectives. I was really happy to notice that people still care, still have values and are still sensitive towards the earth. Most of the persons involved shared a combination of anthropocentric and ecocentric views rather than more radical perspectives. When asked whether the world leaders should agree on a binding agreement to radically reduce the C02 emissions all respondents ranked this goal as top priority. What was so interesting about it was that the demographics (age and ethnicity) of this protest were rather equally distributed across the participants. Even though the devastating effects of climate change are probably something that most of these generations will not live to experience, we noticed that intergenerational equity was a shared quality among the protesters. People were demanding collective action, they were essentially demanding change. What do they want? CLIMATE JUSTICE. When do they want it? NOW.

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxL_LnaO-q8 or type 'the wave london' on youtube.

Copenhagen Talks Week 1

2009-12-15T02:16:00.003+02:00

The week began with a controversy of a report of a leaked Danish text, that reportedly would give developed nations more power in how to fight climate change, and leave poorer nations out of the negotiating process. U.N.F.C.C. Exec. Secretary Yvo de Boer, COP15 President Connie Hedegaard denied it. But G-77 and Africa nations cried foul. As the week progressed, so did the negotiations. And by the end of the week a working draft agreement was produced. But can the nations build upon it the second week? de Boer and IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri discuss the first week and their expectations for the second. The U.S. delegation arrived to great fanfare, to explain the American's position on restitution for pollution and the plan to move forward. And finally, DONG energy gives a tour of the world's first commercial size 2nd generation bio-fuels plant, turning biomass into fuel.

Copenhagen Summit: day to day

2009-12-12T23:49:00.002+02:00

Read more for a day to day video report by clean skies on the copenghagen summit

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Day 4
The Clean Skies News team is at Day 4 of the climate talks in Copenhagen, as discussion continues over emissions cuts for large countries and climate funding for poorer countries. They track comments from Todd Stern, George Soros and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

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Day 3
On Day 3 of world climate talks in Copenhagen, Tyler Suiters questions EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson during her speech at the conference. Today's topics focus on a strengthened U.S. position toward regulations and the importance of other major emissions-producing countries like China and India, on board.

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Day 2
Clean Skies News' Tyler Suiters is live from Copenhagen, Denmark, describing how speakers on Day 2 of the climate talks acknowledge the existence of changing global temperatures and weather worldwide and how such occurrences are a threat to life on this planet.

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Day 1
The climate talks in Copenhagen got underway this morning and Clean Skies News is in the Denmark capitol with what's happening on Day 1. With major discussions on the key role the world's major emitters will play as the negotiations go forward, negotiators and international delegates weigh in on the most effective approach to cutting carbon emissions.

Ed shares his thoughts on climate change

2009-12-11T00:57:00.003+02:00

I made a decision several years ago to try and dedicate my professional life to finding technical solutions to try and mitigate the climate catastrophe now facing us. I have spent the intervening years furiously studying the subject, reading everything book, attending every lecture and taking part in every debate I can find. But although I have in no way lost my motivation for this subject, I am starting to come to the conclusion that perhaps we are missing the point.

Climate change is almost undoubtedly the greatest challenge facing our generation, but I now believe it to be merely a symptom of the larger issues that humankind faces today. Central dilemmas at the COP15 in Copenhagen are the roles to be played by nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), as well as the quantities of money to be thrown at poor countries to bring them onboard. But in a world already groaning under the pressures of ever-increasing demands by wealthy consumers, these can be no more than emergency tourniquets to stem the bleeding while a true solution is sought.

Even before climate science was properly documented, the famous MIT “Limits to Growth” simulations and the landmark publication of “Small is Beautiful” by E.F. Schumacher examined the carrying capacity of the Earth and stated the seemingly obvious: growth at (for example) 3% per annum is exponential and, no matter how large, the Earth is finite and there will come a time when we overstep these limits. More recently, a 2009 Nature paper attempted to define a “Safe Operating Space for Humanity”. The authors identified 9 planetary boundaries, saying, “as long as the thresholds are not crossed, humanity has the freedom to pursue long-term social and economic development”. Only one of these boundaries was climate change. Three of these boundaries have already been overstepped.

I write this sitting outside the colossal Westfield shopping centre in London. This shrine to the capitalist gods is filled to bursting, day in day out, with people furiously searching for that new gadget or piece of clothing that will make them stand out. In a society where we have lost the cultural identities that used to hold communities together, each individual tries to manufacture him or herself an identity by shopping. We define ourselves by what we consume. As Christmas approaches we become even more frantic, and start to define our relationships with other humans by what we buy for them! This is driven in no small measure by the enormous advertising industry, which makes vast sums of money convincing people to consume ever more by making them feel inadequate, by telling them that buying this t-shirt or that butter will make them as sexy as the airbrushed model on the billboards.

As an engineer, then, I search for solutions. Not solutions to allow people to keep living exactly as they do at all costs, but rather solutions that will help reconnect people to the Earth from which we are now separated by so many layers of concrete and engineered systems. I want people to understand and engage with the energy they use in their homes and cars every day, and to realise from whence it has come.

There is a Buddhist exercise that involves thinking back over every person that has affected your life this day. Not just the people you talked to and the people who grew the food that you eat, but also the person who made the patent leather shoes you are wearing, the person who herded the cattle that were used to make the leather, the person who brought the cattle herd his lunch in the fields… The list is endless. We humans are all interconnected, and it is folly to assume that we can keep overstepping the planet’s limits purely because we see no immediate effect on our front doorstep.

I am not a rabid environmental campaigner advocating that we all march back to the countryside in hair shirts and live in straw bale houses. I simply think that in the hectic helter-skelter forwards rush of today’s society, perhaps we could take a little more time to think and reflect on our lives.

To close with a line from a famous poem:
“With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy”

EHB

Copenhagen Climate Change Summit (Theme of the month, 1st post)

2009-12-04T17:32:00.016+02:00

The United Nations Climate Change Conference starts on Monday 7th of December in Copenhagen. Its purpose is supposed to be replacing the ill-fated Kyoto Protocol. I really hope (but I doubt it) that the UN nations will come up with an applicable protocol that all countries will implement. I do think that all countries have to make major improvements towards a Greener future. However I am still in doubt whether the current climate change our Earth is experiencing is only a consequence of us humans destroying our environemnt with huge carbon emissions etc. I believe that the rising average temperature and the melting of the ice caps in the poles is just a periodical phenomenon that happens every few thousands of years that we can't really avoid. In any case the Copenhagen summit should try and find ways of reducing the negative effects this phenomenon has.

I also include below an excellent video related to the Copenhagen summit regarding the sinking Tuvalu islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

Tuvalu - Islands on the frontline of Climate Change from panos pictures on Vimeo.

http://the-wave.org.uk/

2009-12-05T14:17:00.007+02:00

Join the giant human wave TODAY at 3p.m. at Parliament in London giving out the world's message for the Copenhagen Summit commencing on Monday 7 Dec

It's a simple idea: Just think about other people

2009-12-05T19:21:00.005+02:00

Climate change, well I guess nobody really likes change. People usually want things to remain as they are. We all feel uncomfortable when things change. But when it’s about the weather, if you think about it you can’t really blame people from certain cold countries if they don’t actually bother about this particular change, especially if its called global warming. What’s wrong with getting a bit more sun and having a warmer winter?

Don’t you think that this is a very simplistic phrase to refer to such a serious problem? I mean the consequences are so huge and yet when you hear the phrase global warming or climate change your thought doesn’t immediately go to all those potential tsunamis, floods and other disasters.

But anyway, on a more serious note, at the end of the day it’s not about what we call it, it’s about what we do to make it stop. And to be honest, for many years I wasn’t really motivated about this topic until I had a conversation with a friend of mine who is really passionate about saving the environment. And the idea that changed my perception of the problem was that this is not about saving the environment or saving the earth, it’s about saving humanity. This is a humanitarian issue in the same way that war is causing all those humanitarian issues.

If you think about the consequences of climate change on certain parts of the world, you will soon realise that in a few years certain areas will be inhabitable. People will have to move to other areas in search for a safe place to build their homes and raise their families. We are talking about millions of refugees, being driven out of their homes because of floods, rising sea level and other catasrophic weather effects.

And the question is, what is going to happen to these people? For how long will countries accept these refugees when they already have problems with all the other illegal immigrants crossing their borders? Who is going to provide jobs, food and financial support for these people?

In a war you more or less know who is to blame for the consequenes. For this humanitarian disaster I’m not sure who to blame or who to hold responsible. Or maybe I know and Im just ignoring it. Maybe its me and my lifestyle. Maybe if I change some of my daily habits, a few people around the world might have a better future. At the end of the day it's a simple idea. Just think about other people....

Humanity Needs Five Earths To Maintain Consumption Levels

2009-12-06T05:49:00.001+02:00

Did you know that if every single living person on Earth was living as profligately as Americans we would have needed FIVE EARTHS to produce the required resources?
(from an article on The Independent dated 25 November, 2009)

Climate Change - A controversial approach

2009-12-06T12:32:00.002+02:00

On my "Copenhagen Climate Change Summit" post I argued that the climate change and global warming we are experiencing is possibly a periodic natural phenomenon that happens every few thousand of years. I came across this idea a couple of years ago when I read an article on a newspaper. However, after that post I felt that I should try and find more evidence to check wether my opinion is valid. I therefore came across a documentary called "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which I include below . This is a documentary in the same lines as my opinion. It is considered versy controversial and several debates where held after it was broadcasted. One set of data presented is the graph below which indeed shows that Earth Temperature is periodically changing and in fact, 1000 years ago our Earth experienced a more severe Global Warming than the one we are currently experiencing and it was definetely not caused by CO2 emmisions. This is a fact, what's the actual question is to what extent human activity is responsible for the current warming.

Here is the documentary. It's 76 min long but it definetely worths to listen to a different opinion.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5576670191369613647#