A binding agreement in Copenhagen next month seems to be slipping away because no-one wants to make firm commitments on the reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Personally, I think it would be a tragedy if our leaders came away with just a "wishy washy" set of political statements and nothing concrete. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8345343.stm . For the sake of our children and grandchildren we need ACTION from our statesmen, not words.7 Nov 2009
Climate change - Copenhagen
A binding agreement in Copenhagen next month seems to be slipping away because no-one wants to make firm commitments on the reduction of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Personally, I think it would be a tragedy if our leaders came away with just a "wishy washy" set of political statements and nothing concrete. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8345343.stm . For the sake of our children and grandchildren we need ACTION from our statesmen, not words.
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Public support for an agreement in Copenhagen is slipping away for many good reasons. First, the public is awkening to the fact that the science which supports AGW has always been shaky. Second they are slowly awakening to the truth about climate change, it's solution (cap&trade) and the untimate goal of the UN; The UN wants to become our world Government and will control the world by controlling carbon. He who controls carbon, controls everything. If we give up control of carbon, we give up control of our lives. The UN's Cap&Trade carbon trading sytem will give the UN control of carbon. This is an issue whaich must receive national debate, instead it is being slipped under everyone's nose as a fight against AGW. This is deceitful.
The UN is trying, ON BEHALF OF of its member nations, to reach a global agreement for the benefit of us all. This is NOT a national issue. Carbon trading is far from perfect, so let's make it work better. The issues with climate change and its control need both national and international debate AND ACTION, especially from the nations like ours that have contributed most to the problem.
The whole climate change issue is just a platform for politicians and scientists to build their careers, and a new opportunity for businesses to make a lot of money. With so many vested interests involved, I'm sceptical of the whole thing. And I don't buy the "climate armageddon" argument of the environmentalists. The planet has been warmer (and cooler) before. Some species adapted, some didn't. That's life.
Yes, the climate is changing, it always has, but to what extent it is all our fault is arguable. Whether it can be reversed seems even less likely.
The half baked measures being proposed will make no difference. The reason agreements are hard to reach is that no-one wants to make the sacrifices to their lifestyle that would make a real difference.
People aren't giving up their cars and buying bikes, they are still going on foreign holidays instead of staying at home, they are still buying fruit and veg grown thousands of miles away, they are throwing away still-working computers just because they aren't fast enough to run Windows 7, and tossing perfectly good mobile phones for ones with an extra "must have" feature. Business people are still flying round the world instead of videoconferencing.
Who wants to be first to give up any of this? Not me. And just supposing we all did, the entire world economy that depends on trade and tourism and built-in obsolescence would collapse. Heck, we've only just avoided one economic meltdown. So reversing climate change is politically, economically and practically impossible.
It's time to stop kidding everyone that unplugging the TV set when not in use and changing to low energy lamps is going to save the planet. Time to start planning for how to cope with a warmer planet. But while so many politicians and scientists are on the climate change gravy train going to junkets like Copenhagen that isn't going to happen.
G4ILO makes some good points, but the evidence for man's impact on climate is overwhelming now. Whether or not we are prepared to change the way we live (until it is far too late) is uncertain. In small ways we ALL have to make some sacrifices for the greater good of Man on this planet. I do believe that technology may come to our aid in the next 20 years or so, but this is only part of the answer.
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