No wonder the environment is losing

There’s been much lamenting across the media about the apparent failure of the Copenhagen Summit last month. Yet in reading today’s headlines, it really couldn’t have ended any other way.

Take for instance the following:

• “European Manufacturers Rally Against 30% Reduction in GHG Emissions”
• “FirstEnergy Asks to Exceed Mercury Limits in Wastewater Discharges”

And then there’s yesterday’s headline:

“Alaska senator moves to bar EPA rules on greenhouse gas emissions“

With so much pressure and financial backing coming from so many directions, how could the Summit’s outcome been otherwise?

Balance this against continued evidence that climate change is indeed speeding along, with the Arctic northwest passage now being tussled over for a variety of development projects – from laying underwater telecommunications cable to prospective oil drilling. Seems the politicians and corporate America see dollar signs amidst the melting glaciers.

Too bad for the island and countries that will go underwater due to rising sea levels, creating tens of thousands (if not more) of displaced and homeless. Too bad that more marine species are threatened or will go extinct. Just gotta have our progress, you know.

As environmentalists and a concerned public clamor for effective action by government leaders, is it merely whistling in the wind?  One has to wonder.

Copenhagen Summit severly limits NGO participation

With the eyes of the world on Copenhagen and the U.N. Climate Change Conference, it seems that organizers will be limiting who can get inside during the last most critical decision-making sessions.

While 45,000 people are registered, today and tomorrow only 7,000 civilian observers will be allowed entrance, with those numbers reduced to 1,000 on Thursday and a mere 90 allowed in the conference center by Friday, the day of final negotiations.

A coalition of 50 NGOs ( non-government organizations) has drafted a formal letter protesting this move, saying the restrictions are a breach of Denmark’s obligation to provide public access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters.

 

NGO protesters outside the Copenhagen Summit

In response to this perceived  undemocratic formal treaty negotiation, organizers at the Klimaforum09 (the People’s Climate Summit) in downtown Copenhagen, wrote a formal declaration that’s been signed by more than 350 organizations representing millions of people from around the world. 

 

Among the declaration’s recommendations are:

• an immediate cut in CO2 emissions by industrialized countries of at least 40 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2020  
• a 30-year phase out of fossil fuels
• that compensation be paid to those most impacted by climate change and for the “overconsumption of atmospheric space” – meaning developing countries cannot emit as much carbon as rich countries historically have

Entitled “System change, not climate change – A People’s Declaration from Klimaforum09″, organizers will submit the declaration to COP15′s president Connie Hedegaard.

The world is watching to see what will happen next – and if anything binding will come out of this historic gathering.

One child's voice speaks out to Copenhagen

A 12-year old addresses the world

As delegates from 192 nations around the world begin meetings in Copenhagen today, they would do well to remember the words of a child.In 1992, then 12-year old Severen Suzuki of the Environmental Organization (ECO) of Canada addressed the delegates of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

 

In a passionate speech, she presented an indictment and plea to the assembled delegates to remember why they were there.

Suzuki reminded them that in school, their children learned  to share, to clean up their messes, to work with others. She asked them why these were things they weren’t doing themselves. She painted a picture of a world where she was afraid of breathing the air, of drinking the water, of fishing with her father because the fish now had cancers.  

 

Ms. Suzuki today

This young girl was eloquent and spoke in a way that left no room for misunderstanding. Delegates must act NOW. 

 

That was  17 years ago. Since then, more species have grown extinct while others are severely threatened. CO2 emissions have grown while Arctic ice shelves are crumbling and glaciers are rapidly disappearing.

With so many reports that the Copenhagen Summit won’t reach a binding agreement, the voice of this child – now a young woman – needs to be raised again in hopes that world leaders this time will pay attention, set aside agendas and biases, and ACT.