I'm sitting here in the crowded but wonderful 350.org
office near Copenhagen's Central Square, surrounded by young people
from America, New Zealand, India, Ecuador, Mexico, Fiji—all hunched
over laptops, busy organizing. (International youth culture: Gmail).
We're fighting to the last minute of this crazy conference, and then beyond.
A team of geophysicists is warning that the massive polar ice sheets are even more vulnerable to global warming than previously believed, and could trigger a sea level rise of six to nine metres.
The scientists from Princeton and Harvard universities say that just two degrees Celsius of global warming, which is now widely expected to occur in coming decades, could be enough to commit the planet to inundation.
"The time to avoid disastrous outcomes may run out sooner than expected," says Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer.
As world leaders arrive in Copenhagen for the crunch phase of the climate conference, the focus turns to what kind of deal is likely to emerge. Pre-eminent climate scientist Prof James Hansen of the Nasa Goddard Institute has already given the entire process the kiss of death. Any political deal cobbled together is, he believes, likely to be so profoundly flawed as to lock humanity on to “a disaster track.”
Everyone seems to be waiting for someone to break the dam. And everyone knows who that someone is. Because of the size and weight of the United States, and the moral power invested in the current president, it is Barack Obama, and Barack Obama alone, who can rescue the climate negotiations from
the dismal bickering into which they have slumped.
It's been a green autumn here in Putnam County, New York. I've watched with excitement and optimism as bands of passionate eco-moms, sympathetic school principals, and environmental educators have staked out territories for their kids in the woods and wetlands of this rural but sophisticated township. We now have after-school Explorer's Clubs, recycling teams, high school and middle school kids studying the Hudson River, and a beautiful wildlife garden at a local school, in its second year of a construction program, created entirely by volunteers.
At first glance, the Copenhagen climate summit seems like a Salvador Dali dreamscape. I just saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu being followed by a swarm of Japanese students who were dressed as aliens and carrying signs saying "Take Me To Your Leader" and "Is Your Species Crazy?". Before that, a group of angry black-clad teenage protesters who were carrying spray cans started quoting statistics to me about how much carbon dioxide the atmosphere can safely absorb.
The Copenhagen conference on climate change opens against an ominous
backdrop. Global greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures are rising at an alarming
and unanticipated pace. The impacts of climate change are now readily apparent, with
temperatures climbing, Arctic sea ice disappearing, and sea levels already rising at rates
beyond even the worst-case estimates of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Denmark is the home of renowned children’s author Hans Christian Andersen. Copenhagen is dotted with historical spots where Andersen lived and wrote. “The Little Mermaid” was one of his most famous tales, published in 1837, along with “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
As the United Nations’ climate summit, called “COP 15,” enters its final week, with more than 100 world leaders arriving amid growing protests, the notion that a binding agreement will come from this conference looks more and more like a fairy tale.
