New Light on Copenhagen Climate Talks

On Sept. 1, the European Union stopped
manufacturing and importing incandescent light bulbs. Europeans will
now turn to the much more efficient compact fluorescent, halogen and
LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs. Incandescents, critics argue, waste
up to 95 percent of energy as heat, using only 5 percent for light. The
EU hopes to save the equivalent of 11 million households' energy usage
through the year 2020, worth $7.33 billion per year to the European
economy.

The ban precedes the December 2009
Copenhagen climate conference, held by the United Nations to update the
1997 Kyoto Protocol. Greenhouse-gas emissions now occur faster than
ever. Copenhagen will be critical to the success or failure of
establishing a practical, binding global plan of action before
human-caused climate change reaches the point of no return, creating a
cascade of catastrophes.

Eventually, global warming will become
irreversible if action is not taken. Greenhouse-gas concentrations in
the atmosphere are measured in "parts per million" (PPM).
Environmentalist Bill McKibben says that a sustainable level of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere is 350 PPM. He has named his organization
350.org to reinforce the point. We are currently at 387 PPM and
climbing. McKibben and 350.org are calling for a global day of action,
on Oct. 24, to pressure governments before the Copenhagen summit.

A new generation of environmental
activists is already in motion. This week, two young people were
arrested in West Virginia for halting a Massey Energy Co. mountaintop
coal-mining operation with a weeklong "tree sit," and six people in
London were arrested at the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters for
protesting the bank's investment in fossil fuels. They glued themselves
together and to the floor of the bank to hamper their removal, leading
Reuters to headline its story "Protesters stick together in UK bank
demonstration."

The road to Copenhagen also is paved with
gold: money being spent by the wealthy oil, gas and coal industries to
derail or weaken any outcome. The American Petroleum Institute (API)
has launched an "AstroTurf" (not to be confused with grass roots)
campaign in the U.S., paying for and organizing rallies, largely
attended by oil, gas and coal company employees, under the banner of
"Energy Citizens." Employees are bused in to the staged rallies with
signs proclaiming "I'll pass on $4 gas" and "Congress, don't take away
my job!" Similarities to the organized mobs at health care reform
town-hall-style meetings are not merely coincidental; former Republican
House Majority Leader Dick Armey's group FreedomWorks, funded by, among
others, oil and pharmaceutical corporations, is listed as a consultant
to each industry campaign.

The API is attempting to undermine the
U.S. Senate's consideration of climate-change legislation, and it just
might succeed. The House bill, referred to as the American Clean Energy
and Security Act or the Waxman-Markey climate bill, is up for
consideration by the Senate in September. Fast action would be required
in order to grant President Barack Obama the room to negotiate at the
G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh in late September, a key step in the lead-up
to Copenhagen. But Sens. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry said this week
that the bill will be delayed, citing the health-care debate and the
death of Sen. Edward Kennedy. How ironic. Every week that the health
care and energy bills are delayed is a victory for the opponents of
change, which is especially sad since these were two of the most
important issues to Kennedy.

Genuine citizen action, in the U.S. and
beyond, will be critical to counter industry influence over the
Copenhagen talks. There is a light at the end of the climate tunnel--it
just isn't incandescent.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.