According to the Economist, one of the big events of 2009 will be the mega-summit in Copenhagen next month to agree on a post-Kyoto regime for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions.
There have been some pretty stunning developments since the 2008 Bali summit, such as an agreement to preserve Sumatra’s forests. However, my guess it will take the World anoher 10 years to reach an agreement, and another 10 years to get China on board, by which time it will be too late.
Why is it taking us so long to respond to the single biggest crisis to face mankind since… since… well, like, ever?!
There are obviously lots of reasons and more protaganists than you can count, but I wonder what would happen if we simply changed the the name we have given this crisis.
The sorry situation we find ourselves in has been variously described as “climate change”, “global warming” and “the greenhouse effect”. Since Kyoto, we have watched our leaders debate “carbon trading” and “carbon-emissions”, all with the lofty goal of “saving the planet”.
History shows we don’t give a shit about the planet. Over the past 150 years we have burned, mined, drilled, logged and poisoned pretty much every habital corner of this globe. We have ignored Greenpeace, Al Gore and pretty much every other environmentalist there is. Why would we start caring now?
The planet will survive. It’s done it before. We’re the ones in trouble. Australia is struggling with drought, Jakarta is sinking, our fisheries are dwindling and even mighty China is having problems getting water. We are in serious trouble. So here’s my suggestion. Forget gobal warming, greenhouse gasses and CO2 emissions. Let’s start talking about how we are going to save our sorry asses. Now that resonates!
10 comments ↓
Who the heck is Bob Gore?
Al Gore’s lesser-known brother…?
“Save the cheerleader, save the world”. LOL. We won’t care much about the planet unless the planet threat us. Using suffering planet as a reasoning sounds political. I’m with you.
Save our ass, save the world.
I believe life will find its way, with or without us.
I also believe that once people starts saving their sorry asses, the world will be a better place.
If only they can hear you…
well, more and more people are saving their sorry asses, and the world still sucks.
i think we should all save our collective asses, rather than individual, then it should have a great impact..
@rima picky picky…
@ Brett: I am picky.. but knowing you, I know you’d want to save one ass at a time, no?
@rima rima rima… you know me so well.
I don’t know why this issue about planet earth so worrying. We are just exploiting things we can find in and on planet earth. we change the position, from inside the planet into the surface. but we also burry things back into the planet.
why poisoned the globe? because it can cause our death? yeah this issue is more like: we are worrying about our planet bcoz we are worrying about our own existence on this planet. but which one will work now? evolution or natural selection?
your posting sounds a lot like Leonardo diCaprio’s The 11th Hour.
You’re right - the earth will survive, but we won’t, if we keep abusing it the way we do. The end is near… and we’re to blame for it!
But we can’t lose hope yet, we can still save it, it’s just that people need to be more aware of it. Start recycling, stop murdering mother nature.
It’s not too late.