Photo Credit: mirror.co.uk

It is unfortunate that it takes a natural disaster like the earthquake in Haiti for the international community to come together. Perhaps if there were more natural disasters caused by global warming there would have been more accomplished in Copenhagen at the most recent summit on climate change. It seems a growing trend in international politics is to only react when there is a disaster. There seems to be no thought invested in preventing the disaster. Not that an earthquake can be prevented, but global warming can be. And although I am using a horrible tragedy to shamelessly discuss global warming, the prospect of global warming happening could wipe out most of the northern hemisphere. Is there a plan in place to deal with that kind of tragedy? Is there a plan in place to deal with the billions of displaced people suddenly clamoring into the South? I doubt it. We will be just that, clamoring on in, busting over the Rio Grande.
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It’s finally the end of the Copenhagen climate change summit. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had my hopes up. After almost two weeks of high-level collaborative teamwork you’d expect something more to show for it than the sooty remains of a huge carbon footprint. To be fair, our world leaders have come up with an insight that is staggering in its implications (see #2… no pun intended): “Deep cuts in global emissions are required.” I thought we already figured that part out. Oh snap! But wait, there’s more! The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon tells us that, “although the accord may not be what everyone had hoped for, it is a beginning.” Apparently Kyoto is now passé; in 1997, I thought it was a beginning. In spite of my disappointment at the outcome of the conference, however, I can rest easy because Canada’s Minister of the Environment, Jim Prentice, assures me that this not legally binding accord is “an excellent agreement.” With Canada’s record of escalating carbon emissions each year since the Kyoto Accord was signed – a 27% increase from 1990 benchmark levels – how can I not feel good about this?
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