Ah well, all good things must come to an end, and the circus at Copenhagen too draws to a close with a grand declaration of success by none other than the illustrious Mr Obama.
He said "The US, China, Brasil, India and South Africa have agreed to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more than 2 deg C and, importantly, to take action to meet this objective".
Well well well! What can anyone say to that? It just makes me fall on my knees in dazed awe at the brilliance of the achievement. Here is a group of politicians who have used scotch tape to cover the worlds wounds and made it all go away! Amazing.
Jokes apart, if you knit together the various vignettes - Australia fudging its emission figures to make them look good, the Dutch working behind the scenes to work out an alternate treaty to protect the interests of the developed world, the very crude $100 billion offer from the US with so many strings attached that it looked like the wooly mammoth, the insistence in wanting to do away with the Kyoto Protocol, all paint one simple picture. And that picture is as follows:
The world is now polarised into two - the developed part and the developing part.
The developed part is willing and able to move to a lower carbon footprint. But it does NOT want the developing world hanging around its neck.
It is also quite blase about the fact that its gross excesses in the past have created this problem. "Ok - so I raped the earth. So what? That was in the past, and you have no power over me to make me repent for it. But I promise to screw your happiness if you attempt to do what I did."
The developing part is uselessly and stupidly still shouting "Rape! Help, Please come and help us"
Grow up.
No one helps anyone else in today's dog eat dog world. People and countries just help themselves.
So to my mind this summit at Copenhagen has been a great success. Really - I mean it.
It has completely cleared the air.
The developing countries have been asking for assistance - money and technology from the developed countries in order to battle climate change, as a partial atonement for the creation of this mess.
The developed world has completely refused.
So at least that bit of the debate is settled.
Now the only reality is as that the world is still getting hotter, and each individual in each country has to do their bit to help cool it down.
The developing world needs to understand that only efficiency, innovation, reduced corruption and determination are going to see them through.
If they do not make progress in reducing their emissions, the developed world can and will impose sanctions and trade barriers on it to force it to do so.
If the developed world does not make similar progress, there is very little that can be done about it as the weak cannot force the strong. Simple law of nature.
So my advice to the developing world is to stop whimpering about the the injustice of it all and get down to work.
It is very unjust.
However, it is the only reality there is.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Climate of fear at Copenhagen
"Fear?" I hear you, the reader say with incredulity.
"Why fear? we think it is greed and self interest, not fear" You add.
However, I will stick to my guns - I will maintain that it is a climate of fear that is dictating the stalemate that has already happened after a mere 6 days of the Copenhagen climate change meet.
Why fear? Fear of what?
The oldest fear of "I'm willing to take specific action, but I'm afraid that others might not - therefore I will wait till everyone else agrees BEFORE taking any action"
You see what is happening?
The desire to take any action has been superseded by the desire to forge a consensus.
At this global summit nations should have been openly bringing out what they are doing or about to do to control climate change. They should be discussing the challenges that they are facing, political, financial, technological - all sorts of challenges. And therefore, this forum should be working towards creating a policy to help remove those challenges so that everyone can collaborate to a large extent.
Instead, another United Nations has been created with every nation having veto power.
Instead, all nations are rigidly arguing for the perceived interest of their people.
Forgetting that all citizens are facing this common threat, that no one is benefited by fine oratory, by political maneuvers that only increase the global gridlock.
Forgetting that the people that they claim to represent are willing to cooperate, willing to make changes, willing to make sacrifices.
Forgetting that the people sent them there for action - not for more talk.
So our global leaders are scared that they might make some stupid commitment that might cause them to loose power or the very fine administrative post that they hold.
Its OK to lose the world, but its not OK to lose power.
After all, the world is an intangible asset, whereas their positions of power are very very real.
I believe in simplicity.
I believe in the power of doing rather than talking.
I believe that if one or two brave leaders stand up and make specific, unilateral declarations, then it will act as a trigger for others to relinquish their hardened, narrow, self serving stands.
I believe that if some leaders put their mother earth above their nation, and far far above their own personal aspirations, the whole world will follow suit.
"Why fear? we think it is greed and self interest, not fear" You add.
However, I will stick to my guns - I will maintain that it is a climate of fear that is dictating the stalemate that has already happened after a mere 6 days of the Copenhagen climate change meet.
Why fear? Fear of what?
The oldest fear of "I'm willing to take specific action, but I'm afraid that others might not - therefore I will wait till everyone else agrees BEFORE taking any action"
You see what is happening?
The desire to take any action has been superseded by the desire to forge a consensus.
At this global summit nations should have been openly bringing out what they are doing or about to do to control climate change. They should be discussing the challenges that they are facing, political, financial, technological - all sorts of challenges. And therefore, this forum should be working towards creating a policy to help remove those challenges so that everyone can collaborate to a large extent.
Instead, another United Nations has been created with every nation having veto power.
Instead, all nations are rigidly arguing for the perceived interest of their people.
Forgetting that all citizens are facing this common threat, that no one is benefited by fine oratory, by political maneuvers that only increase the global gridlock.
Forgetting that the people that they claim to represent are willing to cooperate, willing to make changes, willing to make sacrifices.
Forgetting that the people sent them there for action - not for more talk.
So our global leaders are scared that they might make some stupid commitment that might cause them to loose power or the very fine administrative post that they hold.
Its OK to lose the world, but its not OK to lose power.
After all, the world is an intangible asset, whereas their positions of power are very very real.
I believe in simplicity.
I believe in the power of doing rather than talking.
I believe that if one or two brave leaders stand up and make specific, unilateral declarations, then it will act as a trigger for others to relinquish their hardened, narrow, self serving stands.
I believe that if some leaders put their mother earth above their nation, and far far above their own personal aspirations, the whole world will follow suit.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
The Sad Sad Dance at Copenhagen
The sad patterns of human behaviour that have persisted over the past hundreds of years still govern our actions today, despite the veneer of of "education and civilisation" that many of us have put on.
In the good old days of the past, countries that had the might simply took what they wanted from other countries that could not resist them.
If a strong country needed a large, very cheap labour force, they went to other countries, and forcefully took those citizens as their slaves, and did what they wanted to.
If a strong country wanted a cheap supply of raw materials, well it just went ahead and "colonised" that country and simply took what it needed, in the way that suited it best.
Nowadays, however the world today has become a lot less simple. There are global bodies, free press, values like democracy - all of them preventing powerful countries from simply and directly doing what they need to do.
Therefore we witness the strange dances that take place at meetings like Copenhagen.
We see powerful countries that are very clear about what they want - low cost development and higher economic growth rates. Since they have the commercial means to manage most of the adverse impacts of climate change, they are not fundamentally concerned.What is however making them very upset is the fact that they need to make actual compromises and spend real money whereas they had been used to just talking and making grand gestures while forcing others to do their dirty work for them.
Therefore we see them making all the right statements, but resisting all real action.
We see desperate attempts to do anything, anything at all, to pass on the real burden to others less capable of resisting, while appearing to be doing everything.
Yes - indeed, the old mindsets still rule.
Shift dirty industries to developing nations.
Then force them to take on steep environmental targets.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Simple.
Sad.
In the good old days of the past, countries that had the might simply took what they wanted from other countries that could not resist them.
If a strong country needed a large, very cheap labour force, they went to other countries, and forcefully took those citizens as their slaves, and did what they wanted to.
If a strong country wanted a cheap supply of raw materials, well it just went ahead and "colonised" that country and simply took what it needed, in the way that suited it best.
Nowadays, however the world today has become a lot less simple. There are global bodies, free press, values like democracy - all of them preventing powerful countries from simply and directly doing what they need to do.
Therefore we witness the strange dances that take place at meetings like Copenhagen.
We see powerful countries that are very clear about what they want - low cost development and higher economic growth rates. Since they have the commercial means to manage most of the adverse impacts of climate change, they are not fundamentally concerned.What is however making them very upset is the fact that they need to make actual compromises and spend real money whereas they had been used to just talking and making grand gestures while forcing others to do their dirty work for them.
Therefore we see them making all the right statements, but resisting all real action.
We see desperate attempts to do anything, anything at all, to pass on the real burden to others less capable of resisting, while appearing to be doing everything.
Yes - indeed, the old mindsets still rule.
Shift dirty industries to developing nations.
Then force them to take on steep environmental targets.
Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Simple.
Sad.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Commoners Copenhagen – Saving the Earth from Politicians
Politicians claim to represent us – the common public.
That’s probably correct. But often various pressures on them cause them to do things that we do not want. They often take decisions and frame policies that are against our best interests, and they do so in our name.
So perhaps politicians always do not act in our best interests – despite what they might claim.
This worries me a lot, specially when it comes to something as important as saving the earth from the consequences of Global warming.
Just today morning a group of 100 scientists from around the globe concluded that the sea levels are rising at almost double the speed predicted by the UN Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).
On the other hand, the early noises that politicians are making about likely outcomes at Copenhagen worry me deeply. They all seem to say that they will not be able to come to a consensus on what exactly each country will do to stop the growth in global warming.
While they are arguing, the snows are melting, the rainfall patterns are shifting, there are more droughts, more floods, more human misery.....
What is really irritating is the fact that they are claiming that all this dithering is in our best interests. Whereas it is only in their best interests.
Even in this time of great crisis, they are more concerned about protecting their vote banks and the interests of big industry from where their funding and wealth comes, even while claiming that they are acting in our best interests.
Normal people understand a fundamental truth that politicians are terrified to confront - that people realise that lifestyle changes and compromises will have to me made around the globe in order to check this common disaster, and that there are no geographic boundaries that nature understands - that we are all connected. And the fact that people are willing to make personal sacrifices to help save our world.
They understand that the west, led by the US and Europe will have to start consuming a bit less - less energy, perhaps switch off the extra lights, perhaps not use the heated pool for a swim in the middle of winter, perhaps even lower the thermostat a degree or two.
They also understand that countries like India will have to move quickly to curb population growth and to use cleaner energy sources even as they develop.
They understand that powerhouses like China will have to switch to cleaner energy sources.
Over and above all, the common people are clear that the time for discussion is behind us - that the time has come for joint action now.
Are there no great statesmen left on earth? Are we to be led only by self serving politicians and dictators, only bent on their survival and wealth generation?
That’s probably correct. But often various pressures on them cause them to do things that we do not want. They often take decisions and frame policies that are against our best interests, and they do so in our name.
So perhaps politicians always do not act in our best interests – despite what they might claim.
This worries me a lot, specially when it comes to something as important as saving the earth from the consequences of Global warming.
Just today morning a group of 100 scientists from around the globe concluded that the sea levels are rising at almost double the speed predicted by the UN Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).
On the other hand, the early noises that politicians are making about likely outcomes at Copenhagen worry me deeply. They all seem to say that they will not be able to come to a consensus on what exactly each country will do to stop the growth in global warming.
While they are arguing, the snows are melting, the rainfall patterns are shifting, there are more droughts, more floods, more human misery.....
What is really irritating is the fact that they are claiming that all this dithering is in our best interests. Whereas it is only in their best interests.
Even in this time of great crisis, they are more concerned about protecting their vote banks and the interests of big industry from where their funding and wealth comes, even while claiming that they are acting in our best interests.
Normal people understand a fundamental truth that politicians are terrified to confront - that people realise that lifestyle changes and compromises will have to me made around the globe in order to check this common disaster, and that there are no geographic boundaries that nature understands - that we are all connected. And the fact that people are willing to make personal sacrifices to help save our world.
They understand that the west, led by the US and Europe will have to start consuming a bit less - less energy, perhaps switch off the extra lights, perhaps not use the heated pool for a swim in the middle of winter, perhaps even lower the thermostat a degree or two.
They also understand that countries like India will have to move quickly to curb population growth and to use cleaner energy sources even as they develop.
They understand that powerhouses like China will have to switch to cleaner energy sources.
Over and above all, the common people are clear that the time for discussion is behind us - that the time has come for joint action now.
Are there no great statesmen left on earth? Are we to be led only by self serving politicians and dictators, only bent on their survival and wealth generation?
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