The Copenhagen Deal

On December 7 to 18, 2009, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) will be hosting a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.  This conference is set to forge an agreement among countries  to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses worldwide, and is expected to succeed the Kyoto protocol that is going to expire in 2012.  Hence, it is going to be our best chance to secure an international deal involving world’s major economies, major emitters, and the present and future populations of the Earth who (will) experience the impacts of global warming. 

The Copenhagen conference is important because it may either be an occasion where the world unites against carbon pollution in a collective spirit of cooperation and collaboration for the welfare of the Earth (thus, can be a historic event) or a venue where stark differences between the rich and the poor countries would come to fore and leaders pay mere lip-service to and, thus, defeat any chance of collectively working for the environment (hence, it will be a suicide pact).

The issue to be discussed in Copenhagen is never abstract.  The climate pattern across the globe has definitely changed for the worse.  And, that climate change is human beings’ fault! 

The signs of climate change is actually everywhere.  The small island nation of Tuvala is reeling from the effects of rising sea-levels.  California is running out of water.  In Australia, year after year is getting warmer.  One may also count in the unusual number and frequency of tornadoes, supertyphoons, and huricane across the globe.  For the first ime in anyone’s memory, in 2008, it snowed in Baghdad.  China just had its longest cold snap after an unusually warm period where the Chinese Ice Festival had no ice.  Australia is experiencing drought.  The Iditarod race in Alaska had to move father north to find snow.  In the US, there are some cities that make ice skating ponds because they don’t freeze.  Even Mt. Everest is not spared, as its landscape has changed has been changed significantly by global warming since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first conquered the peak in 1953.  The glacier that once came close to Hillary and Norgay’s first camp was found to have retreated three miles (around five kilometers), and series of ponds that used to be near Island Peak (so-called because it was then an island in a sea of ice) had merged into a long lake.