This week is crucial in the countdown to the Copenhagen Climate Conference as world leaders gather for the UN Climate Summit in New York to hammer out details and nail down final positions.
And welcome surprises could yet be in store with reports (against the grain) emerging about China and India taking decisive leadership on this crucial issue.
It could yet be that the threats posed by climate change will unite old foes, dissolve the fog of politics and cleanse the senses of the Great Polluters. And, leading the charge (and the change), the mighty multi-tasker himself, Barack Obama, gave a characteristically rousing and impassioned speech at the UN earlier today. Get involved - your voice counts
The surprising thing is that many are just waking up to the fact that climate change is very much about people (and not just polar bears). People around the world are suffering the impacts of climate change right now. Vulnerable communities, rich and poor, need to be assisted so they can protect themselves and better adapt to the known and unavoidable impacts down the road.
(By way of anecdote - we ran out of room on our website last week so inundated were we with stories of flood disasters spanning the globe from Nepal, India, Turkey, Burkina Faso and Sudan among others. All of them unprecedented, affecting millions of people and causing countless millions worth of dollars in damages that will take years to rehabilitate. Nor does this under-estimated figure include the sizable development investments that have been lost and that will now have to be rebuilt from scratch - if the money can be raised, again).
One of the best Climate Change movements out there at the moment - in HDEO's humble opinion - is called Tck Tck Tck. (HDEO is a proud partner). It is an unprecedented global alliance of non-government organizations (including Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF and many many others), trade unions, faith groups and people like you—all calling for an ambitious, fair and binding climate change agreement.
There is little doubt that the Copenhagen conference next December is a defining moment in our contemporary history. In the face of such adversity the only option is to join forces, put our differences aside, and do something other than point the finger or drown in denial. It is a time to unite in solidarity. Time to act at the individual level.
As John F. Kenney once said: “Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man.”
And .... THIS just in from Google! And this from the Guardians of all that's good. /PC
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