UN Conference on Global Warming

Based on article Warning Warming from Grist.org; click title for link.

The 12 day UN Conference on global warming was heard on Monday December 1st. They heard that "War, hunger, poverty and sickness will stalk humanity if the world fails to tackle climate change."

The 192 members at the Conference, held in Poznan, Poland, started with warnings and continued in a step to a new worldwide treaty to reduce greenhouse gases and help countries exposed to the wrath of an altered climate. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) is halfway through a two-year process that is leading up to a new contract/ pact in Copenhagen in December of 2009. They hope to condense the current 82 page document into a workable blueprint for negotiations.

Scientific proof from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proves that the climate change is getting worse. The head of this Panel said, "The impacts of climate change, if there is inaction, can be extremely serious." He went on to list the facts:
The number of people living in severely stressed river basins is projected to rise from 1.4 to 1.6 billion in 1995 to 4.3-6.9 billion in 2050. Between 20 and 30 percent of species assessed will be at increasingly high risk of extinction as global temperatures exceed two to three degrees centigrade (3.6-5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

"Humankind in its activity just reached the limits of the closed system of our planet Earth," said Polish Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki. He continues, "Further expansion in the same style will generate global threats of really great intensity -- huge droughts and floods, cyclones with increasingly more destructive power, pandemics of tropical disease, dramatic decline of biodiversity, increasing ocean levels...All these can cause social and even armed conflict and migration of people at an unprecedented scale."

Rich Western countries, the major polluters historically, are lobbying for emerging giant countries, such as China and India, to tackle their surging emissions since they will be the polluters of tomorrow. Whereas developing countries want the Western countries to help pay for them to expand their economies. They hope for a breakthrough, but the conference was darkened by the global economic crisis.

However, prime minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, argued the optimistic side: that investing in green technology created growth and jobs. "I feel confident that the financial crisis will be overcome. The recovery will come. However climate change is not going to become less of a problem in the coming years," he said. Greenpeace agreed saying that the global recession was "nothing compared to the trillions of dollars that climate change will cost us." World Wildlife Fund also agreed, saying "The current finance crunch was the result of ignoring major risks, so let's not repeat this mistake by ignoring the even bigger risks from climate change."

The new American president-elect Obama also brings home globally. He has set a goal of reducing US emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050, using a cap-and-trade system and a 10-year programme worth 150 billion dollars in renewable energy.

The world is in danger, we need to be its superheroes.
Love,
TreeHugger

PS: Copyright 2008 -- Agence France-Presse

Authors Note: I know that this is old, but I felt it was important and relevant.