Climate of Change

Today marks my final http://74days.GOsustainably.com blog entry. (Anything after this is ICING on the cake.) But, as one thing ends, another begins. Today, December 7th is the beginning of the UN Copenhagen Climate talks, COP15, about which this blog has centered. It also a new day for the United States and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Today, the EPA made history when Administrator, Lisa Jackson announced:

Greenhouse gases threaten the health and welfare of the American people. We also found that greenhouse gas emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.

Today's finding is based on decades of research by hundreds of researchers. The vast body of evidence not only remains unassailable, it's grown stronger, and it points to one conclusion: greenhouse gases from human activity are increasing at unprecedented rates and are adversely affecting our environment and threatening our health.

Read all about it. Keep up the good work contra climate change. And stay tuned for the next evolution of Climate of Change.

Yours Truly,

Pamela Snyder

Remember in the film, "Being John Malkovich," much strangeness transpired on the 7½ of the Mertin Flemmer Building in New York City? Well, today (December 6, 2009) is a similarly strange day in San Francisco California at the Climate of Change. This is because COP15 (which officially begins December 7th and runs through the 18th) has actually started in Copenhagen. Time change craziness means it's December 7th there, before it is December 7th. Call *me* crazy, but I wanted my last entry for Climate of Change to be on December 7th, the official start date of the most important meeting thus far in our lives. Therefore, please consider this the 71/2 floor. Enjoy!

I started Climate of Change 74 days prior to COP15, thus its URL: http://74days.GOsustainably.com. My commitment to myself was to spend an hour a day learning more about climate change and COP15. On many of those days, an hour turned to three or four; time flies when you decide to share your quest with the world through a blog. More than 74 blog entries tell the story, and there are less than 29, make that 28, hours 'til the conference begins.

This may be the most important meeting of our lives, and there are many ways we can make sure leaders know we want them to consider it so. Below, are a few options. Please let me know, if you have other suggestions to add! I'll see you in the virtual world, as we come together with one loud voice for a climate of change as we go sustainably into the future. (I couldn't help myself!)

Check out Google Earth's look at climate change.

Have a pressing question about climate change? Submit it now on the YouTube COP15 channel and be part of the televised CNN/YouTube debate on Dec 15.

The World Wants a Real Deal - Global Day of Action Millions of global citizens have already signed the TckTckTck pledge and are ready for leaders to sign a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen. At the mid-point of the climate negotiations on December 12, TckTckTck partners and supporters will unite in every corner of the world for the 'The World Wants a Real Deal'

Global Day of Action
Friday, December 11, 2009 - Sunday, December 13, 2009
5:00PM - 9:00PM
WORLD WIDE

The World Wants a Real Deal will target key decision-makers in Copenhagen through messaging events in the capitals of their home countries-- the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Sweden, the UK, Denmark, and the Arab Region -- complemented by similar messaging events in other countries and thousands of candlelight vigils. People will rally at temporary message walls erected in major cities around the globe to write messages, post photos and sign their names to the call for a Real Deal--one that is fair, ambitious and binding. Then at dusk, these message walls will also be the site of candlelight vigils, uniting with thousands of other candlelight vigils of every scale across the world.

11 Dec - Vigils for Survival
Stand in hope and solidarity with climate victims and the climate vulnerable.
12 Dec - Candlelight Vigils and Message Walls
Sign you name and post a photo. Tell leaders that you are part of a global call for a Real Deal.
13 Dec - Bell Ringing
Sound off on the urgency for climate justice as faith communities around the world ring bells and sound ceremonial horns in support of a Real Deal.

Read the findings of the climate meetings held in Bangkok and Barcelona this autumn. (a.k.a.: the Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention on its seventh session, held in Bangkok from 28 September to 9 October 2009, and Barcelona from 2 to 6 November 2009.)

Take the Training for GHG Inventory Review Experts

The UNFCCC secretariat is organizing a training course for GHG Inventory review experts planned for February - April 2010. Experts who would like to participate need first to be nominated to the roster of experts by their national focal point. Applications are being accepted now.

Read about US President Obama joining the UN conference at crucial moment.


COP15 Navigator iPhone app will help you stay tuned with the conference and be part of the action.

Regarding COP15, Al Gore said recently in a Politico interview that China is ready to work for an agreement, as is India. Infact, he says the two countries are working in tandem toward the global goal. Gore cited Mexico and Bangladesh as two of several developing countries committed to pay into an adaptation fund to avoid climate catastrophe, and notes Egypt is focused on a positive outcome of a binding, international treaty at the upcoming climate conferences:

"The good news is that China really wants an agreement and is really prepared to accept obligations that move the world toward an agreement, and they've marked this as the key challenge for them -- there is broad consensus in every aspect. India has said the same thing, and China and India have created a partnership, a duality of purpose, on this matter. China and India are prepared to move. Mexico and Bangladesh are among those nondeveloped countries that have now said they will contribute to the adaptation fund, not just look to be recipients from it. I was in Egypt [recently], and the mood has completely transformed there. They've now begun to focus on the fact that 40 percent of their agriculture and a huge percentage of their population are in the Nile Delta, less than 1 meter above sea level of the Mediterranean. And the prospects of at least a 1-meter sea level increase this century -- that's the minimum that is coming -- really concentrated the mind, as they say."

Read the whole interview, at Politico.

SEND YOUR CARD TOO!

Here's where to get news (in addition of course, ehem, to Climate of Change) on Copenhagen. The newly launched site has an astounding array of well-organized, useful info on the upcoming (4 more days!) climate talks:

CoveringCopenhagen.com was created to provide background information to journalists covering the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Copenhagen and to help others navigate the complicated issues surrounding international climate policy. While by no means comprehensive, this site aims to cover the basics and provide access to resources beyond the site for further exploration.

We May Be Able to Avert Climate Change Yet

New findings released minutes ago on climate change indicate:

• International commitments to reduce carbon emissions may result in successfully limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees C.
• A binding, political agreement at the UN climate conference December 7th -18th in Copenhagen may amount to a '50-50 chance' of averting global climate catastrophe brought on by a human-made planetary temperature increase.

Professor Nicholas Stern (also known as Lord Stern of Brentford), who published the two reports announced today, is an economist and the author of the seminal Stern Report on the Economics of Climate Change, 2005, raising international concern about the economics of climate change.

"We cannot afford the cost of climate change." - Renowned Climate Economist, Lord Stern

Highlights addressed in his findings, as reported by Act on Copenhagen, strongly suggest that we may succeed at averting global climate catastrophe if countries meet the carbon emission reduction commitments they've made:

"It is possible to create a 50-50 chance of avoiding a rise in global average temperature of more than 2˚C, which many scientists regard as the threshold for 'dangerous' climate change....If you add up the most ambitious of the intentions to reduce emissions that have been expressed so far, they are, if delivered, around 2 billion tonnes higher than the overall 2020 goal....It is now clear that if countries move together and find extra margins of action, we can reduce global annual emissions to 44 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent by 2020, and set the world on a responsible path....If current ambitions for emissions reductions across the world are settled, financed and delivered, we may be only a few billion tonnes short of where we need to be."

Climate economist Lord Stern implores global leaders to cease and decrease the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) and green house gas (GHG) emissions from 47 billion tonnes in 2010, 44 billion tonnes in 2020, and significantly less than 20 billion tonnes in 2050.

Read more about the economics and Lord Stern's report, "Deciding our future in Copenhagen: will the world rise to the challenge of climate change," at Act on Copenhagen.

Green and Save estimates that you spend $20, save $24/year = 120% savings via standby power reduction.

Read more ways to save energy and see associated ROI.

Treehugger's, "More than 100 iPhone Apps for Green Shopping," says it all.

According to CNN Money, The National Retail Federation (NRF) of the US estimated sales 2009 holiday sales will decline by 1% overall, compared to last year. (2008 holiday sales were down 3.4% over 2007.) In other words, this year's projected outcome appears to reflect that the economy (as gauged by holiday sales) is on the upswing.

Compare that news with The Financial Times September 21, 2009 front page article about the fall in industrial emissions in 2008:

"The recession has resulted in an unparalleled fall in greenhouse gas emissions, providing a unique opportunity to move the world away from high carbon growth, an International Energy Agency study has found. In the first big study of the impact of the recession on climate change, the IEA found that CO 2 emissions from burning fossil fuels had undergone a significant decline this year - further than in any year in the last 40. The fall will exceed the drop in the 1981 recession that followed the oil crisis."

Two ideas resound for me above the clash of these economic and environmental cymbals:

1) If we consume less, we have less carbon emissions, which may soften global climate catastrophe somewhat.

2) If we are to do better than survive global climate catastrophe, it will involve our changing the way we measure success. Metrics like the gross domestic product (GDP), being in the black and the consumer price index (CPI) will have to account for how much or how little carbon is emitted, natural resources used and toxins are released into air, water and land. Government subsidies and tax breaks will have to reward those efforts that regenerate and replenish the natural and human resources upon which we depend.