Most “have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front page,” warning of a “profound emergency.”
Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year’s inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world’s response has been feeble and half-hearted.
Today, “56 newspapers in 45 countries take the perhaps unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial,” warning of a “profound emergency,” as Editor and Publisher explained. “The text was drafted by a Guardian team during more than a month of consultations with editors from more than 20 of the papers involved. Like the Guardian most of the newspapers have taken the unusual step of featuring the editorial on their front page.”
Here is the rest of this powerful global warning:
Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. We call on the representatives of the 192 countries gathered in Copenhagen not to hesitate, not to fall into dispute, not to blame each other but to seize opportunity from the greatest modern failure of politics. This should not be a fight between the rich world and the poor world, or between east and west. Climate change affects everyone, and must be solved by everyone.
The science is complex but the facts are clear. The world needs to take steps to limit temperature rises to 2C, an aim that will require global emissions to peak and begin falling within the next 5-10 years. A bigger rise of 3-4C “” the smallest increase we can prudently expect to follow inaction “” would parch continents, turning farmland into desert. Half of all species could become extinct, untold millions of people would be displaced, whole nations drowned by the sea. The controversy over emails by British researchers that suggest they tried to suppress inconvenient data has muddied the waters but failed to dent the mass of evidence on which these predictions are based.
Few believe that Copenhagen can any longer produce a fully polished treaty; real progress towards one could only begin with the arrival of President Obama in the White House and the reversal of years of US obstructionism. Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.
But the politicians in Copenhagen can and must agree the essential elements of a fair and effective deal and, crucially, a firm timetable for turning it into a treaty. Next June’s UN climate meeting in Bonn should be their deadline. As one negotiator put it: “We can go into extra time but we can’t afford a replay.”
At the deal’s heart must be a settlement between the rich world and the developing world covering how the burden of fighting climate change will be divided “” and how we will share a newly precious resource: the trillion or so tonnes of carbon that we can emit before the mercury rises to dangerous levels.
Rich nations like to point to the arithmetic truth that there can be no solution until developing giants such as China take more radical steps than they have so far. But the rich world is responsible for most of the accumulated carbon in the atmosphere – three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emitted since 1850. It must now take a lead, and every developed country must commit to deep cuts which will reduce their emissions within a decade to very substantially less than their 1990 level.
Developing countries can point out they did not cause the bulk of the problem, and also that the poorest regions of the world will be hardest hit. But they will increasingly contribute to warming, and must thus pledge meaningful and quantifiable action of their own. Though both fell short of what some had hoped for, the recent commitments to emissions targets by the world’s biggest polluters, the United States and China, were important steps in the right direction.
Social justice demands that the industrialised world digs deep into its pockets and pledges cash to help poorer countries adapt to climate change, and clean technologies to enable them to grow economically without growing their emissions. The architecture of a future treaty must also be pinned down – with rigorous multilateral monitoring, fair rewards for protecting forests, and the credible assessment of “exported emissions” so that the burden can eventually be more equitably shared between those who produce polluting products and those who consume them. And fairness requires that the burden placed on individual developed countries should take into account their ability to bear it; for instance newer EU members, often much poorer than “old Europe”, must not suffer more than their richer partners.
The transformation will be costly, but many times less than the bill for bailing out global finance “” and far less costly than the consequences of doing nothing.
Many of us, particularly in the developed world, will have to change our lifestyles. The era of flights that cost less than the taxi ride to the airport is drawing to a close. We will have to shop, eat and travel more intelligently. We will have to pay more for our energy, and use less of it.
But the shift to a low-carbon society holds out the prospect of more opportunity than sacrifice. Already some countries have recognized that embracing the transformation can bring growth, jobs and better quality lives. The flow of capital tells its own story: last year for the first time more was invested in renewable forms of energy than producing electricity from fossil fuels.
Kicking our carbon habit within a few short decades will require a feat of engineering and innovation to match anything in our history. But whereas putting a man on the moon or splitting the atom were born of conflict and competition, the coming carbon race must be driven by a collaborative effort to achieve collective salvation.
Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism, of vision over short-sightedness, of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature”.
It is in that spirit that 56 newspapers from around the world have united behind this editorial. If we, with such different national and political perspectives, can agree on what must be done then surely our leaders can too.
The politicians in Copenhagen have the power to shape history’s judgment on this generation: one that saw a challenge and rose to it, or one so stupid that we saw calamity coming but did nothing to avert it. We implore them to make the right choice.
Hear! Hear!
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Joe,
Is there a link to a list of the 56? Did I just miss it?
[JR: No link at the source. You could google the opening line.]
I googled “56 newspapers”
This link had a full list :
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/listing-of-56-newspapers-in-45-countries-who-ran-proclimatepact-editorial-1836010.html
Holding ExxonMobil’s Feet to the Fire (so to speak)
Below are the concluding comments from Rex Tillerson’s speech to the Royal Institute for International Affairs, given well over two years ago, on 21 June, 2007. The speech was titled “meeting growing energy demand and addressing climate risks”.
Who in the mainstream media will hold ExxonMobil’s feet to the fire, shine the light of diligent investigative journalism on them, press them until they act responsibly or until the public justifiably rejects them, and expose their bag of tricks and two-sidedness??
Here are Mr. Tillerson’s concluding comments (the full speech can be found on the web, on ExxonMobil’s website):
Conclusion
The British philosopher and social activist Bertrand Russell once said, “We must care about the world of our children and grandchildren, a world we may never see.”
Indeed, we cannot yet see our grandchildren’s world, its economy or its climate. But we must care about it. We must care enough to treat the risks of global poverty and global warming seriously. We must care enough to take actions to address them. And we must care enough, as a society, to manage the risks effectively to maximize the economic and environmental benefits available to our grandchildren, and theirs.
And with leadership such as from those of you in this room, I know we can.
Thank you for your kind attention.
A salute to the genius that got the agreement of 56 newspaper editors to publish this editorial. Nothing like this has ever happened and it is certain proof that honest, thinking people see the future of global warming and are willing to force that view onto their front pages. It will help to defuse the email side show but will not shake loose votes in the future US Congress sessions for either legislation or a treaty.
Look at the op-ed piece here:
“Even now the world finds itself at the mercy of American domestic politics, for the president cannot fully commit to the action required until the US Congress has done so.”
and replace “the world finds itself” with
“47 million uninsured Americans find themselves”.
I see America at its worst today; selfish, poorly read on daily politics; freaked out by the economy; fearful if they have a job; and, ready to pull up the ladder without thinking we are globally all in “this” together.
The Palinista are likely collaborating with Ollie North and the richest crazies who look only to their accumulated wealth and are ready to use any dingbat mouthpiece to assure it is not threatened.
My optimistic heart is sinking slowly as I see President Obama’s poll numbers dropping, the national debt rising, Pakistan imploding and Imhofe spouting his flat-earth lies.
WHAT IF the health care legislation does not clear this Congress, the climate change bill is trapped in the election year Session and Democrats pay a heavy price in 2010?
WHAT IF The Palinistas shanghai the Republican Party (Sen. McCain is saying nice to Palin) and she is the nominee and US troops are still being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Does this sound a bit like President Carter’s fate in 1980?
Getting 67 votes in the US Senate for a “legitimate” climate change treaty 4,5 or 6 years out will not be any easier than in today’s Democratic controlled Congress and White House. Can anyone seriously imagine a Republican controlled White House and a Congress marginally controlled by Democrats (assuming Americans have not gone insane by then) pulling off a climate change treaty signing in the Rose Garden?
I say this because I know we are too late to escape the 2-degree increase and likely headed into a terminal red zone.
I know my opinion will trigger the “so, you’re saying its too late to do anything, huh”.
NO. I want us AGW believers to start seeing the world ahead of us and not the world we want to see…that is in the rear view mirror.
Serious planning must NOW, IMMEDIATELY begin to plan the reconstruction of the world’s coastal infrastructure, water resources in the US grain belt, US Southwest, South Asia, China, Middle East WHILE WE CONTINUE TO DO EVERYTHING HUMANLY POSSIBLE TO FORCE MITIGATION AT EVERY EMISSIONS SOURCE.
Where will the global community find the capital (intellectual and fiscal) to do both? I don’t know if the global WE can?
But, one think I am certain, it is getting harder and harder to talk with young people….even look at them….when I see the quality of the global discussion and the obsessions of some to capture minimalist global agreements while knowing they are less potent than the failed Kyoto Treaty.
I am an alarmist and my focus is upon the South Asian nations and their slow but sure recognition that they have only a decade or two to organize a collective cooperative effort to assure their future 2 billion population will have water for farming, consumption and industry. Won’t that be a hat trick!
Watching the road to Copenhagen unfold has been depressing and the hopeful potential it had, dissolving. The clock is working against my children’s interests and 20,000 people are in Copenhagen to be seen, heard and vindicated.
Our children deserve a much better plan and performance from AGW advocates and less trophy hunting from the enviro-pros.
We have to dig a whole lot deeper than VP Gore has. We must give our children survival options that include (not geoengineering crap) more hydro electric even in climate changing river systems, pebble-bed reactors, heartier seeds to weather higher temps and less precip……. while we try to keep the wheels on the global economy because the future will require expensive rescues, relief and reconstruction.
My head hurts. I do conserve energy wherever I can, despite domestic protests about the thermostat. What a world we have wrought.
All the focus on Copenhagen, when I think that the real challenge is in the domestic politics in a handful of countries. If those countries were able to get their act together and lead rather than bicker, international talks would follow fairly quickly. Without clear direction in these countries, and you all know which ones they are, international talks struggle to maintain the modest momentum that exists now.
I’ve always felt that resolving this issue, like any major issue, is less about finding the technology and solutions, than having a rational governance that is willing and able to use them. That’s why so many civilizations have collapsed in the face of past climate change epochs – cultures and governance too wedded to the status quo to make the necessary changes.
That’s why Greenland is such a good example. The Vikings didn’t die off because it got too cold. There was plenty of food swimming in the oceans for them to survive. They died off there because they wouldn’t adopt the ways of the locals and switch to a diet from the ocean. They were committed to farming and cattle, and they disappeared.
The only paper in the US that published in English was the Miami Herald, and it was the only paper if the Neuvo Herald is their Spanish edition.
According to the OECD study “Ranking Port Cities with High Exposure and Vulnerability to Climate Extremes” (2008), the city in the world that most likely has the highest dollar value of exposed assets that they will either lose or have to protect with expensive infrastructure as sea level rises, is Miami.
This is so beautiful and powerful!! Thank the Lord, some countries had the courage and wisdom to do what was right! I will copy it and send it to our local newspapers, stores, universitys, family, friends, everyone I can! (It just embarrasses me that our country, the richest, most powerful country in the world, and 2nd. worst emitter of CO2, did not have this published in our papers– except one!)
John, I feel your pain and share a lot of your views. According to the newspaper the other day, the arctic sea ice has all but disappeared. BUT there is still a little left. So there is a little hope still. You asked, “what if…” I will tell you, what if: if they don’t do what they are supposed to do, then we will take to the streets and raise hell until they do! In Iran, tens of thousands of young people have been protesting for days because of corrupt government practices and oppression.
Back during the the Vietnam war era, protesters marched at the hill of the capitol. Wave after wave, one by one, they got up, chanting, “1,2,3,4; we don’t want your f—- war!” Police on horseback chased them down the hill and some protestors were hit with billy clubs. But they never gave up. Night and day, day after day, the protestors came shouting, “no more war! No more war!”. And finally, the vietnam war ended.
Maybe we shouldn’t give up either. I think we have just begun to fight.
Cynthia, we shouldn’t give up and I am not.
My reality wires make me focus on the conditions as they are ..domestic politics and planetary ecosystems. The politics in the US is jobs, jobs, jobs and middle road Dems are apoplectic about the angry voter taking frustration out on the party in power.
That little bit of remaining Arctic ice is ‘old ice’ but the massive expanse of ‘new ice’ will again melt rapidly next summer and dump ocean heat into the Arctic atmosphere and the melting cycle continues and expands. That is just what is happening today with .44 degree C temp increase since 1900.
So, I look at the world’s most precarious ‘hot spots’ and try to force discussions upon people who should be drawing up plans to prepare for the worst outcomes…melting Himalayan glaciers soon disappearing while the Indian Ocean monsoon becomes unpredictable in a land that will see population grow by a third by mid-century.
I say this because mitigation must and will move ahead but there is a tsunami heading towards civilization and we are sitting on the beach wondering what it will feel like. That is not responsible ‘political’ response as far as my children’s future is concerned.
Would 20,000 delegates marshal their collective selves to stay in Copenhagen an extra two weeks to wrestle out treaties on survival of Bangladesh, Viet Nam, South Asia, Australia…..including the trillions of dollars those few countries will need to survive another .44 degree C t emp increase. Well, they will not commit money except for the pocket change being discussed at COP 15.
Al Gore steered us into a civilization train wreck when he shot down any discussions on adaptation several years ago. I FULLY UNDERSTAND IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ADAPT TO A MOVING TARGET. Having said that, it is not impossible to begin NOW to address the most likely and frightening consequences of water shortages and coastal inundation. to name just two certain impacts.
I hope you are of an age and position that your future plans and education can be applied to ALSO participating in helping next generations find survival options even if they include taxing the hell out of the rich to pay for massive relocations of delta populations NOW.
I am a realist and likely a naïve dreamer given the attitude of North to South countries. But, I am a parent and do have a responsibility to do more than turn off lights and thermostat. I want people to see the tsunami coming and act accordingly.
Tourists at beach resorts on the Indian Ocean filmed the beach from their high balcony. I saw a solitary man, in a bathing suit walk down to the water’s edge, sit on the sand and watched the wave come in. He was not suicidal. He had no idea what was coming at him and, of course, it swept him to his death. The world watched him die. He was not helpless. He was clueless. Are we?
There are many fights to fight and I am where I can be useful…at this moment. Pray that government leaders are ready to include preparation on their UNFCCC agenda.
Peace.
John McCormick