Comments on: Reflections after the Vigil in Copenhagen

By: Gerald

Gerald — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:03:57 +0000

You are referring to the major blocking nations (Canada,US,Japan and EU) but you are not mentioning Australia. We are one of the highest CO2 emitters per capita, relying still on coal for more than 90% of our energy demand. The wealth of our nation stems from the resource boom, which will be further exploited by K Rudds government in export-deals with India and China.
The majority of the australian public is very conservative and climate uneducated (to be very polite) and their life determined mostly by greed.
Before pointing any finger , we need to clean up our back-yard first.
Kind regards
Gerald

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:55:48 +0000

@Matt, the third world may be able to walk away from Denmark but they cannot walk away from our planet. I too fear the self interest of countries and trading blocs when it comes international agreements but we cannot let this stop us from any action at all.

Secondly, I don’t see what options you have left available for action in developing countries. As you said we can aid dictators, or fund bureaucracies because elections would be hard to stage in dictatorial countries anyway. And even representative democracies favour a majority by margin…

@Anna, the commitment, commentary and courage youth delegates and the AYCC have shown at Copenhagen has been inspiring. I can understand the frustration arising from the lack of development… The biggest problem I see is the inherit cultural shift we must all go through to absolutely address climate change, and this cannot be a top down approach. The next steps after Copenhagen is expanding the community focused on strong action against climate change and really campaigning on the home front.

Hopefully I’ll be able to join you next year, otherwise the best for Christmas and the New Year!

By: SueM

SueM — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:56:16 +0000

Anna
Thank you for your amazing words! It’s SO frustrating sitting here in Australia at almost 4am with the media all asleep, yet I can’t sleep knowing my children’s future rests on the outcome of these negotiations. No news here yet about any extension of the talks. It’s so incredibly unfair that those who will be (and are being) most affected have been essentially shut out of the negotiations. It makes me angry to see all those men in suits deciding our future!

Maybe this would be a good time for you to read Paul Gilding’s latest thoughts on Copenhagen: http://paulgilding.com/cockatoo-chronicles/cc20091217copenhagenfailure.html and, in case you haven’t seen it, his earlier paper The One Degree War http://paulgilding.com/cockatoo-chronicles/cc20091106-odw-launch.html – the comments on these articles are well worth reading too. It’s your generation, rather than mine, that will be successful in demanding stronger action.
Regards,
Sue M (Blue Mts)

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:11:11 +0000

You put a price on carbon and you will put millions to death in the 3rd world. Starvation due to the food prices, disease because of the lack of developed medical care and lack of development and industrialisation in general because they are receiving foreign tax dollars which they may be lucky to see once their dictators funnel it through to them.

Instead of direct action to assist in development, education, modernisation, health, food we decide to screw them over with a tax on Co2 and give them global welfare. Any money will be tied into managing the population…”managing the population”.

Read Agenda 21! Read National Security State Memorandum 200..

I just hoped that the developing nations walked and just left the country altogether and not be condemned by the United Nations. The worst thing to happen to the third world is an unelected foreign bureaucracy that is the UN.

So please don’t use the third world as your shield. They, I hope, to a degree understand the agenda the UN has for them.