Tag Archives: Consumerism

COP 21: Paving the road to hell?

French_Foreign_Minister,_UN_Secretary-General_Ban,_and_French_President_Hollande_Raise_Their_Hands_After_Representatives_of_196_Countries_Approved_a_Sweeping_Environmental_Agreement_at_COP21_in_Paris_(23076185424)

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius – President of the COP21 climate change conference – raises his hands along with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande on December 12, 2015, after representatives of 196 countries approved a sweeping environmental agreement during a multinational meeting at LeBourget Airport in Paris, France. (Image: U.S. Department of State/ Wiki Commons)

Having gone through the COP 2 Agreement a number of times, it seems to me that it’s like “The Road to Hell”, and is just paved with good intentions. I find its only redeeming feature is that at last the world leaders appear to accept the fact that we do now have a big problem.

During the Cold War back in the 1950/60s when Russia and America faced each other, with fingers on their respective nuclear buttons, we knew that if one or other of these buttons was pressed, the other side would immediately follow, and the resulting nuclear holocaust was described very simply as M.A.D, being short for Mutually Assured Destruction.

Global Warming has now taken over as the one activity which has the capacity if left un-checked to wipe out all flora and fauna on our planet, and that includes us. It no longer matters which of our countries is pumping out the most or the least amounts of CO2, the effect will be global and once again the resulting M.A.D will be the same for all of us.

Continue reading

Some of my thoughts on COP 21 – Keep it simple

world leaders

30th November 2015, Paris: More than 150 world leaders meet under heightened security, for the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Image: Presidencia de la República Mexicana/Wiki Commons)

As the Global Warming Conference gets under way in Paris, I hear nothing in the opening speeches by world leaders that make me confident that this time we’ll get it right. We are simply not getting the message across that 2015 must be seen as the turning point. It must be the year when we stop the talking and start to take the necessary drastic action.

Continue reading