In 1997 the first COP (Conference of the Parties) was held in Rome. Yesterday COP18 in Doha closed. Eighteen meetings in 15 years and we are still nowhere near a solution or even on a pathway to solve the sustainability challenge we are facing – and the clock is ticking.
It is absolutely incredible and pitiful!
Has the economical market-mantra of quick return on investment, eternal growth and greed, intoxicated also the political agenda to a point of no return?
Have the election-processes with short terms, complicated political structures and bigotry tied the hands of our representatives totally? Is there no more civil courage in this world?
The challenge of a sustainable world is not a political challenge; it is a humanity-challenge!
It has nothing to do with politics – It has to do with survival!
When hearing educated, knowledgeable individuals state things like “we will not agree to a CO2-fee unless China also does”, with explanations like “It is not fair because it will move jobs away from the US” – it is unbelievable.
If everybody should live a life like the average US citizen we would need 4.5 Earths to provide the resources needed.(Sweden 3.5) At the same time in China a significant portion of the population is still lacking decent living conditions.
In a sustainable world either of these facts is acceptable. This means we need to compromise!
The Swedish delegation commented that we are reducing our CO2-emissions much more than others and now the others have to do their part, otherwise it is not fair…?
If we move just a little bit more production of the stuff we buy, to China, we will not have a problem at all – is this kindergarten or what? Has nobody told them that we only have one earth and one atmosphere?
What went wrong?
When I grew up my parents always told me to behave, to attend school, to learn so that I could get a good job, to live a good life so that I could provide in the same way for my children and so on… I don’t think my upbringing, in this respect, is different from many others.
But somewhere, on the road, something has gone totally wrong – we are no longer striving to provide a good life for our children, we have become so greedy and bigot that we stick to our achieved “way-of-life” even when it is more and more obvious that the effect is that our children probably will not get the chance of a life at all…
Source: ThinkProgress