FINALLY! "CLIMATE CHANGE" IS NO LONGER TAKING A BACK SEAT!

…Here’s what 400,000 demonstrators looks like!

If you’re going to make an important statement, New York City is the place to do it!

I must commend my sister for taking the long, cross-country train trip from her Northwest corner of the US to New York City.  She made this trip to be part of the large crowd last Sunday that was estimated at close to 400,000 demonstrators.  Yes, she took part in the biggest march ever against climate change, and it was timed to highlight the upcoming United Nation’s Climate Change Summit.

President Obama will be addressing the UN Summit.  However, don’t you find it interesting that the three other high carbon emission countries; China, India and Russia, just happened, “to have scheduling conflicts that make it impossible to attend”……YEAH, RIGHT!

It is published that perhaps a similar number of demonstrators participated in smaller marches in other cities around the world. This event showed that, even in the United States, there is effective grass-roots organizing and considerable passion being demonstrated about all the concern around the globe for climate change.

But we are also aware, that many of us here in the United States, we usually like to brag that we are in "First Place" at doing a number of certain things.  That is especially true for things like competing in world sports such as in the Olympics.  Well, unfortunately, this time, the US is in last place for what could be the most important of all issues for this planet we live on.

Based on a recent global survey, it shows that only 54% of Americans believed that, “the climate change we are currently seeing is largely the result of human activity”.  This position makes our United States "Dead Last" among the major industrialized nations as stated in the poll. By contrast, 72% of respondents in Germany and 80% in France agreed with the statement.

Is this an example of how successful the spending of the major oil companies and the wealthy US conservatives, such as the Koch Brothers, have been in convincing the public that “Nothing happening here…..just move along?”  Or is it just basic American apathy?  Why do other nations, also full of educated individuals and exposed to the same information, come to these different conclusions?

The US was once the world leader in carbon emissions.   But over the past two decades, China became by far, the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, and India is not far behind.  Let’s also not forget that Russia’s economy is now based on its drilling for fossil fuels. The concentration of carbon dioxide today is 42% greater than before the Industrial Revolution, this is according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Human-kind is making a huge gamble with the world’s future. Each nation, and its citizens, must do the right thing to reduce carbon emissions for limiting climate change, and even if this will mean paying a large economic cost to make that happen.

The anticipation is that next year in Paris, representatives from the UN will negotiate for taking a shot at working out a climate change treaty for the world’s nations.  Unfortunately, even if a miracle should occur and a treaty should emerge, it does not bode well that the current US Congress could come together to approve such a treaty.  Due to the Citizens-United case, billions of dollars from the interested industries that want the status quo to continue, will be available to basically lobby for neutering any good parts of a meaningful agreement.

 

…Climate change will be a big issue for our children, and our children’s children.

 

What is so disturbing is that even though the representatives of the biggest air polluting nations will not be at the UN Summit, the citizens in those “most offending” countries have a much better idea of the real issues when compared to those in the US.  According to those same polls I mentioned, 80% of those surveyed in India and 93% in China agreed that humans are causing climate change. Large majorities of the citizens in those countries also agreed that “we are heading for environmental disaster unless we change our habits quickly.”

But all is not lost.  If the individuals running these nation continue to bury their heads in the sand, then the individual citizens and companies will have to take the lead. 

As an example, the family of the founding American oil producer, Standard Oil, is divesting itself of all fossil fuel investments.  Yes, to coincide with the UN Summit on Climate Change, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, of the nation’s greatest oil dynasty has announced plans to divest itself of all of its fossil fuel investments.  They are citing their concern about climate change as the reason for this decision.

I know, it’s only one family foundation, but it’s a big one and it could be a good start.

Let’s hope that other companies around the world will pull their heads out of those, dark, wet places and join the Rockefellers.

I guess, only time will tell.

Copyright G.Ater  2014