Copenhagen Climate Conference-Chaos or Saviour?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Today, we are having the best of technologies and yet we are doing the worst to our environment. Today, planet Earth is unwell, because emissions of greenhouse gases and other environmental changes have brought humanity and the natural world to the edge of crisis. I would like to share with you some critical facts about our environment by drawing your attention to a recently concluded summit – the United Nation Summit at Copenhagen. You decide whether this summit is chaos or saviour. 

December 2009, Copenhagen Climate Summit was held among 192 countries with the resolute aim of preventing and reducing global warming. A key part of the negotiations was balancing the responsibilities for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Before and during the summit, demonstrations took place all around the world, especially in Copenhagen to urge action on climate change.

There were in fact good reasons for the world leaders to meet and combat the issue of global warming, as the situation of our planet is getting serious!  For your information, the global average temperature has already risen by about 0.7C since pre-industrial times.  Now is the time for us to take action to stop the global temperature from further rising. Here are some scenarios for our future climate if we still refuse to act.  If the temperature continues to rise, and when it reaches an increase of 2C degrees, it will cause the complete melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which would raise global sea levels by seven metres.The Amazon, the longest river in the world by most measures, will turn into desert and grasslands. Increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere make the world's oceans too acidic for coral reefs and thousands of other marine lifeforms.  Agricultural yields around the world will drop and half a billion people will suffer from starvation. A third of all species alive today may be driven to extinction as climate change wipes out their habitat. Those are the consequences with an average temperature rise of 2C.  What could happen if there is a rise of 3C, 4C and more?  That was why the leaders gathered at the summit, attempting to reach no more than 2C.

You might be wondering: what was the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Summit? Did the Summit achieve its resolute aim? Sad to say, the world leaders failed to achieve the ultimate objectives of the summit. The Copenhagen Climate Conference merely resulted in a document called the Copenhagen Accord. This accord is not legally binding and does not contain any legally binding commitments for reducing CO2 emissions. In fact, the conference as a whole did not agree upon the accord, but voted "take note" of it.  On the other hand, ironically, , another ‘outcome’ of the summit was an estimate of 40,500 tons of carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere during the conference – 90 percent of it from the private jets that the world leaders flied on.  Objectives are not met, but more pollution was caused.

All of us should aware of how serious the environmental issue is. Copenhagen's failure shows that the predicament to solve environmental problems is not the science, nor the economics, but the politics. Not to wait for our leaders to decide, but each of us should start to make our tiny resolute steps to save our planet.