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"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.









