Vested interests mean we cannot leave it to politicians to take urgent action on climate change
This weekend, the Paris climate talks known as COP21 are drawing to a close. The talks are aiming to secure a global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep us safe from catastrophic climate change. But it’s clear that if we want real action to be taken, we can’t leave it to those around the negotiating table.
Governments with austerity agendas and corporations motivated by profit and shareholder dividends don’t care about young people’s futures. I’m 24 and can expect to live to around 90. This means I will likely live to see 2100.
By this point, scientists predict that, without radical action on climate change and a transition to renewables, we’ll experience some of the most damaging aspects of climate change like extreme droughts and floods, and associated effects like mass migration.
These are the effects of climate change which are already known about and preventable today. The global climate science community represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that we must take action to prevent the worst effects of climate change by limiting warming to 2C.
That is based on conservative estimates, and with the assumption that yet again, world leaders will fail to grasp the urgency of the need for action.
A coalition of the world’s countries most vulnerable to climate change like Bangladesh and Kiribati called the Climate Vulnerable Forum have said that this does not go far enough, demanding that the global agreement is that we commit to less than 1.5C of warming. More than that, and science says sea level rises will destroy their homes and produce hundreds of millions of climate refugees.
How is it conscionable that the international community would sacrifice the homes, livelihoods and lives of millions of people? Capitalism and profit are powerful things. Saudi Arabia and India blocked the publication of a report which states that warming above 1.5C is dangerous for millions of low lying communities, in the name of their domestic economic growth.
“We are the people we’ve been waiting for” is a powerful phrase I’ve seen used by green campaigners, and it couldn’t be more relevant now. It is left to us – young people without parliamentary nor corporate power, to make world leaders realise that they must act now. They must work together to come to an ambitious global agreement.
Major changes in policy in the past, like abolishing the slave trade, reunifying Germany and the collapse of apartheid have not been brought about by careful political negotiations alone. They changed because people went into the streets and demanded better. They committed civil disobedience and gained the attention of the press and the public.
It is vital that we come together on Saturday 12th December in Paris to demand that the powers that be act now to secure the future of everyone.
As the Federation of Young European Greens rightly put it in one hashtag: #ItsOurFuckingFuture.
Thomas Pashby is campaigns officer for the Young Greens National Executive Committee
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14 Responses to “COP21: We are the people we’ve been waiting for”
madasafish
I am a sceptic but please summarise your mathematical model which proves your CO2 theory and oceans.. A link to a peer review would be a necessity of course.
Please keep it brief: a 15 page summary would be fine.
As anyone who posts a theory without mathematical and physical proof of it has zero credibility, I am sure you will oblige.
Miranda_star
For all you completely misinformed and perhaps willfully ignorant climate sceptics – show me the science. Now. Or maybe its harder than you thought to disprove hundreds of peer reviewed methodically researched papers by likening the complex and interlinked climate systems to a can of beer. Just saying.
Great article Tom.
I'm very cross about this.
I’m not qualified to write a 15 page or any length peer reviewed paper but if you want references all of which can be found at.
http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming-2/ice-core-graph/
Petit et all 1999 — analysed 420,000 years of Vostok, and found that as the world cools into an ice age, the delay before carbon falls is several thousand years.
Fischer et al 1999 — described a lag of 600 plus or minus 400 years as the world warms up from an ice age.
Monnin et al 2001 – looked at Dome Concordia (also in Antarctica) – and found a delay on the recent rise out of the last major ice age to be 800 ± 600
Mudelsee (2001) – Over the full 420,000 year Vostok history Co2 variations lag temperature by 1,300 years ± 1000.
Caillon et al 2003 analysed the Vostok data and found a lag (where CO2 rises after temperature) of 800 ± 200 years.
I'm very cross about this.
See the links below, they’re a difficult read but please persevere, it will; should be, enlightening. If you want more then just ask.
The purpose of the beer can analogy was to demonstrate that warm water; beer, can hold less disolved CO2 than cold water; beer.
Selohesra
Dont forget that right wing puppet of big business and oil – Piers Corbyn