Tags
Climate Change, Climate disruption, Divesting from fossil fuels, UN Climate Change Conference Paris 2015
Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Pass the $3.4 trillion Mark at COP21
The fossil fuel divestment campaign has broken a new record at COP21: more than 500 institutions representing over $3.4 trillion in assets have made some form of divestment.
~ Press Release, Divest-Invest Press Conference, COP21 Paris, December 2, 2015
~ Learn more at Go Fossil Free
November 30, 2015 – Day 1 – ‘Heads of State’ Session
“The Paris Agreement must be designed for ambition. It must send a message to the world. If we are to win the battle against climate change, the fossil fuel era must end.”
~ Christopher J Loeak, President of the Marshall Islands
~ See Press Release from the Climate Vulnerable Forum
Three Worlds One Vision 
No disagreement with the theory, Rosaliene. I am concerned, however, about how you get all the nations of the world to agree on limitations on the use of fossil fuels when 1) they can’t seem to agree on anything else 2) their short term interests may conflict with the more distant job of saving the planet and 3) there is no way to enforce such an agreement. Still, even the notion of most nations signing up is progress.
LikeLike
I share your concern, Dr. Stein. This is the greatest challenge of our times. We the people have to be engaged or our leaders will not move forward with the urgency needed.
LikeLike
I Rosaliene, call me a jaded environmentalist but I know these talking heads at this (Oh, God, not another!) environmental political summit have no intention of dealing with climate change. All of them know the real problem on planet earth at this moment is pernicious, pervading greed, and they’re all in on it! Their sole purpose at this tax-payer borne conference is to mask the problems so the good old ways can carry on. Oh, they’ll talk a good game, or a lame game depending on what sells best to the media, but talk is cheap – and they won’t be putting any rubber on the road, that’s not what they do and it’s not in their personal financial and political interests. They are there at the behest of their owners, and these are the multi-billionaires. That will not change: it will only exacerbate until this whole empire of capitalistic greed collapses on itself. To those hoping for hard resolutions or any sort of revolution, my advice is, don’t hold your breath. These leopards won’t change their spots though they may go for a make-over, for the media and all.
LikeLike
Yes, Sha’Tara, the multi-billionaires in the fossil fuel industry have conducted a successful strategy in delaying action on humanity’s transition to clean renewable energy worldwide. If we the people don’t get out into the streets and demand change, our leaders will continue to drag their feet.
LikeLike
Hi Rosaliene, we used to say in the environmental concerns awakening heydays of the 60’s to the 80’s (after which I passed the torch on to the younger generations and saw a whole lot LESS activism taking place and a whole lot MORE polluting) that the best way to make a difference was to change one’s lifestyle: notice more, consume less, walk or ride a bike instead of jumping in a car or on a bus, buy from thrift stores, grow a garden, stop wasting water on lawns and all the rest of common sense stuff. I forget off-hand the stats, but Canadians and Americans, with 5% global population consume an inordinate amount of natural resources – indecently so. None of that has changed in all the years. Now there’s the climate change “scare” but whether real or of some Al Gore fabrication (well SOME of it is real, though who can tell how much is due to man’s interference?), I don’t see the “scare” having much effect around here. Houses are getting bigger with less people in them, and the pick-up trucks are reaching the insane design size. If (and that is an if from what I sense) climate change is truly man-made then few people really care. From my perspective though, the whole climate change debate is just another race to rake in million morphing into billions in government hand-outs: from bailouts to handouts, how the insanely rich can get insanely richer: that’s the name of the game.
LikeLike
Sha’Tara, it sounds like the region where you live has not yet been affected by climate change. Here in California, we’re facing a severe drought and extra-high temperatures in summer.
LikeLike
Hi Rosaliene, To reply more specifically to your response, you are correct. I’ve heard about the California drought, and since “here” is only about a thousand miles north along basically the same longitude, you’d think we’d be affected too, but we haven’t been. Nor do we get the storms, nor the earthquakes either. Totally different weather pattern. So far, very little “climate change” to report. Our seasons have sort of “slipped” by about a month, later spring, later autumn but that seems to be re-setting itself this year. Right now it’s pouring rain – normal! – and about ten degrees (F) above freezing, also normal. Snow level: normal. I’m basing my observations on 50 years of living here, Lower Mainland, BC, Canada, 60 miles east of Vancouver. But of course, what’s 50 years? Nothing! The only change is that there is no snow pack in the higher mountains, and that could, indeed, be the precursor to some serious conditions down the road, give or take a few years. But the point I wanted to make is, PEOPLE DON’T CARE! As long as there’s still water at the tap and gas at the pump and no one’s dropping dead from breathing the air, nothing will change. The incentive just isn’t there. Man, as a species, is reactive, never, ever, pro-active. That’s why man is so easily brainwashed and manipulated.
LikeLike
People do care, Sha’Tara. Not as many as we-who-care would like. That’s why I started my weekly blog post on climate disruption: to raise the issue among those who are still asleep to our reality. If you haven’t already done so, read Naomi Klein’s book, THIS CHANGES EVERY THING: CAPITALISM vs THE CLIMATE. She cares. She’s not alone. Join us. Become pro-active.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
LikeLike
Thanks for the re-blog, Cyril.
LikeLike
New Zealand’s prime minister distinguished himself by earning the first Fossil of the Day award (for his government’s inaction on climate change): http://www.nzherald.co.nz/element-magazine/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503340&objectid=11553913
LikeLike
Dr. Bramhall, issuing awards for inaction can be misleading to the public.
LikeLike
Renewable energy has now become less expensive to produce than conventional coal, fossil fuel, nuclear, etc., but only a powerful grassroots movement of ordinary citizens has any chance to overcome traditional energy monopolies and bring green energy to every home, building, town, nation and region of Earth. Politicians and owners of corporate traditional energy monopolies simply will not help green energy to become ever-present, for the obvious reasons ($$$). The madness and immeasurable suffering occurring now in the Middle East, the world’s waste of trillions on weapons to protect or take fossil fuel resources, and the wars fought with those weapons are completely unnecessary with clean, green, renewable energy available in overabundance everywhere on the planet.
LikeLike
Jerry, I agree that those profiting from our current energy monopolies “will not help green energy to become ever-present.” This is why the fossil fuel divestment movement is very critical in making the transition.
LikeLike
For the concept of “climate change” to enter the consciousness of the “average Earthian” something has to happen at a gut level; something that will induce a singularity, i.e., a change consisting of a point of no return. That’s how I understand it. So far that has not happened anywhere on planet earth. Yes, there has been some voluntary changes; there has been some development of alternative sources of energy that appear at the outset to be preferable to the fossil fuel, river damming and nuclear fission power generating but the real costs of these alternate sources of energy are not in. Plus it is increasingly obvious that the powers that be want to control those “new” sources of energy before they give up on the old ones. As of now, the ruling force here is capitalism, otherwise known as, “I can only win if I can force you to lose” sort of mindset. Even your poor buy into this scam to the point of harming themselves, their world, to protect the rich. Again I’d say this is almost genetic. Such utter abandon to social and environmental destruction is otherwise inexplicable. Something that deeply entrenched won’t go away with a few neat discoveries. You’re dealing with some sort of unconscious social death wish at the deepest levels. Years of observation tells me that it is extremely dangerous to judge one’s society by how one feels, or what one has learned – those of us who actually care enough to have studied the problems are the odd ones out, not run-of-the-mill. You cannot change the leadership’s mindset, exploitation is just too easy and way too profitable. You won’t change the lowest common denominator mindset either, being a follower is all it knows or can relate to. What are you left with? The way I see it: let the change run its course, as fast and deep as possible, without opposition, so it can do its intended cleansing of a sentient species gone mad. But that too runs counter to the grain since man has come to believe that he can actually control his environment through, first, praying to gods, and now through his science and technology. Faith is always false, no matter what one believes in.
LikeLike
At this point, I don’t have any idea what being socially proactive would consist of. I am personally proactive, and I know a few people who are, but to swing things you need to popularize a concept. If you advertised and held a “Concern about Climate Change” meeting here, you might get ten to twenty people (out of a hundred thousands) to show up-that being a generous estimate. They had a national election here, and the Green Party, which would represent the environment and other common sense issues such as opposing the TPP, ran its candidates and was a no-show. Predictably the Liberals won, replacing the Conservatives – same old, same old. Einstein said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. By that definition “We The People” are certifiable, brainwashed into the Matrix through public ed., religion and mass media, plus “We The People” always choose the lowest common denominator; the follow the leader path; the immediate easiest, most comfortable, satisfying, entertaining. People like myself don’t need to read books or immerse themselves in climate studies – surely by now we ought to know the score! There is only one question that needs to be addressed if one is absolutely convinced that “climate change” is (a) global; (b) threatens the survival of planetary sentient life; (c) is actually reversible through human action, and that is: what is the trigger that will jolt “We The People” to action when such action means immediate personal sacrifice such as loss of comfort, position, power, privilege? I think it honest for me to say, I know people. I’ve been a charismatic speaker and I know how easy it is to move a crowd in a controlled environment. Everything depends on the control. Find yourself a truly charismatic speaker who can wrest control from the elites and you can move herds of sheeple. But let that speaker/leader get sick, get shot, get demonized and lose her/his reputation and you have nothing once again. Get ten, get a hundred charismatic leaders and you still have nothing because the followers are just that: followers. You see, the System is against you. You can’t educate people who have already spent a quarter of their lives “being educated” in the public school brainwash institutions; who attend right-winged evangelical churches that bombard them with lies, or who spend most of their free time watching the sports networks or popular/false science propaganda shows and specials.
I’m seventy years old; I’ve spent my entire life in the “pro active” movements, environmental, political and religious. Been there, done that. It was fast and furious, wild and crazy and we did win a couple of battles but we lost the war because “We The People” watched on the sidelines and when the show was over, returned to doing what they always do. The only thing that can change what cattle do in a corral is if someone tears the fence down. Then you have a stampede (revolution) but eventually the cattle is rounded up, the corral is fixed and they return to milling about until the meat truck shows up.
What has to change is the nature of the cattle. That is something that has to be already programmed to kick in at a certain point in the entire species or it has to be a devastating global “intervention” by some alien force. From actor I’ve turned philosopher: I think the trigger is in the mind; it’s linked to the forces of nature and no Earthian ideology can have anything to do with its activation. It will happen when it happens. For those who are aware and have developed a degree of compassion and empathy, that trigger activates on the individual level before it does for the “silent majority.” As I have written so many times, it is dangerous for those who have awakened to think the whole herd has the ability to awaken to same understanding. It has the potential, but not the capability. I’ve tested people and I know they need their awakening mental trigger to be pulled but no Earthian human can do that for, or to, another. To believe so is not only presumptuous, but proved false by history. The desire has to be there and what triggers that desire is, I think, a genetic function. It’s definitely not function of persuasion. (Apologize for inordinately long comment, but I had to make an attempt to explain how I’ve come to view change among people. Also understand that I’m not against you, or those who want to publicize global plight with whatever social agenda. I just choose not to engage any agenda but that of personal or self-empowerment, something “We The People” simply cannot realize.)
LikeLike
Sha’Tara, no doubt, you did the best you could to bring about change. Now is the time for the younger generations, who will face the chaos of climate change, to take up the banner. Hope is not yet dead.
LikeLike
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.” (Alexander Pope: essay on man)
LikeLike
Thanks for that gem 🙂
LikeLike