At the End of the Day…

Sam Parker ’12 

The last day of the COP.  Negotiations will be coming to a close at some time in the hours of the morning.  It is debatable whether anything is really going to come out of the negotiations.  Possibly the Green Climate Fun will be settled and put into place in some capacity, KP2 may be in place to some extent, and how knows what else they will agree on.   The talk of late here in Durban though has been one of optimism and progress.  The negotiations are beginning to ignore the U.S.  because of their inability to make any kind of agreement that would better our country, our world and provide a prosperous and healthy planet for us and our future generations.  All that being said though, I am still hesitant to believe that anything good will come out of these negotiation.  Maybe it is because it has been a long two weeks and I know feel broken and disheartened by the stay of the UNFCCC and the negotiation, I cannot say for sure.  I continue to hope and believe in people and that countries are not just negotiating out of their wallets, but at my core I know this to be untrue.  If something comes forward in this last day, I will surprised and extremely happy.

With that, though, I realized that to accomplish something for the people actions must be taken by the people.  We can no longer wait for our governments to do anything; it has not and will not work any longer.  We need to stand together and make this happen ourselves.   Our climate is changing and many of the governments of the world are not standing up for our rights to clean air or clean water.  Stand up and be the change.