Dickinson to Durban » Archive
YOUNGOs “twinkle” @ COP17
By Dani Thompson ’12 Another day another 8 Rand (=$1)…or is it 7 rand to the dollar today? Life at COP17 here in Durban is beginning to fall into somewhat of a routine; a very wonky one at that. One thing which has quickly become my favorite part of each day is the 8:30 AM morning meeting with YOUNGO. The best way to describe YOUNGO is that it is a group of groups. Youth Non-governmental organizations (hence the NGO of YOUNGO) from all over the world come together to form one cohesive body which has developed a strong presence at the UNFCCC conference of parties. US groups participating in YOUNGO include: SustainUS, the Sierra Student Coalition, Green Peace Green Reporters, Inconvenient Youth, 350.org, and many more! As I said, many of the youth here at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues, Mosaic Action, Student Research
Get local with climate change–in more ways than one!
In the article, “Thinking globally, acting locally –institutionalizing climate change at the local government level in Durban, South Africa” (available here) author Debra Roberts dicusses the importance of climate adaptation on a slightly smaller scale than we are used to thinking of. As a student in this mosaic program, I have been focused on climate negotiations on an international scale. The conference of the parties works to create agreements for greenhous gas emissions on a global scale, but … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Just another acronym?
By Dani Thompson In 2002, the World Resource Institute published the report, “Building on the Kyoto Protocol: Options for Projecting the Climate.” Within this 250+ page document, there is a chapter by Harald Winkler, senior researcher at the Energy and Development Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, entitled “Sustainable Development Policies and Measures”. Like so many other climate change issues, this term was lovingly given an acronym, SD-PAM. The document, available here, looks at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
The Stern Review: Economics gets a heart
By Dani Thompson ’12 The Stern Review on the economics of climate change is a 600+ page document published in 2006 by British economist, Sir Nicholas Stern. In an article published by The First Post in 2006, Stern admitted that up until 2005, less a year before the report was published, “[I] had an idea what the green house effect was but wasn’t really sure.” although shortly after beginning to compile the report he was, “convinced that this was a really big and fundamental issue.” (Full article here). Of course, I will not disagree with the latter statement, but I am always weary to read reports on climate change issues which are drawn up by non-scientists or environmentally concerned persons. This concern is based on personal experience, having read report after … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
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