Dickinson to Durban » Entries tagged with "climate change"
We Will Figure it out Next Year
The fact that the countries of the world come together every year for the Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss and debate climate change is progress by itself. It is impressive that every year almost every nation sends delegate to this conference to confront together one of the largest challenges of our time in a peaceful manner. However, discussion is only the first step, and it seems that the global community is having a difficult time moving on to step two which is to take action. This struggle is reflected in most of the agreements that the COP comes to by the end of each conference. They restate what they agree on: climate change is occurring, and every nation needs to take some degree of responsibility for it. Then, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Our legs are moving but are we walking?
Are climate negotiations moving forward? Yes, but at a crawl. The results of the past two COP gatherings have yielded two documents: the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancun Agreements. The Copenhagen Accord, written at COP 15, is a short document expressing the recognition that global climate change is a serious problem and the only way to address it is through serious cutbacks in emissions. It also clearly states that two degrees Celsius is the target for maximum temperature change. This in itself is not a novel idea; however, the last sentence of the document asks for “consideration of strengthening the long-term goal referencing various matters presented by the science, including in relation to temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius.” The idea to cut emissions below the minimum required has not … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Just a bunch of fluff.
The Copenhagen Accord reads like a Disney version of a classic fairytale. You know, the fairytales where they leave all the “bad stuff” out, the scary stuff that actually make the stories real classic fairytales, just so that everyone can enjoy them. The Copenhagen Accord is the treaty that Obama, as well as the “leaders of China, India, Brazil South Africa and about 20 other countries” were able to cooperate and agree upon that last Saturday night of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at 3am with all the pressure of the conference on them to come up with something (1). First they acknoweldge that climate change is occurring. Then they explain how all countries are going to have to adapt and respond in different manners because each country … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Key COP17 Issues
World Climate Summit at Dickinson College!
Imagine if the title of this post were actually true! Not only would students, faculty, and other community members flock to our conference event, but international persons and other interested citizens would flock to our campus to have a say in the negotiations room! We, the students in the Africa Mosaic, obviously and luckily, have the privilege of actually participating in the real negotiations in Durban in a few months, but not every student at Dickinson does. To give a larger segment of the campus an opportunity to participate in a similar experience, the Africa Mosaic students and students from a similar-course of study in their first-year seminar acted out a mock-World Climate conference. The first thing I would like to comment on is that the initially feelings and anticipations I had … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
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