By Prof. Jeff Niemitz<\/p>\n
One of the things we tried to do on this Mosaic was to give the students not only a sense of the UN Climate conference but also a small taste of the rest of South Africa outside the conference venue.\u00a0 For ten days we saw the same wall, corridors, exhibits, and venue spaces for the negotiations and the side events explaining some of the issues either from a topical, national, or regional view.\u00a0 But that was not all there was to it.\u00a0 The weekend between the conference weeks we experienced the biodiversity of the large animals of Africa up close and personal.\u00a0 We understood that it was not so simple as to pay the game drive guide and find the animals.\u00a0In fact\u00a0the game parks are actively managed by\u00a0top ecologists who make sure the\u00a0herds continue to grow and thrive.\u00a0\u00a0Some of\u00a0these animals like the white rhino and the wild dog are endangered not only from poachers (thus the need for their protection behind fences) but also from what will happen to their habitats\u00a0as the\u00a0climate changes.\u00a0We can see this same approach in the welfare of the humans in much of South Africa as well.\u00a0 Our last week was not about climate change so much as it was about\u00a0experiencing\u00a0human side of Africa.\u00a0 For just like the large animals so too the people of Africa are also “endangered”.\u00a0 Who speaks for the people?\u00a0 We were privileged to\u00a0visit and help some\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0other 90% of the world’s people.\u00a0\u00a0We expereinced and,\u00a0to some\u00a0small degree, helped meet\u00a0their needs by visiting two orphanages in the\u00a0Valley of 1000 Hills area outside of Durban.\u00a0 South Africa like many sub-saharan African countries has been ravaged by HIV and AIDS.\u00a0 Children feel the greatest burden of this pandemic when their parents die or are unable to\u00a0provide for their children.\u00a0 Thankfully there are people such as Nic Addison and Brendan Stapleton who run orphanages for these and other abused and abandoned children.\u00a0 It is hard to resist a small child\u00a0who needs love.\u00a0 We saw that a lot last week.\u00a0 But it\u00a0is also gut-wrenching when you have food or clothing to distribute but you know that\u00a0not everyone will get what they need.\u00a0How do you\u00a0decide\u00a0who receives and who doesn’t.\u00a0 Nonetheless the people are grateful for what they get.\u00a0 Can we say we are as grateful for all that we have?\u00a0 What could we give up\u00a0especially at this time of year for those who have little?\u00a0 In contrasting the contentious and frequently frustrating climate\u00a0negotiations with the work of the dedicated people of Makaphutu and Lily of the Valley\u00a0orphanages one has to wonder what it all means.\u00a0\u00a0In my mind\u00a0we saw the worst and\u00a0the best of\u00a0the human species. The negotiators continue to put\u00a0national and economic\u00a0interests ahead of global\u00a0cooperation\u00a0to stem climate change while\u00a0the planet continues to warm and the vulnerable millions continue to wonder\u00a0what will happen to them.\u00a0 Yet\u00a0in a small but tangible way we see the helpers at the orphanages sacrificing everything\u00a0to give these children what they need no matter what it takes.\u00a0 The climate negotiators could learn a lot from a visit to Makaphutu.\u00a0 I’m sure it can be arranged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Prof. Jeff Niemitz
\nOne of the things we tried to do on this Mosaic was to give the students not only a sense of the UN Climate conference but also a small taste of the rest of South Africa outside the conference venue.\u00a0 For ten days we saw the same wall, corridors, exhibits, and venue spaces for the negotiations and the side events explaining some of the issues either from a topical, national, or regional view.\u00a0 But that was not all there was to it.\u00a0 The weekend between the conference weeks we experienced the biodiversity of the large animals of Africa up close and personal.\u00a0 We understood that it was not so simple as to pay the game drive guide and find the animals.\u00a0In fact\u00a0the game parks are actively managed by\u00a0top ecologists who make sure the\u00a0herds continue to grow and thrive.\u00a0\u00a0Some of\u00a0these animals like the white rhino and the wild …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":855,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19448],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/855"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}