From the window of the plane to Copenhagen, at around 1am EST (or 7am in Denmark) I could see the entirety of the United Kingdom outlined in lights. From 38,003 ft., the world which had once seemed impossibly large – which had previously been seen only on maps, and what sense did those really give about size or distance anyway? – now fit into my little window no more than a foot across. For the first time I truly saw our influence: we could light up every square inch of a country so that the detail of its profile was finer seen from above than in the guidebook map on the seat next to me. The glow of our existence, at once so vast and simultaneously palatable, sent a shiver down my spine that whatever deity made this place surely felt when he finished – one of both fear and hope. That we held a power never before heard of; that global anthropogenic change was not just possible, but child’s play, was at once horrifying and infinitely reassuring – but it could only be reassuring if we recognized our influence. If indeed we were going to Copenhagen for this experience: this looking out the plane window and seeing that we not only had the power to change the world, but that we had already changed every square inch, then surely we would recogonize the need for our influence to be positive.
Two days later, Lisa Jackson, administrator of the EPA, made the long overdue announcement that “greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment” and that “science overwhelmingly shows greenhouse gas concentrations at unprecedented levels due to human activity.”
Two days after that, I had the great pleasure to hear Administrator Jackson speak in the U.S. Center Meeting Room at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, and announce the impact of this announcement. Indeed that we had finally looked out the plane window, we had finally recognized the threat to public health of greenhouse gases made it possible, and indeed necessary for legislation to pass under the Clean Air Act.
We should now be hopeful for President Obama’s arrival at the conference next week. His commitment of a 20% reduction below 2005 levels by 2020 should be received in earnest.
Surely, this recognition should render the lights the profile every nation when seen from space as a beacon of hope: a sign of what we’ve made, rather than what we’ve destroyed.
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Tags: Brett Shollenberger, climate, common but differentiated responsibilites
