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COP 15 - final four days for Climate Change summit
COP 15 is almost over, and there is no sign of agreement.
Date: 12/14/2009 5:53:29 PM ( 15 y ) ... viewed 2318 times The Copenhagen Climate summit is in it's final four days now, this being Dec. 14, 2009.
The purpose was supposed to be about laying out an agreement for reducing CO2 emissions, but it appears that the important players did not come with that in mind. They came to see what they could get away with... Canada, the USA, China, India are all just acting like children by saying "you go first, no you go first". Its not going to get done.
Yesterday, Canada's Energy Minister Jim Prentice announced that "a formal agreement would not be possible until some time next year". Uh huh, who told you to say that, Jim?
Today, African nations walked out in protest over the rich nation's refusals to agree to keep the Kyoto legal framework intact for this next agreement.
The Africans and Island nations represent a majority of the numbers of nations, and they have grouped together and are in agreement that steep cuts need to be made. They are willing to sign up for, and are asking the rich nations to commit to what the scientists say is needed - 50% below 1990 levels by 2020.
Its not going to happen, unfortunately.
---------oceans and CO2:
There has been plenty of disagreement about the reality and the causes of global warming, but nobody seems to be disputing the problem of CO2 for the OCEANS.
It might end up being a worse problem than 5oC temperature rises. When there is extra CO2 in the atmosphere, it is absorbed by the oceans, and CO2 has a way of turning water acidic [its about chemistry, I was never too good at that].
Anoxic oceans have occured before in earth history. You wouldn't believe it, but the all the oceans of the world can become bubbling masses of putrid scum. That would probably be 1000 year away, but there is a lot of dying and extinctions along the way that could start happening soon. Ooops, it is allready happening! Species are dying off in the oceans, due to acidification.
There is a lovely little book to read called "Sea Sick" by Alana Mitchell. It is short and well written, and if you read it you will never think of CO2 emissions the same again.
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And so, if COP 15 doesn't produce an agreement, we can expect CO2 levels to continue to INCREASE, and not decrease to 1990 levels anytime soon.
As for climate change, the goal is to keep the AGW warming below 2oC and to do that we need to reduce CO2 emissions to 50% below 1990 levels by 2020. I doubt we will down to 1990 levels before 2020, and that means warming will exceed 3oC or 4oC by 2100, with catastrophic results because the earth has never warmed up that much in so short a time period as 100 years.
See the last link for the COP 15 homepage, and there is a link there to send greetings to the delegates. I just keep repeating "50 percent below 1990 by 2020" - they will know what it means.
==========Links!!
1]Acidifying oceans' threaten food supply, UK warns
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8411135.stm
2]Substantial Damage to Oceans from CO2:
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2961
"By 2050, ocean acidity could increase by 150 percent. This increase is 100 times faster than any change in acidity experienced in the marine environment over the last 20 million years."
3]Sea level rise [faster than predicted] -
http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2964
4]COP 15 homepage:
http://en.cop15.dk/
{scroll down half the page to the "Greetings" box}
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