A-list US celebrities gathered together by proactive environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio, initiated a serious Green campaign on January 29th geared towards mobilizing Americans to get involved with forcing the hand of US environmental policy. A selection of the USA’s best-known celebrities including, Edward Norton, Jason Bateman, Felicity Huffman and Forest Whitaker, along with rising stars Chace Crawford, Emmy Rossum and Justin Long, are leading the This is Our Moment campaign to bring the need for clean energy to the fore in Washington.
Whereas here in the UK, following what some see and the complete failure of the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, there is a sense that our leaders are not prepared to listen to us or act upon important green issues. People who feel strongly about green issues in the UK are starting to turn away from politicians for help and look to take positive action on a grassroots, local community level.
However in the US political system, mass lobbying has always had significant sway over US policy. Supported by mainstreaming celebrities, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the very latest viral and public forum technologies, the This is our Moment movement is designed to help Americans contact their senators, flood their email boxes, make videos and generally get interactive in pushing for an American clean energy bill. Given the negative global press generated by the Bush administrations restrictive environmental attitudes, this new campaign breathes fresh air into the environmental struggle not just in America, but the world at large.
The conference provided a program on the first global agreement to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support adaptation for the most vulnerable and help establish environmentally sustainable growth.
Countries have agreed to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. Developed countries are implementing targets for greenhouse gas emissions and financially supporting the developing countries.
Also, the most vulnerable will be identified and protected – taught to adapt to the changes brought on by global warming. In addition, discussions regarding the subject of reducing carbon emissions due to deforestation were initiated.
After 2 years of negotiations leading up to this UN Copenhagen conference, the above all appears rather vague and in fact a spokesperson from Greenpeace has been quoted as saying, ‘It’s so weak as to be meaningless’. Not quite the positive, inspirational outcome we were hoping for.
Is it only me, or is it massively suspicious that this week, of all weeks we hear that the validity of 160 years worth of Met Office temperature data is under question?
Apparently, we are led to believe, that this controversy was started due to leaked emails. It appears that it will take 3 years for the re-examination of the findings, so only by 2012 will the information have any perceivable credibility. The Met Office database is one of three main sources used by the UN to analyze climate change and was to be the foundation of the talks in Copenhagen this week
The timing plays straight into the hands of countries such as America and Australia, who are concerned that unrealistic CO2 emission cuts will be introduced at the summit.