Anyone who has run a committee knows how difficult it is to get consensus on anything. And anyone who has been involved with the debate on global warming will know how particularly difficult it is to get consensus on reductions in CO emissions..
The reason for this is understandable. Whatever action we take will affect some people more than others. Plus there is no perfect action on the power point presentation yet. Some of the schemes over the past few years have been shown to be completely ineffectual— not stopped rising emissions anyway.
But when sixteen and half thousand people converge on the city of Copenhagen this week—sceptics, alarmists and fence sitters alike—they will all have something in common. And that is an unease for the welfare of the planet we inhabit.
Whatever your views on whether we’re responsible or not for disrupting the balance of atmospheric gases which has provided us to date with the necessary living conditions to survive and develop as a species, the fact is that something like a change in ocean current could reverse that irrevocably.
We do have access to technologies which can provide cleaner energy, we do have the will to replant and restore the rainforests and we can cut down drastically on unnecessary landfill waste with just small changes in our consumption.
Whether the US, China, India can yet agree to work together or not, I believe next week will mark the beginning of at least one welcome sea change. And that is the profound transformation of attitude towards the environment. We now know that we should be extremely grateful to be here at all.
The reason for this is understandable. Whatever action we take will affect some people more than others. Plus there is no perfect action on the power point presentation yet. Some of the schemes over the past few years have been shown to be completely ineffectual— not stopped rising emissions anyway.
But when sixteen and half thousand people converge on the city of Copenhagen this week—sceptics, alarmists and fence sitters alike—they will all have something in common. And that is an unease for the welfare of the planet we inhabit.
Whatever your views on whether we’re responsible or not for disrupting the balance of atmospheric gases which has provided us to date with the necessary living conditions to survive and develop as a species, the fact is that something like a change in ocean current could reverse that irrevocably.
We do have access to technologies which can provide cleaner energy, we do have the will to replant and restore the rainforests and we can cut down drastically on unnecessary landfill waste with just small changes in our consumption.
Whether the US, China, India can yet agree to work together or not, I believe next week will mark the beginning of at least one welcome sea change. And that is the profound transformation of attitude towards the environment. We now know that we should be extremely grateful to be here at all.
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