Voices from Hopenhagen

Voices from Hopenhagen: Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben wrote the first book for a general audience on climate change, The End of Nature, in 1989. A scholar in residence at Middlebury College, he’s the co-founder of 350.org

For years people working on climate change have worried that it’s too complicated for “ordinary people” to understand, and often as a result they’ve paid too little attention to the science and too much to slogans.

So it’s good news–sort of–to be able to say with conviction: don’t worry. People can handle it. For the last 18 months they’ve been spreading one number in particular: 350. As in parts per million carbon dioxide. Two years ago it was an obscure scientific data point, which a team of American scientists calculated was the maximum safe amount of co2 the atmosphere could contain. Anything more, they said, was not compatible with “the planet on which civilization developed and to which life is adapted.” It’s technical, it’s scary (because we’re already past it, at 390 parts per million, hence all those melting ice caps). You would think it would be the last thing on earth people would choose as a rallying cry.

And yet they have. For more than a year “ordinary people” all over the world have done something extraordinary. They’ve pushed those three digits into the middle of the climate debate. Churches have rung their bells 350 times, and in mosques people have recited 350 verses from the Koran; yogis have made 350 sun salutations, and rabbis have blown the shofar horn 350 times. Great athletes have led 350-kilometer bike rides, and planted the 350 flag on top of the world’s highest peaks; entire government cabinets have gone underwater to pass 350 resolutions from the edge of dying coral reefs. In late October, at 5,200 demonstrations in 181 nations, people came together around that number–CNN called it the ‘most widespread day of action in the planet’s history.’

Once the people led, others followed. The UN’s chief climate scientist, Rajendra Pachauri, said that 350 needed to be the world’s target. Al Gore–who has been a staunch ally since day one–said just last week that whatever is negotiated at Copenhagen will be at best a beginning, because the world must go to 350. 92 nations have endorsed the target–but they’re the poorest, most vulnerable nations on earth.

I don’t know how it all will end in Copenhagen. For the moment, 350 is still in the treaty, as part of a global ‘shared vision.’ That’s better than nothing, even if it doesn’t have much teeth. But we’re going to find out how committed to the science our leaders really are. And no matter what we’re not giving up.

 

Voices from Hopenhagen: Honorable Al Gore

This was written by former Vice President Al Gore. 

The world has arrived at a moment of decision.

As long as we continue to depend on dirty fossil fuels like coal and oil to meet our energy needs, and dump 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere, we move closer and closer to several dangerous tipping points—points which scientists have repeatedly warned would, if crossed, threaten to make it impossible for us to avoid irretrievable destruction of the conditions that make human civilization possible on this planet.

I’ve said it numerous times already, but right now we are trapped in a dangerous cycle—borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf, and then burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.

Right now, here in the US and all over the world, people are demanding action. There is a much broader consensus than there was when President George H.W. Bush negotiated—and the Senate ratified—the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. And there’s much stronger consensus than when we completed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

The road to the signing of an agreement in Copenhagen will not be easy, but the world has traveled this path before. More than twenty years ago the US signed the Montreal Protocol, a treaty to protect the ozone layer, and strengthened it to the point where we banned most of the major pollutants that created the hole in the ozone over Antarctica. And we did it with bipartisan support: President Ronald Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill joined hands to lead the way.

We can do it again and solve the climate crisis, protecting our planet for future generations.

 

Former Vice President Al Gore is chairman of Current TV, an Emmy award winning, independently owned cable and satellite television nonfiction network for young people based on viewer-created content and citizen journalism. He also serves as chairman of Generation Investment Management, a firm that is focused on a new approach to sustainable investing.

Al Gore is chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, a non-profit he founded to educate citizens in the U.S. and around the world about solutions to the climate crisis. He is a member of the board of directors of Apple, a senior adviser to Google, a partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and is a Visiting Professor at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

He is the author of the bestsellers Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis, Earth in the Balance and An Inconvenient Truth and is the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary. Al Gore is the co-winner, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for “informing the world of the dangers posed by climate change.” He and his wife have four children and three grandchildren.

 

Voices from Hopenhagen: Jessy Tolkan 

This post is by Jessy Tolkan, executive director for the Energy Action Coalition.

There have been times this year when “hope” was thrown around like a dirty word, spoken sarcastically as though the young people who wore it on T-shirts and showcased it on poster in their dorm rooms last year had somehow grown to despise it. Their fickle attention spans and casual attitudes were cited as signs that the generation did not in fact have the intestinal fortitude it would require to execute change, as opposed to just talking about it when it’s the cool thing to do.

As I prepare to travel to Copenhagen on Friday for the UN climate summit, I’m struck by how different an experience I’ve had as the executive director of the Energy Action Coalition, an alliance of more than 50 environmental groups run by young people, than the image that has been portrayed of my peers.

If “hope” was so 2008, then “relentless” is how I experienced 2009.

The activism and passion I saw from leaders in the youth climate movement was tremendous. In March, 12,000 young people descended on Washington for our Power Shift 09 summit, and told leaders that we want a bold and just climate and energy future. This fall, thousands took the same message back to their local communities for Regional Power Shift 09 summits in 11 states. On the year anniversary of the historical 2008 presidential election, we launched the “It’s Game Time, Obama!” initiative in which more than 50,000 actions were taken to ask the President to meet with youth leaders, give an address to the nation outlining his strategy and attend Copenhagen in person. All of this work culminates Wednesday in a meeting at the White House with senior officials to discuss our vision for next year and how we will reach consensus and achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

That’s hardly a T-shirt or a slogan. It’s a movement, and one that exhilarates me when I think about its potential.

It’s especially inspiring because so many people in my generation understand that this is the issue that will define us, and will set the standard for how much time, resources, thought and funding we can allocate to the other issues we care about. Investing in America—in health care, in education, in equality, in building new economies—begins when our dependence on dirty energy and the costly violence it incites comes to an end.

Some have discounted the effectiveness of Copenhagen because of reports that it will not yield a binding global deal. Their concern is valid, but the outcome is still ours to seize.

We are uniquely poised now, with the support of our barrier-breaking and visionary President, to chart an un-navigated course with innovation and sustainability as our guides. I am privileged and honored to travel to the summit on behalf of the generation that refuses to accept procrastination and paralysis on these issues.

I can say with full confidence that our commitment to change is renewable, and we’re ready to prove it.

Jessy Tolkan serves as the Executive Director for the Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of 50 leading youth organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Energy Action Coalition leverages the power of young people to organize on college campuses, high schools, and in local communities to build models of the clean energy future.

Help turn Hopenhagen into Copenhagen at Hopenhagen.org