What went amiss at Glasgow?

I’m sure all participants had a wonderful trip, some delicious food to eat and fun moments. That what makes these conventions memorable and all are looking forward to the next venue. Producing tangible results is a totally different issue altogether!

We are in deep trouble, yet don’t expect governments that are hostages of the fossil fuel lobby and work only for the short-term to act freely and decisively! We, American, are just starting to realize that we’ve got a “weather problem” (our political right excepted, of course). 

We, the greatest and most advanced nation on earth with only 5% of the world’s population still manage to boast the second largest carbon footprint of any country and still spews out twice the greenhouse gasses of India’s 1.3 Billion people with just 330 millions… 

Of course, we believe that putting a few solar panels on our roofs and at least one Tesla inside the garage, will go a long way towards solving the problem. As usual, we believe we can all get out of this rut without making any sacrifice! It will take more than cutting greenhouse gas to solve our planetary decay. 

Some scientists like Dr. David Keith, Professor of Physics at Harvard, says that even if countries hit all of their climate reduction targets by 2050 the earth won’t cool down due to all of the CO2 stuck in the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution. It will take centuries for it to slowly dissipate after emissions reach zero and while sea levels will continue to rise. 

Some studies also show many places in the world where warming has already increased by 2 degrees Celsius or more… These Glasgow talks have been consumed with carbon issues and renewable energies and diluted by a reprieve on coal on India’s insistence. 

Clearly, the world’s biggest polluters, including China, India and the USA, aren’t willing and ready yet to take the bull by the horns, lead by example and begin to take the drastic measure that are past due. In the midst of all this, Kerry puts on a good face, but his hampered by a powerful fossil fuel lobby, this final agreement is not binding and its highly unlikely that that American pledge will be enshrined by Congress. 

This said, the rise in planetary temperatures is caused by overcrowding. The earth wasn’t created to work sustainably with today close to 8 billion humans and 11 billion by the end of the century. Cause and effects are rarely occurring at the same time and we still don’t know, nor have we experienced the damage that 8 billion humans may have caused to the planet several years from now. We are not even talking about about 9 or 10 billion! 

The elephant in the room at all these COP meetings remains overpopulation, but the subject remains totally taboo and not just because of a strong capitalistic system. It goes against the grain of quantitative growth and religious expansion. 

Cutting our carbon footprint alone won’t suffice and it seems past time already for implementing additional measures aimed at reducing, better yet stopping, or reversing altogether, a runaway global population growth!