BLOG
Making the Change
-- Ria -- 09/21/2007
An article in the Washington Post today discusses the possibility of complicated international talks on climate change due to the differing positions among developing countries on global warming.
All agree that the rich should take a lead in tackling climate change after enjoying more than two centuries of economic growth fuelled by burning coal and oil.
However, establishing a consensus among the developing nations is hindering the unified front needed to make change happen. John Ashton, climate change representative at Britain’s foreign ministry, put it best when he said that to reach agreement all countries, developing and developed, will have to recognize the problem as a shared one. "We can’t do this on a blame game, ‘after you’ mentality… whether China, India, Europe or the U.S," Ashton said. Relating this back to the climate change movement here in the States, this way of thinking - thinking that unless other countries make changes, our move towards climate change will be insignificant - has often been the grounds for rejecting and ignoring the move towards a greener climate. But, this sort of criticism only serves to accelerate our collision with the inevitable future of dire climate consequences if change isn’t made. The upcoming presidential elections are our chance to make sure that the change is, in fact, made.
Comments (0)
by Andrew Snow