by David Gonzales, BS Chemical Engineering major and paper-cutter extraordinaire. The image on the left was made with love by a cutter! Intense ka David!
Step 1: Press the Seal the Deal Stamp made from recycled car materials
Step 2: Sign name
Step 3: Realize that you have just Annafied yourself ng bonggang-bongga (pati legs ko nagkaron ng ink :|)
Step 4: Kebs. What matters is your name and country on the banner that will be wrapped around the building where the Copenhagen conference will be held, as a sign of the youth's support.
Global Warning by Anna Oposa
In science fiction movies, the end of the world comes in the form of aliens and zombies invading the Earth. The hero shoots and stabs these creatures until they are obliterated. The ultimate sign of victory is when he walks away from an explosion, in slow-mo.
But science is stranger than fiction, and right now, science is telling us that the end of the world can come in the form of climate change. The Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GGEs) from human activity and industrialized countries have caused the global mean temperature to increase significantly. The effects are becoming more and more palpable: more frequent typhoons, floods, tornados, and droughts; faster spread of disease; sea level rise; threatened food security; disruption in the migration patters of species; and coral bleaching. Nine out of ten disasters are now climate change-related. If the temperature hikes up another 3°C, we could lose 40-70% of our species forever. Indonesia, the largest archipelago composed of over seventeen thousand islands, has already lost twenty-four islands in the last two years due to the rise in sea level—that’s equivalent to about an island per month. The Philippines, the second largest archipelago, is even more vulnerable to climate change because we are located at the typhoon belt and Pacific Ring of Fire. A recent satellite photograph of NASA shows that the hottest body of water is right beside the 7, 107 islands we call home.
The strategy for salvation won’t be as easy as grabbing a gun or spade—it requires international commitment for countries to reduce the production of greenhouse gases, the stuff that burned a gaping hole in our ozone layer. The first was the Montreal Protocol in 1989. Its goal was to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), the gas released by our old refrigerators, fire extinguishers, and air-conditioners. The second was the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, aimed to reduce four greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride) and two other gases (hydroflourocarbons and perfluorocarbons). It will expire in 2013. At the rate our natural sources are being depleted, that isn’t much time to heal the world and make it a better place.
Perhaps the third time’s a charm. From December 7-18, 2009, our real-life heroes in the form of lawyers, scientists, and political leaders from approximately 190 countries are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark for the Copenhagen Protocol. It will be 15th Conference of Parties in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. According to www.sealthedeal2009.org, this agreement has four major demands:
1. Industrialized countries “need to agree to ambitious mid-term greenhouse gas reduction targets.”
2. Developing countries need to undertake nationally appropriate actions that will cut their emissions beyond business-as-usual levels.
3. Financing and technological support for both mitigation and adaptation needs… particularly for those countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This includes an adaptation framework and incentives for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
4. An accountable institutional mechanism and equitable governance structure must be established to channel resources efficiently to developing countries.
The problems here lie in the so-called “developed” countries that may not commit because their economy will be at a disadvantage. The United States of America, accountable for over 30% of the GGEs, did not sign the Kyoto Protocol. The current solution of the “developed” countries is for the Global South to reduce GGEs so they won’t have to. They dangle a few million to low-consuming, highly-vulnerable countries as “adaptation funds”, which is really a legalized form of bribery to silence leaders at the international forum. Clean Development Mechanisms, they call it. Such countries ought to redefine their concept of “development”, because they soon will realize that you cannot satiate people with numbers in their Gross Domestic Product.
A recent study showed that if every human being in the world were to copy the lifestyle of an average American, we would need five to nine Earths. We only have one. The upcoming Copenhagen Protocol is crucial for a sustainable society that our generation and the future generations deserve. If our world’s leaders can come to an agreement, only then can we walk away from the explosion, in slow-mo.
***
Thanks to Donna for keeping me sane while writing this, Mariel for the pictures, Kester for getting this published on the UP College of Science newsletter soon and getting Seal the Deal banners from the UN, WWF-Philippines for publishing this in their Facebook site, and David for "illustrating" this.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cookie_crumbled's Friends Page
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
grumpy
cold
sleepy
cheerful
