50 days to save the world
Posted by Anna on Mon 19 Oct 2009Categories: Climate change , News | [5] Comments
— global-warming
In 50 days’ time, leaders from across the world will meet in Copenhagen to craft the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, and try to save the planet from the dire consequences of extreme climate change.
No pressure then.
Unfortunately, despite the numerous preparatory meetings that have been held to help sculpt a preliminary plan in time for the Copenhagen summit, agreement between world leaders seems to hover beyond reach.
Today in London, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave climate and energy ministers from the major economies (and a handful of developing countries) a stark warning: ‘If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement, in some future period, can undo that choice. By then it will be irretrievably too late.’
What is debated over the next 50 days, and agreed during the two weeks in Copenhagen, will have lasting consequences for the planet. It is also likely to filter down via governments, funding bodies and research councils to working scientists and engineers – the people whose job it will ultimately be to help develop the solutions to take us to a low-carbon future.
There may be 50 days left to settle plans for Copenhagen, but the meeting is likely to mark the beginning of a new generation of researchers who have climate change adaptation and mitigation at the front of their minds.
Anna Lewcock
Mon 19 Oct 2009 at 4:42 pm
Do you have any idea as to what the agenda is that they are trying to agree upon?
I cannot find any details on their webpage http://en.cop15.dk/about+cop15.
Interesting sponsors on the link though; suggests to me that the environment movement has been successfully hijacked by the corporate/gov alliance.
Tue 20 Oct 2009 at 10:37 am
Gordon Brown has actually said that if a solution is not found within 50 days then the world will face a huge catastrpophe. That sounds quite a lot like complete nonsense to me.
Mr Brown then went on to say that within a few decades the average yearly temperature for Europe could be as high as the temperatures we had in the exceptionally warm summer of 2003.
That also sounds like nonsense.
Gordon Brown comes to this issue with very little credibility. The idea that we can save the world in 50 days by arranging some new taxes for citizens worldwide to pay is a total fallacy.
Tue 20 Oct 2009 at 6:58 pm
So, what should we do about global warming then, not a sheep?
As Anna’s post says, in 50 days negotiations will begin in Copenhagen on reducing CO2 emissions. The world really must come to an agreement, or we’re likely to carry on sailing right past the 450ppm concentration level that is commonly invoked as the limit beyond which the risk of dangerous climate change becomes unacceptably high.
Right now we’re at or above 380ppm, and that is increasing by more than 2 ppm per year, driven by
global CO2 emissions that are now increasing at more than 3.3% per year. Admittedly the recession has actually led to a drop in CO2 emissions this year, but I anticipate that will be a blip.
This ain’t about any movement – we’re all in it together. As scientists, the readers of this blog should know this.
And as scientists, if you need a citation, the facts of this post come from the following papers.
Int. J. Greenhouse Gas Control (2009), doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2009.02.003
Science 25 September 2009: Vol. 325. no. 5948, pp. 1654 – 1655 DOI:
10.1126/science.1175680
Mon 26 Oct 2009 at 12:04 pm
[...] attention that our PM will like – amongst whom is a rather concerned sausage called Anna of chemistryworldblog. Then again, in my trawl through the blogosphere I came across a slightly more cynical sausage [...]
Tue 8 Dec 2009 at 6:27 pm
I don’t believe in these numberes. All I know is basic things. Control the population of Humans on this planet. Sustain the nature, try to grow more and more trees. Therefore, our fellow species can live.
We need to control our nature of being greedy. ‘One is enough’ and thats the good to start with. One Kid, One mobile phone (Cell phone), One car. Try to share things. If we start working with this It’ll atleast help in immediate future. Also, for future scientist try to focus and research more about things that we make can be recycled very easily. Why not try to research this?
All I know is ‘Nature will Balance itself one day’ If we dont balance it in this century.