12 June 2009

177 Days - Stonewalling the Climate Negotiations: Who's Winning While Life on Earth Loses?

It's scary watching what's going on at the UNFCCC international meetings leading up to the Copenhagen climate talks in December.

It's scary because many developed/industrialized/Annex 1 countries continue to stonewall the talks (including, I'm ashamed to say, the representatives of my country's minority right-wing, in-Big-Oil's-pocket government).

Many of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are literally begging for their survival, and we fat cats just can't seem to see that their fate has anything to do with us — or ours.

The people and countries who gain from obfuscating and obviating, and from being obstreperous and obnoxious, what do they believe they are gaining? What's truly in it for them? If life is just a game (survival, obviously, is not a game) to these people and countries, why won't they even consider making it a cooperative game rather than a highly competitive one?

The planet's survival is not a zero-sum game, as in if "they" lose, we win. No, if anyone loses this game, we all lose. The atmosphere and the biosphere belong to every living being on Earth.

What outright imperious arrogance for some people and countries that they are so narrow in their view of winning the climate battle that they can't see past their own borders. It's criminal.

Has it not reached the point where these people and countries should be charged with crimes against humanity? And left out of the negotiations?

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I would appreciate hearing your thoughts or questions on this post or anything else you've read here. What is your take on courage and compassion being an important part of the solution to the climate change emergency?