Norway Offers to Cut Carbon Emmissions by 40%

Discussions over what is going to happen, or not happen, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December are, so to speak, starting to heat up. I note today that Norway "may" cut its carbon emmissions by 40% by 2020, the biggest pledge by any individual government to date.

Does this mean that the Norwegians are suddenly all going to sell their cars, give up their central heating and refuse to buy plasma TVs? We think not. So what are they going to do to achieve this monumental decrease?

The increasingly competitive language of the PR game governments are playing with regards to climate change also warns against taking such figures at face value. To reduce levels by 40% of 1990 levels by 2020 sounds better, but must surely be less, than to 40% of current levels. Just a thought.

I suppose that Australia is being quite honest in a funny kind of way, with its particular head-in-the-sand attitudes. Maybe Copenhagen should be less about political spin and more about reducing consumption in ways that we can all understand. Unless of course they are sitting there right now powering this website by cycle power alone, in which case I apologise profusely and put my cynicism right back where it belongs, on the next gravy train to Timbuktu.

United Nations Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, December 7th-18th 2009

Attempt to plug oil spill fails

A second attempt to plug the leakage of fuel oil from a damaged platform in the Timor Sea off the north-west coast of Australia has failed today, for the second time this week. Reported as the worst oil spill in Australian waters for 25 years, a spokeswoman has the audacity to insist that "the impact on wildlife had been minimal". Are we supposed to believe her more because she's a woman? How can this not have a damaging effect on marine life?

Where is all this oil destined for? Am I helping to perpetuate this type of drilling, simply by living in this vast continent? I am personally responsible for threatening the lives of turtles simply because I choose to take the bus to work rather than risk my life on Sydney's roads on two wheels?

Sigh.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8306048.stm

Protesters Occupy the Roof of the UK Parliament

The news that volunteers had climbed onto the roof of the UK Parliament building in London to protest about the lack of action on legislation to protect our climate warmed my heart. Watching the video about why three of these very ordinary people felt the need to take direct action in this way, reduced me to tears. Time is ticking, we are rapidly running out of options and the time to show that we actually give a damn about the silent majority who are already being affected by this on a day to day basis has to be right now, not next year, not in 2020.

Yet here I sit, in the country which has just been named as the highest per capita contributor to carbon dioxide emmissions in the world, feeling utterly adrift. Surrounded by highways, 4x4s and patio heaters, I know not which way to turn.

Have a look at the video, it speaks volumes more than I could ever articulate:

UK Parliament Protest