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| My first attempt at birdwatching and taking photos. Even these birds are in danger from changes brought about by climate change. On Paris COP21 and JFK’s Moon Address by Dennis Posadas Just last December 12, a monumental announcement from Paris COP21 rocked the world. Nations agreed to an agreement to limit carbon emissions from fossil fuels to prevent a dangerous 2C rise (ideally not beyond 1.5C) that could wreck massive havoc on the world’s climate. However, the agreement was toned down as the U.S. convinced other countries to adopt the word “should” (instead of the more powerful legal implications of the word “shall”) in order to bypass a veto by the GOP controlled US Senate. There were other compromises from previously hardline positions as well, but one that is to be expected from negotiations of this magnitude. However this slightly toned down agreement is not necessarily less powerful than it may seem. On the contrary, the moral significance of this agreement should not be lost to everyone – the world’s nations have finally put forth in a document that they agree with the premise of limiting carbon emissions to prevent dangerous climate change. We should remember that when JFK said in 1961 that “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth,” the scientists and engineers of NASA did not even have all the knowledge and details of how to achieve the mission. JFK could have said “I command” instead of the weaker “I believe.” But that belief, instead of a command, would turn into a powerful vision that would electrify the world. It would be achieved even after his death, because his words had been the moral force that propelled legions of men and women to achieve what seemed impossible a few years earlier. The Paris COP21 is like JFK’s moon address. It should even have a greater moral power to propel the world’s engineers, scientists, policymakers, businessmen, financiers, and others to achieve our new moon shot – to move our source of energy from fossil fuels into renewable clean sources in order to prevent dangerous climate change. Naysayers will always say anything short of a mandatory commitment will not work. But that belief is borne out of a lack of trust in the human spirit. Mankind, if given the chance, can rise to the occasion and show why it was given the power of reason and action. We must believe in our own capacity to create change for good. Policymakers should continue with their work of adding details to the agreement. Financiers and big business should lead the way towards the transformation of their enterprises into low carbon ventures. Scientists and engineers should continue to find means to make renewables and cleantech better and cheaper. Governments should lessen burdens towards the adoption of clean energy and penalize excessive use of carbon based energy, either through carbon taxes or similar means. Individuals should exercise their power of choice, even if sometimes (though increasingly no longer true) that choice initially may turn out to be more expensive at first, even though eventually it will become cheaper because of innovation and economies of scale. The harder task is now up to us. If we continue with business as usual, and continue with our current path of using fossil fuels indiscriminately, then the words on the agreement forged in Paris COP21 will be just that – words. But if we fit our actions to fulfill the moral imperative of that document, then perhaps by the end of this decade, we will have our own version of the impossible dream here on earth.
The Asian Spectator is a tech blog by renewal energy consultant Dennis Posadas. The articles are syndicated by several newspapers such as HK Economic Journal, Singapore Business Times, Singapore Today, Japan Today, and Yale Global.
===== Within the same year that Pope Francis launched his encyclical on climate change, the world finally reached an agreement in Paris: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/science/earth/climate-accord-is-a-healing-step-if-not-a-cure.html "The Paris deal sets a more ambitious target, declaring that the global average temperature rise ought to be kept “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and that countries should try go further, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius." (NYT) Now, the hard work begins especially as many of these climate change projects take a long time to implement. Quite possibly, those who signed the Paris deal may not even stay in power long enough to see things happen. But nevertheless, it is a victorious moment for climate change advocates. At least, the world leaders agreed on something... ===== I read a CBS News report that the world just reached a dangerous milestone where concentrations of greenhouse gases have hit unprecedented levels:
During my 2013 interview with former senator and climate commissioner Heherson
Alvarez for an Inquirer article, he explained that an additional two degrees
centigrade (Celsius) warming of the earth would lead to dire consequences such as food
shortages, corals bleaching and fish dying in the oceans, and more:
 The world has also eagerly anticipated or debated the views of the Roman Pontiff on this issue. The much awaited day for the encyclical's release (18 June 2015) has finally arrived. |
Thursday, May 7, 2015
What does Paris COP21 and JFK's moon address have in common?
