Citizen Power

There is a very important climate conference taking place in Poznan, Poland and it has been going on at a feverish pitch for the last two weeks. It ends on Sunday, December 14th. The purpose of the conference is to be a bridge between Bali’s conference last year and the upcoming very major climate conference in Copenhagen next December. The countries in attendance (nearly 200) are working around the clock these last few days to reach agreements on what to discuss at the next conference and what they can do in the meantime. It’s a lot of talk, but maybe some action will come out of this until the next conference. After all, they have a whole year within which to work, and a new U.S. president should make a big difference.

According to 350.org, the AOSIS, (the Alliance of Small Island States) has asked the rest of the world to not leave them behind as the seas rise due to melting ice and glaciers. They are terrified of being victims of rising water, and some small islands have already succumbed to rising sea water. It’s very sad, especially when you consider the loss of these small “paradises”. I have visited some islands off the coast of Belize that may suffer the same fate. The highest point on one of them is only 8 feet above sea level, and I’m afraid they won’t stay above water. The people on the other half of this island already seem resigned to lose the less inhabited half of the island under sea water, as the owner of the land there is offering it for sale right now at a deep discount. (Only US$65K an acre, which is a steal for an island in the Caribbean!) Looking at photos of it, (below) Has it always been that water-logged loooking? it doesn’t look like it will remain above water much longer. I wonder what is happening on the very-much-habited portion of the island (divided by a channel of water from this segment). The island’s name is Caye Caulker, and having spent a week there I can tell you it’s a place everyone would want to visit and stay, if they knew for sure it would stay above water. It’s the most relaxed, friendly place I can think of. There are no doubt many islands just as beautiful and friendly that will be lost to rising sea waters in the coming years. It’s really too sad, and the people will have to eventually be moved inland.

How can the major countries of the world guarantee island nations that they will remain nations and above water no matter what sea level and climate change throw at them? The problem with the rising sea level is that it won’t necessarily happen gradually to give people a change to adapt — it’s possible it could happen very quickly, in one strong hurricane. Hurricanes are coming faster and more violently than before, so some of these islands might go under water completely sooner than anyone thinks.

The Poznan conference itself does not seem to be shaping up to be a rousing success. Today Reuters wrote, ” As it is, the conference is still a long way from endorsing an even more modest target of two degrees Celsius (3.6 F) championed by the European Union (EU) and most green groups.” In another article Grenada’s Leon Charles, chairman of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), collectively home to 41 million people added: “Two degrees is really not a safe level for small island states,” Charles said. “For many of them it would be like a death sentence in the long run.”

350.org is a website named after the ideal amount of C02 in the atmosphere. Some scientists think we can get up to 450 ppm, but at that rate of C02 in the air, there would be mass extinctions of animals and plants. To be safe, we should stay at the level of 350 ppm, which is a problem considering we are already over 380 ppm.