Monday, December 21, 2009

Copenhagen: a brief requiem

Copenhagen...
Hopenhagen?
Nopenhagen!
Nohope-enhagen :-(

Business as usual.

(But it's still the planet, stupid).

To cheer yourself up, listen to The Now Show's interpretation of what went wrong. Happy Solstice!

7 comments:

David Wilson said...

I have two understandings, but I doubt them, I would sure appreciate some feedback:

1) if we had peaked carbon equivalent emissions in 2009 we would have had a 50/50 chance of keeping to a 1.5 degree C average temperature increase (from pre-industrial etc.)

2) if we peak carbon emissions by 2015 we will have the same even odds of keeping to 2 degrees

be well.

Bry Lynas said...

David: I think your understanding is not far off. These measures and the models behind them are at best an approximation I believe.

Jim Prall said...

Just a note to thank Bry for the link to this brilliant send-up video. I'm a great believer in the power of Suess. Oh and Mark's book Six Degrees is great, though I had to stop reading after +3.

Eco Bags Al said...

I'd also like to thank you for exposing me to this great video. Happy recent B-Day Dr! I think the hilarity of this video really sums up the real situation: Simply laughable to think about what was actually accomplished at the summit considering what is at stake. Despite all the global stagnation, we must remember that we can make a huge difference with our individual lifestyle choices and by taking action. I have a newly published blog post about a couple easy changes we can make to get the ball rolling on going green one choice at a time. Check it out if you like: eco bags

Anonymous said...

"Bolus of insight" from a great poet regarding the breach between an unsustainable civilization and a self-sustaining, "strong earth".

The Purse-seine, by Robinson Jeffers, 1937

.......I cannot tell you
How beautiful the scene is, and a little terrible,
then, when the crowded fish
Know they are caught, and wildly beat from one wall
to the other of their closing destiny the
phosphorescent
Water to a pool of flame, each beautiful slender body
sheeted with flame, like a live rocket
A comet's tail wake of clear yellow flame; while outside
the narrowing
Floats and cordage of the net great sea-lions come up
to watch, sighing in the dark; the vast walls
of night
Stand erect to the stars.

Lately I was looking from a night mountain-top
On a wide city, the colored splendor, galaxies of light:
how could I help but recall the seine-net
Gathering the luminous fish? I cannot tell you how
beautiful the city appeared, and a little terrible.
I thought, We have geared the machines and locked all together
into inter-dependence; we have built the great cities; now
There is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable
of free survival, insulated
From the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all
dependent. The circle is closed, and the net
Is being hauled in.......


___________________________________
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on The Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176

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