Convicted by Climate Change

I was convicted in Montreal. I had plenty of company – between 5,000 & 10,000 others. We were all convicted of failing to stop, of failing to understand and of failing to do enough to combat global climate change. I am talking about the meetings held to discuss the Kyoto Protocol under the United Nations sponsored Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Canada signed this agreement and promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% from 1990 levels before 2012. Since that time, our emissions have increased by 24%.

Why should I worry about this? Isn’t this someone else’s problem? Actually, that is the attitude of the US Government. With only Australia for company, they have refused to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol in spite of having helped to draft it (as Bill Clinton was at pains to point out) and in spite of being the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. In a critical and dissenting response, 195 American cities have signed on to meet Kyoto style emission reduction targets. Ten American states have also signed on including California with its famous Republican Governor. The head of the American Business Council for Sustainable Energy has also urged action because corporations need government agreement before they invest the billions of dollars needed to change industrial and consumer practice.

Maybe the best way of understanding the problem is to say that the Earth is running a fever. The average body temperature of the Earth has already increased by almost one full degree. The average temperature at the poles is increasing more rapidly. In the MacKenzie River Valley, running north into the Arctic Ocean, the average temperature has increased by 1.7 degrees. Once the average body temperature increases by over two full degrees the icecap over Greenland will melt. This will increase the percentage of freshwater in the North Atlantic, interrupting the Gulf Stream current, cooling northern Europe. It will raise ocean levels, flooding Prince Edward Island, small countries in the Pacific and parts of Manhattan. Not all areas of the world will experience increased water levels. Instead, the St. Lawrence River system is expected to have water flows decreased by 24% and water levels in Lakes Huron and Michigan are expected to decrease by between 0.5 and 1.5 metres within 45 years. It is expected that we will have more extreme weather events, more oscillation between flooding and drought, and more storm patterns in new places. Already in 2004 Argentina experienced the first recorded hurricane in the South Atlantic.

I was convicted in Montreal because I became convinced I was part of the problem and I needed to be part of the solution. Changes in government policy are necessary but they won’t be enough. I need to change. Cities across the world are challenging themselves to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. We need to do the same. It will take government action to shift from coal fired generating stations to wind, solar and biomass generation, but it will take the concerted effort of committed and convinced citizens to decrease our electrical, gas and oil use. The beginning of a cure for our global fever is to increase our energy efficiency by 30% over the next 15 years. This will only happen if we all do it together.

First published in December 2005