Climate change is something I feel really passionately about, and thus when I head the latest news about the US outburst against taking action to combat global warming at next week’s G8+5 summit in Germany I was absolutely horrified.
Basically, the Bush administration has told Germany that it refuses to discuss any form of mandatory emissions targets – absolutely vital if we are to avoid irreparable damage to our planet.
Read the article in the Financial Times here.
YOU CAN HELP!
Sign the online petition here (Avaaz.org has a proven track record of getting our voices heard on the global stage):
http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_g8/a.php
Here’s the message leaders will hear:
“Climate change is the greatest threat facing our world today – and we are almost out of time to stop it. You must tackle this problem now, decisively and together. Start working toward a new global agreement this year. Set binding global targets for emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. Take bold action immediately – and we will join our efforts with yours.”
Already 166,464 of us have signed. Can we get to 200,000 signatures by Thursday? If each of us tells five friends, we could raise a million voices by next week’s meeting.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/climate_g8/a.php
This global summit is the key. Before it’s too late, in these next ten days, let’s raise a global cry that can’t be ignored — to help save our fragile planet, and avert looming danger to millions of lives.
Thank you.
I signed the petition but I’m sorry to say that it won’t do a bit of good. Not only are on-line petitions taken less seriously than real ones (with signatures) but the Bush administration doesn’t consider the wishes of anyone, not even the American people they’re supposed to represent.
Most Americans actually would like the U.S. to take action about the environmental problems but they are powerless to force their leaders to do anything because they’re essentially being bribed by wealthy special interest groups (such as oil companies). And it’s not like you can elect someone who won’t be influenced in that way because they all are (regardless of party).
We all should do what we can but the U.S. isn’t going to budge.
Hello Shari, thank you for signing the petition.
I understand your pessimism. In the face of what we’ve seen over the past few years from the Bush administration (and that of Blair, Re, Iraq etc) it’s totally understandable.
Nonetheless, I still feel that we can’t afford to give up. As I understand it, it was the voices of ordinary people (through organisations such as Avaaz, and the Green 10 Coalition, which includes Friends of the Earth Europe, the Health and Environment Alliance, Greenpeace Europe etc) that influenced the European Commission, which in turn resulted in EU leaders agreeing to strict energy and climate measures, and thus it ended up at the top of the agenda at next week’s summit.
We may not see much movement whilst Bush is in power, but I believe that US scientists and those politicians who do have the sense to listen to the experts do accept that things need to change.
Even more importantly, the business community is starting to recognise that this is a major issue, indeed, that they can make a good deal of money through things like carbon credits, as is already proving to be the case in Europe. At the end of the day it may only be when their voices are loud enough that US leaders will start to move.
Global Warming won’t be one of those things that will disappear from the agenda once the media has lost interest, we will see big changes within our lifetimes! Seeing what a difference our voices have made so far this year fills me with hope!
🙂