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Post Copenhagen Depression |
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Written by ESTV
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Thursday, 11 March 2010 13:18 |
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What the People Said and What the Politicians Did
There was great enthusiasm in the second half of last year by people all over the world who wanted, no, demanded that their governments take strong measures to slow down global warming.
The Swedish government sponsored the World Wide Views project in which 4,000 people met simultaneously in 38 countries to discuss a slate of questions and then vote on them.
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90% of them said it was an urgent priority for our world leaders to seriously address global warming in Copenhagen in December 2009.
So why is it that today Global Warming and Climate Change are dead in the water? No one wants to know and no one wants to talk about it.
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Has the world suddenly solved the problem? Have the ice caps stopped melting? Have we experienced a climate miracle? Of course, the answer is No. But what we are seeing today is the largest case of people feeling let down (some might call it “hurt” or depressed) being experienced simultaneously by people all over the world.
Although the Swedish government is not to blame for the poor result achieved, no one acted in good faith more than they did, when you raise people’s hopes and make them feel their opinion is important, that it counts, and then blatantly ignore them, they obviously feel like fools. They withdraw, hurt and bruised, and angry that they allowed themselves to believe their opinion mattered. But they don't forget and one day when the politicians need their support they may find them unwilling to believe them again.
Make No Mistake; Copenhagen was More Than a Failure to Act
Future generations may look back to our time and pinpoint December 2009 as the seminal moment when this generation turned its back on our responsibilities and posted the problem forward. No matter it will multiply in complexity and become harder to solve, if it can be solved.
However in the short term, December 09 has significance as the time when the world’s leaders callously and collectively ignored the wishes of the people. They displayed the same lack of understanding as Marie Antoinette and her refrain about the hungry “If they haven't got bread let them eat cake”.
In one week, as the world looked on, it became clear that the politician’s answer to a boss that doesn’t vote in the ballot room but in the back room with petro dollars.
Human life is cheap and expendable as long as it is someone else’s. Let’s face it who doesn't believe that with enough dollars they can’t buy themselves safety and security. Copenhagen was a conference of mostly one eyed men who may just have poked themselves in the eye because they will find there is no where to hide from dramatic climate change and all the money they saved by doing nothing won't change that fact.
We present here some videos shot before the conference in Copenhagen in which everyday people bare their hopes and fears about climate change. These are representatives of the mothers that the politicians ignored, people who are concerned about the future of the planet and of their children.
Maybe we sent the wrong people to Copenhagen?
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